Page "Yerevan" Paragraph 26

At the height of the Turkish-Persian wars, Yerevan changed hands fourteen times between 1513 and 1737.

In 1604, under the order of Shah Abbas I, tens of thousands of Armenians including citizens from Yerevan were deported to Persia.

As a consequence, population became 80 percent Muslim ( Persians, Turco, Kurds ) and 20 percent Armenian.

Muslims were either sedentary, semi-sedentary, or nomadic.

Armenians lived in Erevan or the villages.

The Armenians dominated the various professions and trade in the area and were of great economic significance to the Persian administration.

The Ottomans, Safavids, and Ilkhanids, all maintained a mint in Yerevan.

During the 1670s, the Frenchman Jean Chardin visited Yerevan and gave a description of the city in his Travels of Cavalier Chardin in Transcaucasia in 1672 – 1673.

On 7 June 1679, a devastating earthquake razed the city to the ground.