The Persian mirror : reflections of the Safavid empire in early modern France / Susan Mokhberi.

9780190884826 (electronic book)

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2019.

English

1 online resource : illustrations.

DC59.8.I55 M65 2019

303.4824405509033

'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 text 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.

'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 text 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.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Access limited to authorized users.

Description based on online resource; title from home page (viewed on October 9, 2019).

Oxford scholarship online.

Print version: 9780190884796

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