
The Persian Mirror explores France's preoccupation with Persia in the seventeenth century. Long before Montesquieu's Persian Letters, French intellectuals, diplomats and even ordinary Parisians were fascinated by Persia and eagerly consumed travel accounts, fairy tales, and the spectacle of the Persian ambassador's visit to Paris and Versailles in 1715. Using diplomatic sources, fiction and printed and painted images, The Persian Mirror describes how the French came to see themselves in Safavid Persia. In doing so, it revises our notions of orientalism and the exotic and suggests that early modern Europeans had more nuanced responses to Asia than previously imagined.
This book investigates how seventeenth-century French society utilized the image of Safavid Persia to construct and reflect upon its own national identity. Susan Mokhberi, a scholar of early modern French history, synthesizes a diverse array of primary sources—including diplomatic correspondence, travelogues, and visual arts—to challenge traditional binary interpretations of European orientalism. She argues that the French engagement with Persia was not merely a projection of exoticism, but a sophisticated, multi-layered dialogue that informed French political and cultural self-perception.
What You Will Find
Scope Limits
Historians and scholars of early modern Europe frequently cite this work for its nuanced approach to the history of cultural exchange and the complexities of early orientalist thought. The text is recognized for its academic rigor and its ability to bridge the gap between diplomatic history and cultural studies.
Page Count:
235
Publication Date:
2019-01-01
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
ISBN-10:
0190884819
ISBN-13:
9780190884819
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