Many Muslim and non-Muslim merchants from East and West were attracted to Safavid Isfahan, the new “center of the world,” a city that also played host to its own mercantile communities, among them many zemmi traders—Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians. As representatives of the newly-established Twelver Shiʿite theology, Safavid religious scholars felt the need to offer commentary on evolving issues on a theoretical level, sometimes writing not in Arabic but in New Persian. How did they regard the activities of zemmi merchants? Were zemmi traders subject to religiously-motivated restrictions? Or did they, on the other hand, enjoy exclusive rights? While my paper focusses on these questions, it will also compare the legal opinions of selected Safavid foqahāʾ on the social reality as reflected in travelogues and through historiography.

来自东方和西方的许多穆斯林和非穆斯林商人被新的“世界中心”萨法维德·伊斯法罕（Safavid Isfahan）吸引，这座城市还承载着自己的商业社区，其中包括许多塞米商人，基督徒，犹太人和琐罗亚斯德教徒。作为新成立的十二世什叶派神学的代表，萨法维德的宗教学者认为有必要在理论水平上对不断发展的问题发表评论，有时不是用阿拉伯语而是用新波斯语撰写。他们如何看待塞米商人的活动？被zemmi贸易商受宗教动机的限制吗？抑或是另一方面，他们是否享有专有权？尽管我的论文集中在这些问题上，但也将比较选定的Safavid的法律意见。foqahāʾ在旅行社和史学中反映的社会现实。