Full Description
Utilizing contemporary accounts of India, China, Siam and the Levant, this study provides rich detail about these exotic lands and explores the priorities that shaped and motivated these bold envoys and chroniclers. Ames and Love offer a fascinating look at the symbiotic nature of cross-cultural interaction between France and the major trading regions of the Indian Ocean basin during the 17th century. During this period of intense French interest in the rich trade and cultures of the region, Louis XIV and his minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert in particular were concerned with encouraging French travelers, both clerical and lay, to explore and document these lands. Among the accounts included here are those of François Bernier, Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, and François Pyrard.
Because these accounts reflect as much about the structures and priorities of France as they do about the cultures they describe, Ames and Love hope their analysis bridges the gap between studies on early modern France and those on the major Asiatic countries of the same period. Their findings challenge the current thinking in the study of early modern France by demonstrating that overseas expansion to Asia was of considerable importance and interest to all segments of French society. Specialists in traditional internal French history will find much in this study of European expansion to complement and supplement their research.
Contents
Introduction Thevenot the Tourist: A Frenchman Abroad in the Ottoman Empire by Glenn Sundeen A Veritable Bedouin: The Chevalier d'Arvieux in the Camp of the Emir Turabey by Deirdre Pettet Secrets of the Seraglio: Harem Politics and the Rhetoric of Imperialism in the Travels of Sir Jean Chardin by S. Amanda Eurich The French and Poncet's Ethiopia, 1698-1703 by Ronald S. Love and Theodore Natsoulas The Travails of Madagascar: Rennefort's Relation du premier voyage de la Compagnie des Indies Orientales by Carl J. Sobocinski Wonders of Nature, Diversity of Events: The Voyage of Francois Pyrard de Laval by Diane S. Margolf Tavernier's Travels in India by Anne York Mughal India During the Age of the Scientific Revolution: Francois Bernier's Travels and His Lessons for Absolutist Europe by Glenn J. Ames A Young Physician on the Move: Dellon's Relation s'un voyage des Indes Orientales and his Relation de l'Inquisition de Goa by Glenn J. Ames Simon de La Loubere: French Views of Siam in the 1680s by Ronald S. Love In Search of a Passage to China: A French Jesuit's Perceptions of Siberia in the 1680s by Ronald S. Love The Search for Souls in China: Le Comte's Nouveaux Memories by Linda and Marsha Frey Index
