Large copper bowl bearing the Armenian inscription ՍԱՐՈՒԽԱՆԻ ՈՐԴԻ ԶԼԱԲԽԱՆ ԹՎ ՌՀԴ (Zlabkhan son of Saroukhan, Year 1625).

This bowl is a very early examples of Armenian artifacts made in New Julfa, the suburb of Isfahan where Shah Abbas (1588-1629) moved the Armenian community of the Southeastern Anatolian territories in 1604.

The Great Surgun (Armenian: Մեծ սուրգուն, the Great Exile) was the forced deportation of the population (mainly Armenians) from Eastern Armenia to the territory of the central and northern parts of Safavid Iran, which was carried out in 1604-1605 by the order of Shah Abbas the Great during the Ottoman–Safavid War (1603–1618).
Among the deported population (about 350,000 people), the largest number were Armenians. According to various estimates, the number of expelled Armenians ranged from 250,000 to 300,000 people. During this time Armenian cities and villages were plundered and destroyed. Many Armenians were brutally killed, subjected to violence or died on the way, less than half survived during the march.

The deportation changed the ethnic demographic picture of the Armenian Highlands radically, greatly decreasing the percentage of Armenian population of the region. Mass deportation of Armenians made them a minority in Nakhichevan (part of the present-day Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan), and also led to significant increase in the percentage of Muslims (Turks and Kurds) in other historical regions, including the Artsakh region (currently better known as Nagorno-Karabakh).
Initially, Abbas’s attitude towards the resettled Armenians was supportive. In the Isfahan region, Armenian settlers were granted freedom of religion and trade. The area gradually developed and flourished. Armenians were able to create a major center of international trade, including with the Russian state, Europe and India. They got a monopoly on the silk trade. However, later, pursuing a policy of forced Islamization, the Shah began to force the Armenian population to accept Islam. Those Armenians who had settled in other parts of the empire were often subjected to various forms of discrimination.

According to Encyclopedia Iranica: “In the course of its history of many centuries, the Armenian people had not yet been subjected to such a major disaster”. American historian George Bournoutian notes that by the 17th century, Armenians had become a minority in some parts of their historical lands. The American historian Richard Hovannisian points out that the forced deportation carried out by Shah Abbas and other forced mass migrations of the Armenian people led to the fact that by the 19th century Armenians retained a significant majority only in the mountainous regions of Karabakh and Zangezur. As for the Erivan and Nakhichevan khanates, the number of Armenians in them decreased to 20% by the beginning of the 1830s. Armenians also became a minority in Ganja.

At the same time, the emigration of Armenians to the countries of Southeast Asia, in particular, India and Burma, increased.