In 1605, hundreds of thousands of Armenians were forcibly resettled from Julfa, under Ottoman rule, to ‘New Julfa’ in Iran, by Shah Abbas I (r. 1588–1629). Khodja Nazar was among these wealthy Armenians and commissioned this Bible from Istanbul (Constantinople), in 1623. His order and the finished book travelled some 1800 kilometers each way, an indication of the breadth and fluidity of Armenian networks operating at this time.

The Bible opens with a double-folio painting of the Creation and story of Adam and Eve (left), and Genesis with Christ Pantocrator (right). The rays emanating from His hands enclose the Holy Spirit and Moses, respectively, while the initial letter of the chapter incorporates a figure of Saint John the Evangelist.

Armenian is an Indo-European language, written from left to right, in a script specifically invented for it in 405 CE. Training to be a scribe took many years and calligraphy developed as a fine art.