The Eye of the Beholder: The Creation of a Portuguese Discourse on Safavid Iran (original) (raw)

The Safavids under Western Eyes: Seventeenth-Century European Travelers to Iran

Journal of Early Modern History, 13, 2009

Th is essay takes a fresh look at the voluminous yet understudied Western travel writing about 17th-century Iran. It argues that, after this material is properly subjected to close scrutiny for authorial bias, interest and intertexuality, it remains exceedingly valuable for the information it provides on Safavid Iran. Early modern European travelers to Iran brought remnants of past religious and cultural prejudice with them, yet the best explored the country with an open eye, an appreciation for diff erence, and even a critical perspective on their own culture. Th ey also provide remarkable, at times unique information about Iran and it inhabitants, opening up aspects of Safavid left uncovered by indigenous sources.

Iranian Diaspora in Maritime Asia: A Study of Sixteenth Century Portuguese Sources

Studies in History, 2015

In the preceding article, 2 the data provided by the Portuguese sixteenth century sources on the Iranian presence in the Deccan sultanates has been analyzed. In a similar vein, the present article will look at other regions of India and on the countries around the Indian Ocean. The case of the shores of Persian Gulf will be left aside, as the Iranian presence there cannot be classified as diaspora. The case of the Delhi Sultanate, the Mogul Empire and other inland kingdoms will also be left aside, as virtually nothing is to be found in Portuguese sources about such states, with which the Portuguese seldom had interaction. In this article we will deal the Persian merchants in the ports of South Asia, undertake case studies of Gujarat and Bengal, and briefly look at the Iranians in Southeast Asia, East Africa and the Persian culture in the Indian Ocean.

The Persian–Portuguese Encounter in Hormuz: Orientalism Reconsidered

In 2015, the quincentennial commemoration of the Portuguese arrival on the island of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf (1515–1622) revealed the underlying presupposition among Iranians that the Portuguese presence on the island was the harbinger of a long-term pattern of western imperialism. This analysis questions the accuracy of this narrative by advancing a new interpretative framework that does not reduce the holding of Hormuz to simply another dark episode of European colonial history. Circumscribed and limited in aim and reach, Lusitanian activities on Hormuz cannot be brought under the generic rubric of “orientalism,” which is embedded in European colonial tradition, and which, by extension, buttresses Iranian nationalist sentiment about the Persian–Portuguese entanglement. This research demonstrates that Portuguese objectives diverged from the eighteenth and nineteenth century rationalist scientific traditions of the British, French and Germans professing a civilizing mission as a rationale for colonial policies. Whereas the Portuguese operated from a worldview that combined profit, dynastic pride and religious rhetoric, the Portuguese mission to Hormuz was not guided by a grand discourse of civilizing the “other.” While there was a complex interplay of commercial interests and brutal methods on this strategic entrepôt, Portuguese ambitions in Hormuz were confined and elusive, and at best a matter of tribute-taking. The present paper charters some of these complex interactions.

Safavids under Western Eyes: Western Travelers to Safavid Iran

Th is essay takes a fresh look at the voluminous yet understudied Western travel writing about 17th-century Iran. It argues that, after this material is properly subjected to close scrutiny for authorial bias, interest and intertexuality, it remains exceedingly valuable for the information it provides on Safavid Iran. Early modern European travelers to Iran brought remnants of past religious and cultural prejudice with them, yet the best explored the country with an open eye, an appreciation for diff erence, and even a critical perspective on their own culture. Th ey also provide remarkable, at times unique information about Iran and it inhabitants, opening up aspects of Safavid left uncovered by indigenous sources.

« L’antagonisme irano-saoudien et le nouveau grand jeu au Moyen-Orient »

2018

Si Teheran a su, depuis 2011, tirer profit des faiblesses et divisions du monde arabe ainsi que des erreurs de calcul commises par l’Arabie saoudite et l’administration americaine, ses ambitions regionales au Moyen-Orient se heurtent neanmoins a d’importantes limites domestiques et internationales...