Persians in Early Modern Ayutthaya

Ayutthaya in Siam (now Thailand) was a very international centre in early modern Maritime Asia. Indeed, this port city was the capital of the Kingdom of Ayutthaya and attracted foreigners from all over the world for trade business and migration. Much of the previous research has focused on European and Japanese settlement, based on the many published records left by Western travellers. On the other hand, the relationship between Siam and Persia was one of the most important external relations for the Ayutthaya court but has not received much attention.

This paper explores the Indo-Persian link to Ayutthaya and the Persian network through the Persian record Safina-yi Sulaymani (The Ship of Suleyman), left by a Persian embassy secretary despatched from Safavid Persia to the Ayutthaya court in the late seventeenth century, as well as the trading ventures of Persian settlers in Ayutthaya who achieved widespread trade by tracing their accounts on port cities in the Indian Ocean at the time.