Cotton-Production and Trade in Iran

Cotton was one of the first vegetable fibers used to make textiles, and, despite competition from synthetic fibers in recent times, it remains the most important nonfood agricultural commodity in the world. Early traces of cotton have been found in materials from tombs and graves in India and pre-Incan Peru dating from several thousand years b.c.e. The fiber was also produced by the ancient Chinese and was probably introduced into Egypt and the Greek mainland after the 7th century c.e. In Persia, too, cotton has a long history, probably dating back to the Achaemenid pe­riod. Since its introduction it is believed to have been cultivated throughout the land. In the 13th century c.e. Marco Polo reported the existence of cotton plantations in Sāva. There are also several references to cotton in the works of early Persian poets, particu­larly Ferdowsī’s Šāh-nāma. The renowned 17th-cen­tury French traveler Jean Chardin, who visited Safavid Persia, attested to widespread cultivation of cotton (Rastār, p. 242; Dehḵodā, s.v.; Gorgānī, p. 182). In the early 19th century the British East India Company exported raw cotton from Persia to India in return for such goods as sugar and spices, dyes and oils from other parts of the empire.