The Persian Mirror

This exploration of France's preoccupation with Persia in the seventeenth century uses diplomatic sources, fiction and images to describe how the French came to see themselves in Safavid Persia.

It revises our notions of orientalism and suggests that early modern Europeans had more nuanced responses to Asia than previously imagined.

Introduction to the Mirror; Chapter 1: Missionaries, Travelers, and the Case of Jean Chardin; Chapter 2: Persia: A Courtly East in the French Imaginaire; Chapter 3: Against all Odds: The Diplomatic Mission of Pierre-Victor Michel to Persia, 1706-1708; Chapter 4: The Persian Embassy to France in 1715: Conflict and Understanding; Chapter 5: Images of Mohammad Reza Beg: Fashioning the Ambassador; Chapter 6: Images of the Persian Visit: Connections between the Safavid and Bourbon Crowns; Chapter 7: The Absolutist Mirror; Conclusion; Bibliography