Early history for the wedding ceremony of King
Sigismund III of Poland in 1605 As early as the 16th century, Iranian merchants and trading caravans entered into
Europe, made contact and exchanged goods with Polish merchants, with merchants from Iran noted in major Polish cities such as
Toruń and
Lwów.
Isfahan rugs imported from
Persia to the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth were incorrectly known as "Polish rugs" (French:
Polonaise) in Western Europe. In the following centuries, Iran (known to the Europeans as Persia at the time) and Poland enjoyed friendly relations. The first documented visit of a Polish envoy to Iran took place in 1602, Poland's victory over the invading
Ottoman Empire at the
Battle of Vienna in 1683 was celebrated in
Safavid Iran. After the victory, Polish King
John III Sobieski was granted the proud title
El Ghazi by the Persians, and Shah
Suleiman of Persia even contemplated a move to recover
Baghdad, previously lost to the Ottoman Empire, however, he eventually abandoned the plan.
Tadeusz Krusiński, a Polish Jesuit active in Iran, was the author of
Relatio de mutationibus Regni Persarum, the first work on Persian history in Europe, written in the 1720s, and translated into several languages. In 1795, Iran was one of two countries (the other being the
Ottoman Empire) to not recognize the
Partition of Poland by the
Austrian Empire,
Prussia and the
Russian Empire. After the partitions and following unsuccessful Polish uprisings, many Polish refugees fled to Iran. Among notable
Poles living in
19th-century Iran were poet
Aleksander Chodźko, Ignacy Pietraszewski, who translated the
Zoroastrian Avesta into Polish, and
Izydor Borowski, former participant of the Polish
Kościuszko Uprising and member of the
Polish Legions, who was instrumental in modernizing the Iranian army, and eventually became a general in Iran. Polish geologist
Karol Bohdanowicz pioneered the geological survey of Iran's Khorasan Mountains. In 1927, both nations signed a Friendship Treaty, and in 1928, Poland opened a consulate in
Tabriz. The refugees were part of a larger exodus of between 320,000 and a million
Polish evacuees who were forced out of Poland by the
Soviet Union during the war and deported to the eastern parts of the Soviet Union including
Siberia. With the assistance of
Anders' Army, approximately 120,000 Polish evacuees left the Soviet Union for
Iran where they awaited to emigrate to
Palestine,
Australia,
New Zealand,
South Africa,
United Kingdom,
United States and elsewhere. It was the largest migration of Europeans through Iran. who later became Prime Minister of
Israel. In
Tehran, the refugees were accommodated in four camps; including one of the private gardens of Iran's
Shah; was transformed into a temporary refugee camp, and a special hospital was dedicated to them. After the war, a few even decided to stay in Iran permanently, marrying Iranian spouses and starting families. However, in 2019, Poland hosted the
February Warsaw Conference in
Warsaw, a conference which was believed to be anti-Iranian. This prompted an angry reaction from the Government of Iran, and its state-run media ran a post condemning the Polish government as "fools in Warsaw". Subsequently, Iran cancelled a Polish film festival which was about to occur in
Tehran. ==High-level visits==