Distant Lands and Diverse Cultures: The French Experience in Asia (review)

This edited volume consists of twelve essays which shift scholarly focus away from Portuguese, Dutch, and British expansion into the Indian Ocean basin and southern China, turning to seventeenth-century French travelogues of Ottoman Turkey, Persia, Arabia, the East African littoral, India, Siam, Grand Tartary, and China. The editors argue that travel literature of this period does more than chart imperial policy and the economic and political alliances of the “Age of Discovery and Exploration.” It also provides a rich ethnography that documents with exquisite care the customs and mores of the people, as well as the geography, flora, and fauna of the region.

Each essay asks that we appreciate the sincere curiosity and open-mindedness of the Jesuit priests, ambassadors, merchants, physicians, tourists, and men of letters who described these societies, often although not always in laudatory terms. If these travelers remained convinced of the superiority of Christianity and Western science and technology, that is because they were “men of their time and place” (xvii), and thus to fault them would be to commit a profound error of anachronism.

While I cannot agree that these travelogues were “objective” — a word that appears again and again in the volume — they were indeed the product of sympathetic and generous observation. For example, the Chevalier d’Arvieux explicitly sought to counter French prejudices by publishing his account of the Bedouins in the Levant, as Deirdre Pettet shows. D’Arvieux wrote: “[The Arabs] are the best people in the world... It is to correct mistaken notions, that having myself a very exact and extensive knowledge of the manners and customs of those People, that I find myself obliged to represent them as they are to those who would judge them so poorly... (23).” Glenn Sundeen also reveals how Jean de Thévenot, in his journey through Ottoman Turkey, insisted upon firsthand observation to revise anecdotal accounts that had depicted its people as “heretical,” “barbaric,” and “debauched.” It deserves further attention that this ethnographic courtesy was not extended to Ottoman women, who were portrayed as indolent, vain, and unfaithful despite Thévenot’s inability to penetrate the seraglio and observe them directly. Nevertheless, Thévenot devoted several chapters to the history and doctrine of Islam, carefully explaining the significance of rites such as Ramadan and the pilgrimage to Mecca, with reference to the Quran. Thévenot spoke Turkish, Arabic, and Persian, and like most of the travelers in this volume, proficiency in foreign languages opened countless doors.

S. Amanda Eurich’s essay clearly illustrates the ambivalent location of these texts, which employed “more exacting standards of empirical observation” (53) while at the same time perpetuating “Western myths of European sensuality and sexual decadence (58).” I find this formulation more persuasive than Anne York’s claim that Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, in his exploration of India, “exemplified the most concrete form of truth — a truth that is nonjudgmental, unbiased, and timeless in its embracing and recording of differences (143).” Eurich shows that Jean Chardin’s chronicles of Safavid Persia — referenced by Montesquieu, Voltaire, and others — praised the tolerance of his hosts (it is not inconsequential that he was a Huguenot) and displayed his familiarity with a wide range of Persian sources. In describing the harem, however, he merely embellished existing narratives of sexual decadence. Moreover, Chardin attributed the disastrous reign of Sefi (crowned 1666) to the years Sefi spent sequestered in the seraglio at his mother’s side. “Brought up tenderly among the Women... accustomed only to talk of Cloaths and Baubles... and to command Eunuchs (60),” he was ill-prepared for the masculine task of governance.

The essays quote at length from the travelogues, allowing the reader to savor their evocative language and attention to detail. But at times I found it difficult to separate the voice of the traveler from that of the essay’s author, and was unclear as to whether the material...