Susan Mokhberi
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- November 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190884796
- eISBN:
- 9780190884826
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190884796.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History, Middle East History
The diplomatic visits from Ottoman, Muscovite, Siamese, and Moroccan ambassadors were handled differently than the frequent diplomatic visits from European countries. The “Oriental” visits produced ...
More
The diplomatic visits from Ottoman, Muscovite, Siamese, and Moroccan ambassadors were handled differently than the frequent diplomatic visits from European countries. The “Oriental” visits produced many ceremonial challenges but also generated tremendous curiosity in the East, which Louis XIV used to his advantage. The crown took special care to turn the audiences with Oriental ambassadors into spectacular events to promote the Bourbon monarchy but had to be careful to adhere to French protocol and ensure that the diplomatic exchanges enhanced the image of French grandeur. The last magnificent display of Louis XIV’s reign, the visit of Mohammad Reza Beg in 1715, reveals the difficulties the French court encountered when dealing with foreign embassies. Louis XIV’s introducteur des ambassadors, the Baron de Breteuil, proved a culturally sensitive host, but he could not prevent conflict over French protocol that arose out of conceptions in common between France and Persia.Less
The diplomatic visits from Ottoman, Muscovite, Siamese, and Moroccan ambassadors were handled differently than the frequent diplomatic visits from European countries. The “Oriental” visits produced many ceremonial challenges but also generated tremendous curiosity in the East, which Louis XIV used to his advantage. The crown took special care to turn the audiences with Oriental ambassadors into spectacular events to promote the Bourbon monarchy but had to be careful to adhere to French protocol and ensure that the diplomatic exchanges enhanced the image of French grandeur. The last magnificent display of Louis XIV’s reign, the visit of Mohammad Reza Beg in 1715, reveals the difficulties the French court encountered when dealing with foreign embassies. Louis XIV’s introducteur des ambassadors, the Baron de Breteuil, proved a culturally sensitive host, but he could not prevent conflict over French protocol that arose out of conceptions in common between France and Persia.
Susan Mokhberi
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- November 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190884796
- eISBN:
- 9780190884826
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190884796.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History, Middle East History
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 ...
More
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.Less
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.
