La Russia e l'oriente: le relazioni con la Persia nella prima metà del XVI secolo

TRaffic via the Caspian Sea and the Volga had always fluctued according to political circumstances, but no sustained commrcial exchange along this itinerary could develop until the emergence of a stable political center in the north. The rise of Myscovy in the fifteenth century created such a center and led to a modest revival of trade relations between Russia and the Islamic world. It was not so much the formation of the Safavid state as the tensions between the Iranians and the Ottomans which spurred initial Russo-Iranian contacts.