Seminar: Persia in the Early Modern Period
This seminar will discuss representations of Persia in the early modern period.
The London Renaissance Seminar will be holding a day of talks on October 23 to discuss Persia in the Early Modern Period.
When European travellers began to visit Persia in the mid-sixteenth century, knowledge of the country came from the Bible, classical histories, commentaries and drama, which described pre-Islamic Persia and in particular the 'glorious' Achaemenid empire of antiquity. As travel to Persia increased, it became the subject of contemporary geographies, travel writings and plays, which portrayed Islamic Persia under the Safavid dynasty and ensured that Persia was well known to English audiences and readers by the mid-seventeenth century. This seminar will discuss representations of Persia in the early modern period through travel literature, histories and drama, exploring the particular identity held by Persia in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century European ideas about Islamic peoples.
This seminar will discuss representations of Persia in the early modern period through travel literature, histories and drama, exploring the particular identity held by Persia in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century European ideas about Islamic peoples.