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| 1598 |
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| Shah Abbas moved the Safavid capital to Isfahan, a city more centrally situated than Qazvin. Imperial town planning made it a magnificent urban center, laid out with a great public square, the Maydan, and a host of new buildings, including a royal mosque. The beauty of the city prompted the saying Isfahan nisf-i jahan, or “Isfahan is half the world.” The new capital also served as a major commercial center. The authorities moved to it thousands of Armenian merchant families from the city of Julfa. | 1 |
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| 1598 |
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| Arrival in Iran of the English merchant adventurers Anthony and Robert Sherley. Anthony returned to England as Shah Abbas's ambassador the following year, while his brother remained for some years in the shah's service in Iran. | 2 |
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| 1603–7 |
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| Safavid offensive against the Ottomans recovered the territories lost in the war of 1578–90. | 3 |
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| 1604 |
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| The Mughal emperor Akbar's envoy Amir Masum al-Bhakkari arrived in Iran to offer Shah Abbas gifts and assurances of friendship after a period of border disputes over Afghanistan. | 4 |
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| 1617 |
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| Merchants of the English East India Company established trading houses in Shiraz and Isfahan. After the fall of the Portuguese base at Hormuz in 1622, Bandar Abbas became the center of the East India Company's trade. | 5 |
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| 1621 |
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| Death of Sheik Baha'i, the most powerful Shi’ite cleric under Shah Abbas. His written works included treatises on mathematics, medicine, logic, astronomy, poetry, and jurisprudence. He also helped construct the great mosque and other architectural sites in the new capital of Isfahan. After his time the study of mathematics and science as part of the Shi’ite religious curriculum ended. | 6 |
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| Nov. 17 |
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| The Dutch East India Company (founded in 1602) received trade capitulations from Shah Abbas. The Dutch soon gained supremacy in the European trade with Iran, outdistancing British competitors. They established a spice trading center at Bandar Abbas. | 7 |
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