“Persia Sive Sophorum Regnum” Original antique map Of Persia by Jan Janssonius after Willem Blaeu . Published 1650. From his “Atlas Novus”

The map extends from the Eastern Mediterranean to Tacalistan and the Indus River and the Dalanguer Mountains and the Cabul Region, with the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf in the South and Caspian and Tartaria in the North.

This map shows the Safavid Empire as it starts to decline in 1634, after the Golden Age of Shah Abbas. With the introduction of European trade during the time of Abbas, Iran had become partners with the English and the Dutch. With the Shah dead and no suitable heir, the Dutch East India Company, and later the British, used their superior maritime power to control trade routes in the western Indian Ocean. As a result, Iran was cut off from overseas links to East Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and South Asia.

In addition to being cut off from these links, Iran fought their arch rivals: the Ottomans and the Uzbeks. Iran had to contend with the rise of Russian Muscovy, and in the far eastern territories, the Mughals of India had expanded into Khorasan at the expense of Iranian control.

The Safavids ruled from 1501 to 1722 (experiencing a brief restoration from 1729 to 1736) and, at their height, they controlled all of modern Iran, Azerbaijan, Bahrain and Armenia, most of Georgia, the North Caucasus, Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan, as well as parts of Turkey, Syria, Pakistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

Jan Janssonius (also known as Johann or Jan Jansson or Janszoon) (1588-1664) was a renowned geographer and publisher of the seventeenth century, when the Dutch dominated map publishing in Europe. Born in Arnhem, Jan was first exposed to the trade via his father, who was also a bookseller and publisher. In 1612, Jan married the daughter of Jodocus Hondius, who was also a prominent mapmaker and seller. Jonssonius’ first maps date from 1616. In the 1630s, Janssonius worked with his brother-in-law, Henricus Hondius. Their most successful venture was to reissue the Mercator-Hondius atlas. Jodocus Hondius had acquired the plates to the Mercator atlas, first published in 1595, and added 36 additional maps. After Hondius died in 1612, Henricus took over publication; Janssonius joined the venture in 1633. Eventually, the atlas was renamed the Atlas Novus and then the Atlas Major, by which time it had expanded to eleven volumes. Janssonius is also well known for his volume of English county maps, published in 1646.