Political Judgemertt between
Empirical Experience and Scfiolarty
Tradition: EngeCbert Kaempfer's
Report on Persia (1684-8$)
Stefan Brakensiek*
The article attempts a reconstruction of the ways in which the production of knowledge abou't Persia was organised by Engelbert
Kaempfer in his writings. This late seuenteenth Century German
traveller to Asia has bcen unfailingly commended for his crilical
cmpiricism. While this has been takanforgranted in thefield oj natural
sciences—Kaempfer was afamousphysician and botanist—it is more
difßcult, when scarchingfor Ihefoundations ofhisjudgemcnt about
the political system of Persia, to distinguish between experience and
scholarly tradition. Tlie articleprovides a survey ofthc Information
Kaempfer had to rcly upon. A comparison betivecn thcse sources and
the report itselfgives us some insight into theprocesses through which
theproduction ofsodo-political knowledge about an alien world took
place and how the encounter with the alien exercised an inßuence
on the political judgement ofa seventcenth Century explorcr.
To the true Safavid prince, everything is allowed unrestrictedly: if he
wants to conclude alliances, to declare war and peace, to alter the
constitution of the realm, to think up new taxes; even if he wants to
'Fakultät für Gesch ich tswis.sen.se ha ft und Philosophie, University of Bielefeld,
Universitätssfr. 25. D-33Ö15 Bielefeld. Germany. Email: [email protected]
M^di£val History Journal, S, 'Z (2002)
Säße PubCications * New Delhi, Thousand Oflfes, London
224 * Siefan Brafeenstefc
extend his power over the life and property of an individual and his
wife and children. No subject, even the most distinguished, is
protected against a degenerate power which is capable of modifying
the law whether out of arbitrariness or cruel passion.1
And yet the Shah is just a puppet in the hands of the grandee.s,
with the grand vizier in control. 'So to speak, through his eyes the
king sees the theatre of the empire; according to his advice everything
is settled.'2
1 Engelbert Kaempfer, Amoenitatum Exoticarum politico-physico-medicarum
fasciculi V, Quibus continentur uariae Relationes, Qbservationes & Descriptiones
Rerum Persicarum & Ultcrioris Asiae, multä attentione, in peregrinatibus per universum Orientem, collectae, ab Auctore Engelberte Kaempfero, D. Lemgoviae, Typis
& Impensis Henrici Wilhelmi Meyeri, Aulae Lippiacae Typographi, 1712.- 4: 'Sopbomm vero Principi . . . ornriia permissa atque integra sunt: si velit foedera, bella,
pacem cudere, si Leges Regni mutare, si novas fingere tributorum species; quin ad
privatorum vitas, uxores, liberos & bona quse vis magnum exiendere: nullo civibus,
etiani primoribus, relicto juris prsesidio, quo degenerantis Potential vel libidinem ä
fbrtunis, vel impetum ä cervicibus declinare queant.' The translation into German
needs to be taken with a pinch of sall. Walther Hinz (ed.), Engelbert Kaempfer, Am
Hofe des persischen Großkönigs !684-J68_5, Stuttgart, 1984: 21. Kaempfer's judgement on Persia was very cornmon, see Jean Baptiste Tavernier, The Six travels of
John Baptista Tavernier, Baron of Aubonne, through Turkey and Persia to the Indies.
During the space of I-orty years. Giving an Account of the presenl State of those
Countries, viz. of their Religion, Government, Customs and Commerce . . . Made
English byj. Phillips, London, 1678, vol. 5- 239: The Government of Persia is purely
Despotick or Tyrannical. For the King has the sole power of life and death over all
his Subjects, independent from his Council, and without any Trials or Law-proceedings.
He can put to what death he pleases the chief Lords of the Kingdorn, no man daring
to dispute the reason: nor is there any Sovereign in the world more absolute then
the King of Persia.' Or Jean Chardin, Voyage du Chevalier Chardin, en Perse, et autres
lieux de /'Orient, Nouvelle Edition, Paris, 1811 (forthefirsttime publishedin 1685),
vol. 5: 229: 'Pour le present donc, le gouvernement de Perse est monarohique, despotique et absolu, etant tout entier dans la main d'un seul homrne, qui est le chef
souverain, tant pour le spirituel que pour le temporei, le maitre a pur et a plein de la
vie et des biens de ses sujets. II n'y assurement ancun souverain au monde si absolu
que le roi de Perse; car on execute toujours exactement ce qu'il prononce, sans avoir
egard ni au fond, ni aux circonstances des choses, quoiqu'on voie clair comme le
jour, qu'il n'y a la plupart du temps nulle justice dans ses ordres, et souvent pas meme
de sens commun . . . . Rien ne met ä couvert des extravagances de leur caprice; ni
probate, ni merite, ni zele, ni Services rendus: un mouvement de leur fantaisie, marque
par un mot de la bouche, ou par un signe des yeux, renverse ä l'instant les gens les
mieux etablis, et les plus dignes de I'etre, les prives des biens et de la vie; et pour cela
sans aucune forme de proces, et sans prendre aucun soin de verifier le crime impute.'
1 Kaempfer, Amoenitates exoticae: 22: 'Hujus inquam oculis Rex, tanquam
consplcillo Imperii scenam conspicit, ingenio dirigit, consilio tuetur.'
Engelbert Kaempfer's Report on Persia » 225
This harsh judgement on the political System of Persia was passed
by the learned doctor and natural scientist Engelbert Kaempfer. It
stems frorn his main work published in 1712, Amoenitates exoticae,
which could be translated äs 'foreign pleasures' or 'exotic delights'.
A journey of ten years through extensive parts of Asia which, from
November 1083 until June 1088, took him to Persia äs well, served
äs a basis for this book. If one follows the preface of this publication,
Kaempfer had come to his opinions on the strength of his own observations exclusively during his stay of four-and-a-half years in Persia.
'l have taken in nothing only imagined, nothing srnacking of writing
room and smelling of study lamp.'3 And he continues: 'I confme myself
to writing on subjects which are either new or not thoroughly and
completely handed down by others only. As a traveller I aimed for
nothing eise than collecting observations of facts which have been
unknown or not well-known enough. '4 Kaempfer characterises himself äs an ernpirical scientist who strives for innovative findings, äs a
protagonist of that new type of learned man, conceptualised in sharp
contrast to the traditional scholar who explains knowledge äs compiled from authority.
I am willing to follow this seif interpretation of Kaempfer with
regard to the other subjects he has dealt with. His studies on medical
and botanical subjects are generally recognised äs innovative: his
report on Japan shaped the eighteenth Century European Imagination
about this remote country which had shut itself off from the western
world.5 But if you, led by Kaempfer, undertook a journey to Persia in
those days you would be furnished with interesting detail about the
5 Kaempfer, Amoenitates exoticae: preface: 'Nihil ex ingenio meo ficti in illum
retuli; nihil quod ungues sapiat & lucernam oleat.'
4 Ibid.: 'Nee crambem recogno ab alüs coctam, . . . sed illis omissis, quae ab aiiis
relata sunt, ea saltem describere satago, quae vei nova, vel haud intime & plene ab
alüs tradita sunt: Peregrinanti quippe non alius fuit scopus, quäm ut rerum vel usquam
nobjs, vel non satis cognitarum notitias conquirerem.'
' Peter Kapitza, 'Engelbert Kaempfer und die europäische Aufklärung: Zur
Wirkungsgeschichte seines Japanwerkes im 18. Jahrhundert', in Hans Hüls et. al.
Ceds), Engelbert Kaempfer: Geschichte und Beschreibung von Japan—Beiträge und
Kommentar, Berlin/Heidelberg/New York, 1980: 41-ö3;Josef Kreiner, 'DeutschlandJapan: Die frühen Jahrhunderte', in Josef Kreiner (ed.), Deutschland-Japan.
Historische Kontakte, Bonn, 1984: 1-53; Peter Kapitza, Japan in Europa: Texte und
Bilddokumente zur europäischen Japankenntnis von Marco Polo bis Wilhelm von
Humboldt, 3 vols, München, 1990; Derek Massarella, 'The History of Thc Histor):
The Purchase and Publication of Kaempfer's History of Japan', in Beatrice Bodart-
226 * Stefan Rrakensiek
prince, his court, the army, the authorities, the judiciary, the national
budget, and Shiite Islarn. However, some of his judgement was not
sufficiently sustained by his own observations. His general Statements
on the political System of Persia were based mainly on European
traditions of political thought and Communications with the community of European experts.
It is often emphasised that European thinking about the east followed a narrow path. Since the adoption of the Aristotelian work in
the thirteenth Century, certain topoi prevail describing the System of
rule of the Oriental empires, and what is more, the collecn've character
of the eastern people.6The Greek terrn despotmeans 'head ofa household', at the same time 'master of slaves'. As a political concept, despotism characterises a certain type of monarchy which, though
resembling the domination of slaves, is a legitirnate form of rule
because it appears to be sanctified by custom. In the third book of
his Politeia Aristotle writes that, apart from tyranny 'there is another
form of autocratic rule among barbarian people. Those all have power
sirnilar to tyrants, but are legitimately founded and inherited. For the
barbarians own a character more slavish than the Greek, and the
Asians more than the Europeans, they endure despotism without
rebellion.'7
Aristotle makes a sharp distinction between despotism and tyranny:
while tyrannical power depends on violence and fear, the rule ofa
despot is based on the approval of the subjugated. And despotism
does not know the problem of succession which characterises
tyranny. Therefore, despotic rule is more stable and longer-lasting
than tyranny. Nevertheless, Aristotle states that despotism is intimately
Baifey and Derek Massarella (eds), The Funkest Coai. Engelbert Kaempfer's
Encounterwith TokugawaJapan, London, 1990: 96-131; Detlef Habedand, Engelbert
Kaempfer 1651-1716: A Biography, London, 1996: 65-82, 94-98. The recently published critical edition of the report on Japan gives valuable insight into the conditions
of its production. Wolfgang Michel and BarendJ. Terwiel (eds), EngelbertKaempfter:
Heutiges Japan, München, 2001, vol. 1.2: 73-179.
6 Richard Koebner, 'pespot and Despotism: Vicissitudes ofa political term\Journal
of the Warbug and Courtauld Institutes, vol. 14, 1951: 275-302; Melvin Richter,
'Despotism1, in Philip P. Wiener (ed.), Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Studies of
Selected Pivotal Ideas, vol. 2, New York, 1973: 1-18; Günther Bien and Ulrich Dierse,
'Despotie, Despotismus l', in Joachim Ritter (ed.), Historisches Wörterbuch der
Philosophie, vol. 2, Basel/Stuttgart, 1972: 132-44.
1 Third book of Aristotie's Politeia: Olof Gogon (ed. and tr), Aristoteles Politik,
2nded., Zürich/Stuttgart, 1971: 166-67.
Engeföert Koempfcr's Report on Persia + 227
related to tyranny, since it is true that the despot rules according to
the law of the land, but merely on the basis of his own decisions
which nobody can alter. Therefore, despotism is no rule in the interests of the common weal, because the law itself serves one sidedly
the interests of the rufen The positive Opponent to despotism is the
Greek polis, held together by the bonds of friendship and justice.
While the concept of despotism in the Middle Ages, was used
above all, äs a polemical weapon against the clairn for supremacy of
the popes, the emerging political science of the early modern period
feil back on Aristotelian origins. Lucette Valensi has pointed to the
change in the attitude of Venetian ambassadors against the Ottoman
System of rule in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth Centimes:
until about 1,600 positive judgement prevailed, regarding the Turks
äs frightening enemies and their empire äs a perfect system of domination. After the beginning of the seventeenth Century, critical voices
arose following the arguments outlined in Giovanni Botero's Relationi
universalim 159l.8 The Systems of rule in Turkey, Persia, India, Russia
and China were increasingly identified with the paradigm of despotism, conceding that despotic rule guarantees strength äs long äs the
rulers are sober and capable, but maintaining that such a political
System necessarily carries within it the seeds of degeneration.9
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the authors of political
treatises interpreted despotism äs an analytical tool to understand
8 Lucette Valensi, 'The Making of a Political Paradigm: The Ottoman State and
Oriental Despotism', in Anthony Grafton and Ann Blair (eds), The Transmission of
Culture in Early Modern Europe, Philadelphia, 1990: 173-203- Foradetailed analysis
of the Venetian reports on the Ottoman empire see Lucette Valensi, Venise et la.
Sublime Porte: La naissance du despote, Paris, 1987.
9 The locus classicus is Sir Paul Rycaut, The Present State ofthe Ottoman Empire,
London, 1668. French translation Histoire de l'etat present de l'Empire Ottoman.
Amsterdam, 1670: 2-3: 'Quand j'examine de pres la constitution du gouvernement
des Turcs, et que je vois une puissance tout ä fait absolue dans un Empereur sans
raison, sans vertu et sans merite, dont les commandements, quelque injustes qu'ils
soient, sont des Loix; les actions, quoique irre'guliere, des exempJes; et les jugements,
surtout dans les affairs de l'Eat, des resolucions auxquelles on ne se peut opposer
Quand je considere encore qu'il se trouve parmi eux si peu de recompense pour la
vertu, et tant d'impunite pour les vices, dont il revient du profit au Prince; de quelle
maniere les hommes y sont eleves tout d'un coup par la flatterie, par le hasard et
par !a seule faveur du Sultan, aux plus grandes, aux plus importantes et aux plus
honorables charges de l'Empire, sans avoir ni naissance, ni merite, ni aucune experience des affaires du monde.' Quotation from Alain Grosrichard, Stnicture du serail.
Lafiction du despotisme asiatique dans l'Occident classiquc, Paris, 1979: 28-29-
228 * Stefan Brafcensiefc
oriental monarchies. But since Edward Said's Orientalism, we are all
too prepared for suspicion: certainly despotism was a description of
the political Systems of the eastern empires; a closer examination
would reveal connotations seeking to conceptualise eastern despotism rnainly äs a negative counterpart to European monarchies. In
the long run, the occidental monarchies were thought of äs being
superior to their oriental counterparts, because they harboured nobilities committed to their princes by the bonds of rights of property
and political participation, of honour and responsibility. It is well
known that those ideas were most skilfully formulated and propagated by Montesqu ieu in the first half of the eighteenth Century. What
is less well known is the history of this argument.10 So it would be
interesting to reconstruct the forms of knowledge that informed the
judgement of the poÜtical systern of Persia, formulated by one of the
most respected explorers of the seventeenth Century. To begin with,
I shall throw light upon the genera! educational background of
Engelbert Kaempfer, his experiences in Persia, the written sources
he was provided with about the System of rule there, and the formal
models he relied upon when he wrote his report.11
Engelbert Kaempfer was born in 1651 in the small town Lemgo äs
son of a Lutheran parish priest. He enjoyed a classical education that
led him to several schools in northern Germany. At the age of 21 he
went to Danzig, where he frequented the Athenaeum, a famous gymnasium illustre. He finished his studies there with a disputation which
was published and which informs us about his intellectual background. The small thesis deals with the question of whether it makes
sense to discriminate between majestas personalis, the personal
power of a prince, and majestas realis, his factual, non-personal
power, which depends on the leges fundamentales, the constitution
of a monarchy. This was a very common topic for a disputation in
politicis. Kaempfer referred to all relevant literature coming from the
10 A brilliant analysis could be found in the chapter 'Wirkliche und unwirkliche
Despoten1 (real and unreal despots) by Jürgen Osterhammel, Die Entzauberung
Asiens.- Europa und die asiatischen Reiche im 18. Jahrhundert, München, 1998:
271-309. The ways Montesquieu used travel accounts for the Leltres Persanes are
exemplified by Horst Walter Blanke, Politische Herrschaft und soziale Ungleichheit
im Spiegel des Anderen: Untersuchungen zu den deutschsprachigen Reisebeschreibungen vornehmlich im Zeitalter der Aufklärung, 2 vols, Waltrop, 1997, vol. 1:
441-66.
11 For biographical information see Haberland, Kaempfer. A Biography.
Engelbert Ktumpfer's Report on Persia * 229
different camps of contemporary political thinking, to end up with
Jean Bodin's sentence 'Majestas est Legibus soluta Potesta'. With his
plea for an undivided majesty, he followed prevalent opinion in the
middle of seventeenth Century. What is more, we can be sure that he
had a thorough knowledge of the political science of his tirne.'2
From 1075 onwards, Kaempfer frequented the universities of
Crakow, Königsberg and Uppsala, where he acquired a varied knowledge in the natural sciences äs well äs the humanities, and where
he became familiär with Descartes' Discours de la methode. When
Kaempfer embarked upon his travels through Asia he was an excellently educated man of 32, with a mastery of several languages and
subscribing to an empirical comprehension of the sciences. In 1683
Kaempfer was appointed secretary of a Swedish embassy to the
Persian court in Isfahan. The legation took the usual way via Novgorod and Moscow, following the rivers Oka and Volga to the Caspean
Sea, sailing to its southern shores and finally, arriving by caravan to
the Persian capital. This route was well known äs the latest, after the
publication of the report of Adam Olearius in 1647. Nevertheless
Kaempfer wrote down plenry of observations, which are well recommended äs important sources for the geography and the culture of
the Volga region. It was Kaempfer who was the first western visitor
to the petroleum wells of Baku. 13
Kaempfer lived in Isfahan from March 1684 to November 1685. As
a member of a diplomatic mission, he participated in audiences of
the Shah several times.14 He maintained contacts with the colony of
foreigners in the capital of Persia. The stay at Isfahan was used by
11 Engelbert Kaempfer, Exercitatio politica de Majestatis Divisione in realem et
personalem, quam Prceside Excellentissimojuxta ac Ctarissimo Viro, Dn.M. Georgio
Neufeld, Philos. Pract. Mateph. Logicceq; Prof. Ord. &Bibliothec. Promotore, Fautore
ac Pra?ceptore suo omni tetate Observando, In Celeberr. Gedanensium Athenai
Audüorio Maximo Valedictiones loco Publice ventüandam prponit Engelbertus
Kämpffer, Lemgovia Westphalus, A.C.M.DC.LXXIII. d.8. Junii h.mat. Dantisci, [Imprimebat David-Fridericus Rhetius]. Translation into German, 'Engelbert Kaempfer,
"Valedictio über die zwiefache Majestät. Gottesgnaden t um und Teilung der Majestät:
Aus dem Lateinischen übertragen von Rohtraut Müller König"', in Hans Hüis and
Hans Hoppe (eds), Engelbert Kaempfer zum 330. Geburtstag. Gesammelte Beiträge
zur Engelbert-Kaempfer-Forschung und zur Frühzeit der Asienforschung in Europa,
Lemgo, 1982: 15-29.
'•' Adam Olearius, Vermehrte Newe Beschreibung Der Muscowitischen und
Persischen Reyse . . . . Welche zum ändern mahl heraus gibt Adam Olearius . . .,
Schleswig, 1656 (Reprint Tübingen, 1971).
H Kaempfer, Amoenitates exoticae: 216-50.
230 » Stefan Braüensiefc
Kaempfer to Supplement his book knowledge about the land and its
people with his own observations, and by Information from reliabte
sources.
In autumn 1085 Kaempfer tendered his resignation to the Swedish
mission and signed up äs physician of the Dutch Hast India Company.
D u ring the winter of1Ö8S-86 he travelled to Bandar Abbas, the most
important port in the Persian Gulf. He used this journey to make an
excursion to Persepolis.15 Against his intentions, Kaempfer was forced
to wait two-and-a-half years in blazing Bandar Abbas. During this
time he wrote down the first draft of his report on Persia. In June
1688 he was allowed to leave for southern India. His stay in India
proved to be disappointing, äs his professional duties prevented him
from undertaking scientific excursions. Therefore he was glad when,
in autumn 1089, he got the opportunity to sail further on to Java.
However, contrary to his expectations, Kaempfer did not succeed in
gaining the position äs the first physician of the Dutch East India
Company in Batavia. In 1690 he wiilingly accepted the offer to get to
Deshima, an artificial island in the bay of Nagasaki, which served äs
the only European trade post in Japan.
The Portuguese had monopoHsed trade with Japan in the sixteenth
Century. They had brought in the Jesuits who began to proselytise
successfully. The Societasjesu gained considerable political influence
on the ruling classes. This developrnent, however, turned against
them and all Europeans in the eariy seventeenth Century: the Japanese
empirecut itself off from foreign nations. Only the Dutch, who were
known to be abstinent in religious affairs, were allowed to run the
trade post at Deshima. Before Kaempfer arrived, several reports
existed on Japan. But they were based on outdated Jesuit experience or on shallow impressions some Europeans had collected during
short stays.
During his two years residence, Engelbert Kaempfer succeeded in
gathering varied Information on Japanese culture and geography.
His records include notes on language, religion, history, philosophy,
15 Kaempfer, Amoenitates exoticae: Relatio 4 'Monumenta campi Persepolitani,
rupi insculta, que vocant Naksji Rustaam, i.e. simuiacra Rustamica', Relatio 5 'Palalii
Istachr sive Persepolitani rudera, vuigö Tsjihif minaar dicta', Relatio 6 'Antiquitatis
monumenta in campo Sjubasär novae Persepolis'. See also Jan Willem Drijvers,
'Persepolis äs Perceived by Engelbert Kaempfer and Cornelis de Bruijn', in Detlef
Haberland (ed.), Engelbert Kaempfer: Werk und Wirkung, Stuttgart, 1993: 85-104.
Engeföert Koemßfer's Report on Persia + 231
medicine, topography and Vegetation.'l6.He benefitted greatly from
intellectual exchanges with his Japanese translator who could be
identified only recently. 17 His name is Imamura Gen'emon Eisei
(1671-1736) and he is regarded äs one of the founders of JapaneseEuropean science of the eighteenth Century. By a fortunate occurrence, two congenial minds had come to meet. Kaempfer wiilingly
reported on European conditions and gained information about Japan
which were otherwise top secret. They both ran considerable risks
in order to Start on their scientific work. In the course of two journeys
to the imperial court at Tokyo, where the Dutch merchants were
obliged to make a show of Submission, Kaempfer openly gathered
botanical information—which was accepted äs being harmless—and
also surreptitiously sketched the travel route. The Japanese maps he
had bought (which were strictly forbidden) and these rough outlines
together served äs a model for the first fairly reliable map of the
interior of the Japanese islands to be made available in Europe. !W
During the years 1692-93 Kaempfer sailed home. At first he tried
to settle in the Netherlands. He did his doctorate at the university of
Leiden with a dissertation on tropical diseases and their treatment
methodsin the Far East, namely acupuncture and moxibustion. 19 All
'6 Re-translation from the English version into German, Engelbert Kaempffer,
Beschreibung des Japanischen Reiches, Rostock, 1750. The first original German
ediüon is Engelbert Kaempfer, Geschichte und Beschreibung von Japan: Aus den
Originalhandschriftcn des Verfassers herausgegeben von Christian Wilhelm Dohm,
2 vois, Lemgo [Meyerschc Buchhandlung], 1777-79 (Reprint Stuttgart, 1964).
17 Paul van de Velde, 'Die Achse, um die sich alles dreht: Imamura Gen'emon
Eisei (1671-1736)—Dolmetscher und ebenbürtiger 'Diener' Kaempfers', in Haberland, Kaempfer: Werk und Wirkung: 174-93; Yu-Ying Brown, 'Engelbert Kaempfer's
legacy in the British Library 1 , ibid.: 344-69; Paul van der Veide, The Interpreter
Interpreted: Kaempfers's Japanese Collaborator Imamura Genemon Eisei', in BodartBailey/Massarella, Furthest Goal. 44-58. A synopsis of all relevant contacts of
Kaempfer to Japanese and European experts could be found in Michel and Terwiel,
Engeiben Kaempfer: Heutiges Japan, vol. 1.2: 73-142.
18 British Library, ms. Sloane 3060, fol. 450r-451r, 466r, 499r/500r, 503v/504r, 506r,
510r/511r, 5l6v, 553v. For reproductions and descriptions see Michel and Terwiel,
Engeiben Kaempfer: Heutiges Japan, vol. 1.1:542-744, The Japanese rnaps Kaempfer
owned are described in ibid., vol. 1.2: 103-69. See also Kenneth Burslarn Gardner,
Descriptiue Catalogue ofjapanese Books in the British Library Printed before 1700,
London, 1993: 564-70,608-17; Lutz Walter, 'Engelbert Kaempfer und die europäische
Kartographie Japans', in Lutz Walter (ed.), Japan mit den Augen des Westens gesehen.
Gedruckte europäische Landkarten vom frühen 16. bis zum 19. Jahrhundert,
München/New York, 1994: 60-67.
19 Engelbert Kaempfer, Disputatio Medica Inauguralis Exhibens Decadem
Observalionum Exoticarum, quam . . . pro gradu doctoratus . . . publico examini
232 « Stefan
attempts to attain an appropriate position in Holland failed. In 1964,
after 27 years of absence, Kaempfer returned to bis home-town
Lemgo. He was 43 years old. He began bis medical practice and was
appointed private physician to Count Friedrich Adolf zu Lippe in
1698. During the remaining 20 years until his death in 1716 he wrote
down the findings of his research.
The scientific Community took note of his works only gradually.
After his demise his nephew sold the scientific collections and the
unpublished works to Sir Hans Sloane, the founder of the British
Museum. Sloane ensured that the fair copy of the treatise on Japan
was translated into English. It appeared in London in 1727.20 The
treatise became an immediate success: by 1729 it was translated into
French and Dutch and published. 21 If Europeans in the eighteenth
Century had anything to say about Japan, it was normally based on
Kaempfer's book. Voltaire used his work extensively22 and Diderot's
subjicil Engelbert Kaempfer, L.L. Westph. ad diern 22. Aprilis . . . Lugduni Batavorum
lapud Ahraliamum Elzevier, Academiae Typographum], MDCXCIV. German translation, Engelbert Kaempfer, 'Medizinische Dissertation über zehn fremdländische
Beobachtungen'. Aus dem Lateinischen übersetzt von Hans Hüls und Rohtraud
Müller-König, in Hüls and Hoppe, Engelbert Kaempfer zum 330. Geburtstag: 31-61.
Kaempfer, Amoenitales exoticac, Third book 'continens Observationes PhysicoMedicas curiositas'. See also Wolfgang Michel, 'Engelbert Kaempfer und die Medizin
in Japan', in Haberland, Kaempfer: Werk und Wirkung: 174-93.
'" Engelbert Kaempfer, The History of Japan- Giving an Account of ihe Anden t
and Present Slate and Government of that Empire; ofils Temples, Palaces, Castles,
andothcrBitildingS; of itsMetals, Minerals, Trees, Plants, Animals, Birds, andFishcs;
of the Chronology and Succession of the Emperors, Ecclesiastical and Sccttlar, of
ihe Original Descen t, Religions, Customs, and Mamtfactures of the Natives, and of
thcir Trade and Commerce with the Dutch aud Chinese: together with a Description
of the Kingdom of Siam. Written in High Dutch by Engelbertus Kaimpfer, M.D.
Physician to the Dutch Embassy to the Emperor's Court; and translated from his
Original Mannscript, never before printed, byJ.G. Scheuchzer, F.R.S. andaMember
of the College of Physicians. London. With the Life of the Author and an hitroduction,
Illuslratcd with many Copper Plates, 2 vols, London, 1727.
" Engelbert Kaempfer, Histoire naturelle, cwile et ecclesiastiaue de l'Empirc du
Japan, 2 vols, La Haye, 1729; Engelbert Kaempfer, De Beschryving van Japan,
behclsende ecn verhalt uan den ouden en legenwoord'igen Staat en Regeering van
dal Ryk, . . . In 't Hoogduytsch beschreven door Engelbert Kaempfer, M.D. Geneesher
van het Holtandsche Gezantschap na't Hof van den Keyzer, . . . s'Gravenhage/
Amsterdam, 1729.
11 Chapter 142 'Du Japon' in Essai snr les mcenrs et l'csprit des nations, CEuvres
completes de Voltaire, Nouvelles Edition, Paris, 1878, vol. 12: 362-66.
Emittiert Kaempfer's
Report on Persia * 233
article on Japan in the French Encyclopaedia gives a brief summary
of his findings onjapanese history and philosophy. 23
During Kaempfer's lifetime only one substantial publication
appeared, the Amoenitates exoticae, more than 900 pages strong,
written in Latin and illustrated with numerous engravings. It contains
five chapters: The first book gives the report on the conditions of
Persia. The second part embraces H articles on historical and scientific
topics based on Kaempfer's observations in different parts of Asia.
For example you can find a description of Persepolis with copies of
the cuneiform script. The third book presents physical and medical
curiosities of the Far East. The fourth chapter is a treatise on the date
palm which informs the reader of interesting botanical, sociological
and ethnological details about its origin and cultivation, of the
economic implications for the people in arid regions and the custom.s
on the occasion of harvest. The fifth book supplies us with a pioneering description of Japanese plant life.
In the following I shall deal only with the first part of the
Amoenitales exoticae. To begin with, the work gives a brief overview
of the actual Situation of the Persian ernpire and the political System
in general. Subsequently there is an account of the history of Shah
Suleiman's accession and his coronation in 1666. Then Kaempfer
describes the state apparatus, the grand vizier, the army and its commanders äs well äs the exclusive officials who occupied a seat in the
court assembly. A special passage deals with the fiscal authorities
and outlines the national budget. The following chapter relates to
religious circumstances, the influence of the Mullahs and Shiite
dogma. Kaempfer then returns to the secular governrnent, describing
the economy of the court and the administration of the provinces
and cities. Finally he gives an account of the magnificent royal
residence, deals with some important characteristics of the Persian
court and the royal harem and ends with courtly ceremonies.
This work has generally been accorded less esteem than Kaempfer's
report on Japan. On the one band the Jatter study was unrivalled,
whereas Persia was the subject of several brilliant books in the
seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. On the other hand, the
" Denis Diderot, 'Japonois, Philosophie des', in Denis Diderot et .ai. (eds), Eucyclopedie OH üiaionnaire Raisonne des Sciences, des Arts et des Metiers, Neiifdiastd
1765, vol. 8: 455-58: 'Le celebre Kempfer, qui a parcoiiru le Japon en naturali.ste,
geographe, politique & theologien, & dont le voyage tient un rang dlstingue parmi
nos meilleurs livre.s . . .'.
234 « Stefan Brafecnsiefc
account on Japan was more authentic than that on Persia, because it
relied upon a vivid communication with a native authorily. The report
on Persia was based on more conventional sources. Apart from bis
own observations, Kaempfer exploited a large number of travel
accounts and relied on Information gathered from Europeans who
had lived in Isfahan for a long time. His own experience was restricted
to external details—climate, the location and arrangement of buildings
and gardens, etc. Only the diplomatic dealings of the Swedish legation
with the Shah and his court constjtuted an empirical basis for an
independent judgernent on Persian politics.
Some passages give an impression of how Kaempfer arrives at his
opinion. Under the headline Potestas absolutissima he writes:
The head of the Persian Empire is the king who is elevated to his dignity
by heredirary right. His rnagnitude is based on the one band on his enormous estates, on the olher band on liis immense Instruments of power
which distinguish him frorn ali otherrulers of Asia. The most important
is the completely independent and absolutely unlimited administration
of justice. All over the world die authoriües of the state are restricted by
recognised agreement, called leges fundamentales, or by various not
admitted, nevertheless insuperable Hmits and necessities. In executing
their power the Russian autocrats are laced in by the high nobtlity, what
is more, the respect for the religious customs of their country keeps
them from arbitrariness. For the power of the Turkish sultan the lack of
restraint of the guards of the empire constitut.es narrow limits. The Inciian
Great Mogul is restrained by his own descendants who always find the
support of the peopie. To the true Safavid prince, elevated over all such
hindrances, everything is allowed unrestrictedly.2'1
2" Kaempfer, Amoenitates cxoticae: 4: 'Caput Imperii Persici Rex. est, qui ad
Dignilatis fastigium jure haereditatis provehiuir. Magnitudinem Ejus, cum vasta mole.s
territorii, tum vero immensse testantur felicitates, quibus Ille pras ceteris Asise
Principibus beatur. Harum ex cumulo, ut pnefari insigniores liceat, primain nomino
liherrimam atque absolutissimam Jurisdict ionern. Video Potentias universi Orbis,
alias explicitis circumscribi condicionibus, quas Leges fundamentales vocant; alias
intra definitos limites retineri tacilis quibusdam & insurperabilibus obstaculis atque
necessitatibus. Russorum Autocratorem hactenus auctoritas Optimatum strinxerat,
ab arbitrariis ausibus revocatum religiosa patrii moris observantiä. Turcorum
Sulthano \iceniia prxsidiarü militis sudem figit, nulloconsiliosuberabilem, Indorum
magnum Mogoletn propria compescit soboles, gravi armata subsidio faventis populi;
ut plura taceam. Sophorum verö Priucipi, sublatis impedimentis, abdicative omnia
permissa atque intergra sunt.'
Entfettert Kaempfer's Report on Persia # 235
One could see how Kaempfer compares the eastern states by concentrating on some fundamental structures. But this cornparison is
not restricted to Asia, it is extended to Europe äs well, without assuming an incomparability between Asiatic despotism and European
monarchy. For example Kaempfer teils us: The prevailing customs
at the Persian court are similar to those at ours, they only let shine
through the nature of their nation. By and large their character is
modest and calrn, much sedater than that of the Turks, who reveal
traces of the ferocious blood of their Tartar ancestors. '25 He composes
populär stereotypes about collective temperament through his own
observations about courtly customs, creating a conventional mixture
which could be found elsewhere in state descriptions, for example in
Samuel Pufendorfs Introduction to thehistory ofthe main European
empires and slates, published in 1682,-6 of which Kaempfer owned
the French edition. 27 This was one of the most successful historicalpolitical publications which saw several different editions in the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The conception of the work
differed from historiography in a real sense; rather it could be characterised äs a polüical handbook. Although every chapter gives a
history of the respective dynasty and its fates, it is systernatically
.followed by passages on national character, social structure, economy,
slate administration and the position ofthe state in ofthe grouping
of powers. Persia is not dealt with by Pufendorf, but Kaempfer
adapted his comparative mode and way of structuring.
Apart from PufendorPs handbook serving äs a model in a formal
sense, Kaempfer feil back on well-known instructions on the art of
travelling. 2 " Frorn the late sixteenth to the end of the eighteenth
^ Kaempfer, Antoenitates cxoticae: 146: "Mores aulicorum ut compendio perstringam, nostrarium eas persimiles ajo, ita tarnen, ut indofein sua? nationi.s retineant.
HsEcsane (indoles) modesta e.sf & mansueta, longeque Turcorum genio sedatior. in
quo prim;tvus Tartarorum sanguis feritaüis snae servat vestigia.'
20 Samuel Pufendorf, Einleitung zu der tiistorie der vornehmsten Reiche und
Staaten, so itziger Zcil in Europa sich befinden, Frankfurt, 1682. On tlie genre of
state descriptions .see Mohammed Ra.ssem and Justin Stagl (eds), Statistik und
Staatsbeschreibung in der Neuzeit vornehmlich im 16-—18. Jahrhundert, Paderborn,
I960; Mohammed Rassem and Justin Stagl (eds), Geschichte der Staatsbeschreibung;
Ausgewählte Quellentexte (1456-1813), Berlin, 1994.
p Samuel Freiherr von Pufendoif, Introduction ä t'histoire desprincipaux Etats
lelsqu 'ilssoni aujourd'hui dam l'Europe, traäuite de l'originalällemandde Samuel
Pufendorf, par Claude Kouxcl. Utrecht, 1087.
-^ Peter J. Brenner (ed.), Der Reisebericht: Die Entwicklung einer Gattung in der
deutschen Literatur, Frankfurt ;im Main, 1989; Justin Sragl, 'Die Apodemiken oder
236 * Stefan Braftensicfe
centuries, aprudentiaperegrinandio? arsapodemicahnddeveloped
äs an autonomous genre. Such works were seen äs a methodology
of social science, äs an Jnstruction for travellers on how to gain new
data. They always contained a systematic catalogue of questions and
other aids, a supply of all necessary tools to promote knowledge
about the world. These instructions were very ambitious: the observer
was expected to acquire an overview of the history of the country of
his travels, its geography, climate, agriculture, industry and commerce,
its political system including administration and jurisdiction, its erudition, religion and forms of public worship. He was advised to Start
with general observations and then proceed to regional and local
detail. Such an elaborate journey airaed for encydopaedic knowiedge, carrying with it the evident risk of getting lost in sheer empiricisrn without any systematic insight. Nevertheless these instructions
were very important because they propagated an innovative attitude
towards the travelled countries. The thoroughly informed scholar
was regarded äs being the ideal traveller. He had to obtain his knowledge not oniy by reading but also by direct observation or, if that
was not possible, through credible testimony. The instructions for
the art of traveüing normally recornmended keeping a diary that could
serve äs a mnemonic for the writing of a travel account or a state description at a later stage. Kaempfer acted exactly in this manner: his
diaries consisted of chronological and unsystematic notes, written in
a wild mixture of languages, provided with sketches of cities, landscapes, characters, musical instruments, plants and animals.29
But these findings do not provide any answerto the question how
Kaempfer came to form his political judgement. Fortunately it is
possible to reconstruct the other sources he used for his account on
Persia, because most of his unpublished works, including his diaries
"Reisekunst" als Methodik der SoziaIforschung vorn Humanismus bis zur Aufklärung1,
in Rassem and Stagl, Statistik und Staatsbeschreibung: 131-204; Justin Stagl, Klaus
Orda and Christel Kämpfer, Apodemiken, Eine räsonnierte Bibliographie der
reisetheoretischen Literatur des 16., 77- und 18. Jahrhunderts, Paderborn, 1983;
Justin Stagl, A History of Curiosity: The Theory of Travel 1550-1800, Chur, 1995;
Osterhamme!, Entzauberung Asiens: 157-64.
''; The diaries of Engelbert Kaempfer are published in an abridged and insuffident
version only. Karl Meier-Lemgo (ed.), Die Reisetagebücher Engeiben Kaempfers,
Wiesbaden, 1968. Sources for this publication: British Library, mss. Sloane 2910,
2912. 2920, 2923.
Engelbert Kaempfer's Report on Pcrsia » 237
and excerpts, have been handed down.30 Apart from this, we can
rely upon a printed catalogue containing the titles of 2,111 volumes
whtch made up the library of the Kaempfer farnily in the late eäghteenth Century. This catalogue allows us an insight into a library of
learned men, built by Kaempfer's father, himself, his brothers and
nephew in the course of about one Century. Different fields of interest
and phases of acquisition could be identified, äs well äs those titles
which in all likelihood belonged to Engelbert Kaempfer.31
One would have expected Kaempfer to have used some of the
famous relationi of the Venetian ambassadors, but no evidence of
this can be found. To prepare himself Kaempfer bought the brief
Grammatica Linguae Persicae written by the Carmelite Ignatius a
Jesu32 and the Vermehrte Newe Beschreibung der Muscowüischen
und Persischen Reyse by Adam Olearius, who had taken the same
route to Isfahan 50 years earlier. This work is famous among historians
of Russia for its colourful details. Kaempfer's diary shows that he
had a volume of Olearius' work with him, possibly to compare the
older account with his own observations.33
w For descriptions of Kaempfer's manuscripts with cornmentary see Gerhard Bonn,
'Der wissenschaftliche Nachlass des lippischen Forschungsreisenden Engeiben
Kaempfer im Britischen Museum', Lippische Mitteilungen aus Geschichte und
Landeskunde, vol. 48, 1979: 69-116; Beatrice Bodart-Bailey, Preliminary report on
the manuscripts of Engelbert Kaempfer in the British Library', in Yu-Ying Brown
(ed.), Japanese Studies, London, 1990: 22-39-11 Stadtarchiv Lemgo, A 989: Catalogus verschiedener rarer und auserlesener
Theologisch-Juristisch-Medicinisch-Philosophisch-Philologisch- und Historischer
Bücher welche den 25ten October 1773 und folgende Tage des Morgens um 9 Uhr
und des Nachmittags um 2 Uhr in Lemgo in der seel. Jungfer Kämpfern Behausung
an den Meistbietenden verkauft, jedoch ohne baare Bezahlung in Conventionsmünze
nicht verabfolget werden sollen. Lemgo (mit Meyerschen Schriften], 1773 (printed
catalogue with handwritten Supplements supplying information about buyers and
realised prices).
32 Ignatii Grammatica Linguae Persicae, Romae 166l (Stadtarchiv Lemgo, A 989:
Catalogus, Quart 171), that is Grammatica linguae persicae, auctore Patre Fratre
Ignatio a Jesu, Romae [Typis S- Congregationis de Propaganda fide), 166l. After
returning to Europe Kaempfer bought Josephi Gazophylacium Linguae Persarum,
Amst. 1684 (Stadtarchiv Lemgo, A 989-' Catalogus, Folio 66), that is Gazophylacium
Ungute Persarum, triplici linguarutn ctavi Italicae, Latinae, Gallicac, nee norr
specialibuspraeceptis ejusdem linguae reseratum, authoreReverendoadm. P. Angelo
a S.Joseph Carmelüa, Amstelodami, 1084.
•w The first edition of this travel account was published in 1647, Kaempfer used
Ihe second edition: Adam Olearius, Vermehrte Newe Beschreibung Der Muscowüischen und Persischen Reyse . . . Welche zum ändern mäh! heraus gibt Adam
Olearius . . ., Schleswig, 1656 (Reprint: Tübingen, 1971). This volume could noi be
238 * Stefan Brafcensicft
Befbre he left Stockholm, Kaempfer may have owned a copy of
the travel accounts of Pietro della Valle, a noble adventurer from
Rome who travelled to the Hast between 1015 and 1626. This publication describes the character of Shah Abbas the Great and his surroundings and provides information about trade and commerce of
the greater Persian towns. In the first place, della Valle's account
portrays the customs and morals of Persia. Kaempfer owned its Dutch
translation of 1666-M and his excerpts show that he used it to reconstruct the genealogy of the Persian dynasty. But for formation of his
political judgement this publication is irrelevant.35
More far-reaching in this respectfwas the influence of Raphael du
Mans. Since 1644 this Capuchin father had led the Catholic mission
in Isfahan. He died in 1696 after a stay of more than 50 years in the
Persian capital. His integrity and his knowledge of languages won
him a position of trust at the Persian court. In this way he gained
more substantiai information than any other European, information
which he obligingly placed at the disposal of travellers.36 Because of
such pursuits, the Capuchin mission resembled an embassy of the
proved äs being part of the estate of Engelbert Kaempfer, but his father, the parish
priest Johannes Kemper, bought a copy for the municipal library of Lemgo (MeierLemgo, Reisetagebüchcr. 11, note 10). The diaries show that Kaempfer had laken
a copy of Olearius' accounr with him on his journey through Russia and Persia.
Concerning the city of Qom he wrote: 'Olearius hat die Stadt nach dem Grundriß
abgestochen, ist aber so ähnlich, wie die Kuh der Windmühle.' (Olearius has
engraved The ground plan of The city, but it is similar like a cow to a windmill: 76.)
Most of Kaempfer's references to Olearius concern the Russian Situation, while he
prefers other sources in case of Persia. See also Frank Kämpfer, 'Engelbert Kaempfer's
"Diarium Itineris ad Aulam Muscoviticam indique Astracanum" und sein Verhältnis
Zur Moskowitischen und Persianischen Reise von Adam Olearius', in Haberland,
Kaempfer. Werk und Wirkung: 72-84.
31 Pietro della Valle, Beschryving der Reizsen, T'Arnterdam 1066 (Stadtarchiv
Lemgo, A 989: Catalogus, Quart 48), that is: Pietro della Vaile, De Volkome beschryving
der voortreffelijcke reizen van . . . Pietro della Valle, . . . in veel voorname gewesten
des werrelts sedert hei jaer 1615 tot in'l jaar 1626gedaan, uit zijn Schriften, aan
Mario Schipiano geschreven, door J.H. Glazemaker uertaalt, en in zes deelen
onderschciden, met 25 • • • kapere platen en een register verciert, Amsterdam, 1666.
35 Kaempfer's excerpts in British Library, ms. Sloane 2920, Collectanes de Rebus
Persicis (Excerpta ad Historiam Persicam), fol. 208-24.
fü Frands Richard, Raphael du Mans missionaire en Ferse au XVlf s., (Moyen
Orient & Ocean Indien XVF-XIX1' s., vol. 9), Paris, 1995, vol. I: Biographie. Correspondance: 7-134. All prominent European travellers of the !ate 17th Century were
furnished with information by Raphael du Mans, namely Jean-Baptiste Tavernier
(1664-65, 1667), Jean Thevenot (1664-65), Jean Chardin (1666-67, 1669, 1073),
John Fryer (1677) and Engelbert Kaempfer (1684-85).
Engelbert Kaempfer's Report on Persia * 239
French crown and its inquiry office. In l^öO Raphael du Mans wrote
a secret report L'estat de la Perse and sent it to Colbert.37 Although
this report was confidential, in 1684 Kaempfer received an abridged
version specially written for him. 3S
Tosome extent Kaempfer's political judgement of the Persian state
and society was moulded by Raphael du Mans. Some passages of
the AmoenitatQs exoticae paraphrase the latter's draft; for example,
his Statements on Islam, the meaning of courtly ceremonies, the educational System, the sciences, the Persian army, and the personnel of
the court. Still, during his stay at Bandar Abbas, Kaempfer had asked
Raphael du Mans for details to Supplement his report.19 This dependence brought with it the danger of being one-sided. Frustrated by
the futility of all attempts at proselytisation, the Capuchin father had
forrned a negative attitude towards the morality of the Persian courf
and the Persian people ingeneral. Itseemsas if Kaempfer was aware
of this since he did not follow du Mans in condemning Persia for the
lack of all public virtues.
The first handwritten draft of Kaempfer's report on Persia is lost.
Therefore we do not know how radical the reworking was, which
he carried out after his return to Germany. But it was evident that he
had used different reports written mainly by French travellers. Mention should be made here of Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, who travelled
to the Orient between 1631 and 1668. Tavernier too had gained enormously frorn the connections Raphael du Mans maintained with ehe
Persian court, and had rnanaged to get a private audience with Shah
Abbas II in 1665.40 Engelbert Kaempfer owned the Dutch translation
of Tavernier's travel accounts published in 1082.4l Whife these greatly
57 Richard, Raphael du Mans, Vol. II: 1-199 (Latin with French translation). First
published: Charles Schefer (ed.), Estale de la Perse en 1660 par le P. Raphael du
Mans, superieur de la mission des capuctns d'Isphahan, publie avec notes et
appendicepar Charles Schefer, Paris, 1890.
•w Richard, Raphael du Mans, vol. II: 280-381. British Library, ms. Stoane 2908
(Raphaelis du Mans descriptio Persiae, communicata Dno. Engelberto Kasmpfero.
Ispahana 1684. Cum Grammatica Lingua? TurcicasJ.
•w Detlef Haberland (ed.), Engelbert Kaempfer: Briefe 1683-1715, München, 2001:
No. 71 (245^6), No. 73 (250-52), No. 75 (260-62), No. 76 (263-64), No. 83 (299300); Richard, Raphael du Mans, vol. I: 287-307; British Library, ms. Sloane 3064,
fol. 4-11 v.
•'" Richard, Raphael du Mans, vol. 1: 62-66.
11 Tavernier zes Reizen, Tweede Deel, t'Amslerdam 1682 (Stadtarchiv Lemgo, A
989: Catalogus, Quart 170), that is Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, De zes reizen, die hy . .
240 * Stefan Bmkensiek.
influencedhisgeographical Statements, they wereoflittlesignificance
for bis political judgement. 42
Perhaps the most influential author for Kaempfer was Jean Chardin,
a Protestant jeweller frorn Paris, who travelled through Persia and
India between 1664 and 1077. He too had the information provided
by Raphael du Mans at bis disposal, but in many respects did not
follow the Capuchin. Kaempfer owned Chardin's report on the coronation of Shah Suleiman published in 1671 äs well äs the German
translation of his travel Journal of 1687,^ and he used both publications extensively.M These reports were very important in shaping
the Image of Persia and the Hast äs a whole in the niinds of eighteenth
Century French philosophers. Although Jean Chardin depicts a rnore
or less positive Impression of the Safavid monarchy, his writings were
used by Montesquieu to describe Asiatic despotism in the blackest
terms. 45 Corresponding to the chronology of their publications,
Kaempfer held an intermediate position between Chardin and
Montesquieu.
An example of this can be seen in the observation on the Shah's
harem. European observers were fascinated by it with the result that
gedaan heeft. Daar in van Turkijen, Persien, en 't Serrail gehandelt ward. Nieuwe
en naaukenrige beschryving van't serrail of hof van de turksche kaizer, Amsterdam,
1682.
"2 Kaempfer's excerpts in British Library, ms. Sioane 2920, fol. 118-33, fol. 41-45
(Errores Tavernierani).
11 Le Couronnenient de Soleimaan, Paris 1071 (Stadtarchiv Lemgo, A 989: Catalogus, Oktav 54), that isjean Chardin, Le Couronnement de Soleimaan troisieme,
Paris [par Calude Martin au palais, sur le Perron de la St. Chapelle], 1671. Chardin,
Persian- und Ostindische Reisebeschreibung. Leipzig 1687 (Stadtarchiv Lemgo, A
989: Catalogus, Quart 54), that is Jean Chardin, Des vortrefflichen Ritters Chardin
. . . Curieuse Persian- und Ost-indische Reise-Beschreibung. Bestehend in einem
ordentlichen Journal Oder Täglichen Verzeichnüß seiner in Persien und Ost-Indien
über das schwänze Meer und den Chotchidßm abgelegter Reisen/Erstlich vom Aufhöre
selbst in Frantzösischcr Sprach beschrieben, nachgehends in die Englische- anitzo
aber . . . m die Hochdeutsche übersetzet, Leipzig [Gleditsch], 1687.
** Kaempfer's excerpts in British Library, ms. Sioane 2920, fol. 172-207; fol. 225-26.
"* Osterhammel, Entzauberung Asiens: 275-84 ('Montesquieu reading Sir John
Chardin'); David Young, 'Montesquieu's View of Despotisrn and His Use of Travel
Literature', The Review of Politics, vol. 40, 1978: 392-405; Claudia Opitz, 'Der
aufgeklärte Harem: Kultuvergleich und Geschlechterbeziehungen in Montesquieus
Perserbriefen', Feministische Studien, vol. 9, 1991; 41-56, Claudia Opitz, 'Politik
und Geselligkeit der Geschlechter in Montesquieus Vom Geist der Gesetze (1748)',
in Ulrike Weckel et. al. (eds), Ordnung, Politik und Geselligkeit der Geschlechter im
l S. Jahrhundert, Götlingen, 1998: 25-40.
Etikettiert Kaempfer's Report on Persia » 241
nearly all reports gave detailed accounts of this Institution. 46 What
was told about the life of its occupants was surely not based on the
personal observations of the writers, but on unverifiabie reports and
fantasies. Kaempfer followed Chardin in his shrewd and witty argumentation. Both authors did not simply continue the Christian tradition's condemnation of polygamy; rather they established a link
between the royal harem and the political System: 'Very often the
Shah, with approval of his mother, seeks advice from eider eunuchs,
even in public affairs, and deliberates with this effeminate council.
Sornetimes it occurs that public resolutions of the council are overruled by the ideas and persuasions of the mother and the negroes."57
Chardin and Kaempfer, identifying similarities of such practices
with the customs at European courts, criticise this usage only gently.
But the harem, in their opinion, is really detrimental for the development of the future ruler: 'His lot is neither enhanced by an active
46 In this context again the Ottoman example provides the blueprint for European
discourse on Oriental customs. Firstly the seraglio of the Sublime Porte was ehe
subject of fantasies, particularly important. See Jean Baptiste Tavernier, Nouuelle
Relation de rinterieur du Serrail du Grand Seigneur. Contenarti plusieurs singularitez qui jusqu'icy n'ont fioint estes mises en lumiere. ParJ.B. Tavernier, Escuyer,
Baron d'Aubonne, Cologne [Corneille Egmon, & ces Associez], 1075. For a broacler
analysis compare the chapter Trauen' in Osterhammel, Entzauberung Asiens: 34974, and 'Gegenwelten' in Michael Harbsmeier, Wilde Völkerkunde: Andere Wellen
in deutschen Reiseberichten der Frühen Neuzeit, Frankfurt/New York, 1994: 123-69.
"7 Kaempfer, Amocnitates exoticcte: 206: 'Eunuchorum senili consilio, ac Matris
prsecipue assenssu, Rex in rebus agendis, etiam publicis, frequenter utitur, & qux
in regno molienda veniunt, cum häc effceminatä curiä deliberat. Aliquando Joris in
Senaculo conclusa, ad Matris & nigritarum ingenium & suasum, mutari accidit.'
Tavernier, The six traveis, vol. V: 221, 'When the King is young, the Prime Minister
has a hard game to play, for then the Favourite Eunuchs and Ehe Sultanesses disannul
and cancel in the night whatever orders he makes in the day time.' Chardin, Voyage,
vol. 5: 240: 'Ce qui fait le plus de peine aux ministers de Perse, c'est le serail, qui est
le palais des femmes, oü il se tient une maniere de conseil prive, qui !'empörte
d'ordinaire par-dessus tout, et qui donne la loi ä tout. 11 se tient entre la mere du roi,
les grands eunuques er les maitresses les plus habiles et les plus en faveur. Si l es
ministres ne savent bien accorder leurs conseüs avec les passions et les interets des
ces personnes cheries, et qui, par maniere de parier, possedent le roi plus cTheures
qu'eux ne le voient de momens; ils courent risque de voir leurs conseils rejetes, et
souvent tournes ä leur propre ruine.' And 340: 'Les grands-visirs de Perse ont une
excellente prerogative, c'est qu'on les fait mourir rarement, Lorsqu'ils tombent dans
!a disgräce du souverain, on les relegues en quelque ville, oü US achevent leurs jours;
mais cette charge est ä l'opposite fort difficile ä exercer, ä cause des secretes cabales
et des rraverses des courtisans, et particulierement des eunuques et des femmes du
serail, qui fort souvent detruisent en une nuit les plus fines trames du mini.stre."
242 + Stefan Bra&ensiek
education nor by instructed study nor by customary contact to celebrated men. All education is confined to the obscure women's chambers, to which apart frorn the son's no other glance is allowed to."*8
The permanent contact with women and eunuchs is saäd to make
the future Shah soft: 'Even his teacher, chosen out of the ranks of the
castrated slaves corresponding to the recommendation of the females,
is not only completely unable to instruct the future heir to the throne
in a manner that prepares him for his office, but introduces him to
the faith and sorne superstitious custorns, only/'19 Chardin and
Kaernpfer suspected that the future Shah would become intellectually
and physically stunted, intentionally deprived of all skills necessary
to reign?0 EarJy sexual experience and the consumption of opium
48 Kaempfer, Amoenitates exoticae: \~>: 'Hanc sortem nee industria educationis,
nee informationis S t u d i u m , nee cum viris illustribus consuetodo & convictus
corrigunt. Palaestra omnis, gymecei latebra est, extra quam Illi solem intueri non
permittitur.' Chardin, Vbyage, vol. 5: 246: 'Pensezmaintenant quelle capaciie et quelle
experience ces rois de Perse apportent au gouvernement de leur empire, n'ayant
jamaiseu occasion deformer leur jugement, ni d'apprendre le monde, elevtjs comme
il,1; le sont dans la sensualite, sans correction, et parmi une douzaine de femmes et
d'eunuques qui n'ont jamais vu que le serail oü ils sont enfermes.'
w Kaempfer, Amoenitates exoticae: 15: 'Ipse ephorus ex castrata mancipiorum
clds.se fceminarum suffragio deligitur, non qui manum & Ingenium Candidati ad
tractanda gubernacula, sed qui in religione & superstitionum notitiis solummodo
instruat.' Chardin, Voyage, vol. 5: 246: 'On peut juger de Ja si l'education qu'on lui
donne est digne de sä destinee. On apprend ä ces jeunes princes ä lire et ä ecrire les
prieres et !e catechisme. On leur apprend ä lirer de l'arc, et ä faire quelque cho,se de
la main: mais pour les sciences et les arts liberaux, i!s n'en apprennent que ce qui
regarde la religion, c'est-ä-dire, ce qui seit ä l'explication de l'Alcoran.'
w Kaempfer, Amoenitates exoticae: 18-19: 'Silent intereae de vitis & rebus gestis
Ülustrium virorum historias; exulat Juris Publici & Maximarum regiminis scientia;
omittuntur exercitia corporis, quibu.s agilitas membris & ingenio aiacritas inducenda
erat; negligunturnidimenta militaria.ceterasque rerum gravissirnarum notitias, quibus
imbui oportebat sacrum Imperii pignus, & ad pnesidium Reipublicas prscparari: quasi
Studio caveatur, ne Rex factus noverit, in ministronim invidiam, propria.s admovere
manus gubernaculo. vel etiam accenso rerum cognitione animo novos meditetur
ausus, & peregrina molimina occipiat, in perniciem Keipublicar. 1 Chardin, Vbyage,
vol. 5: 247 'Ces nouveaux monarque.s entrent dans Je monde comme tombes des
mies; et comme ils se trouvent malheureusement environnes aussitöf d'esclaves
fiatteurs qui les idolätrent, pour ainsi dire, en applaudissant ä toutes leurs actions.
quelqu'injusteset quelqu'extravagantesqu'elles puissent erre, il ne faul pass'etonner
s'ils vivent dereglement, et s'ils ,">e conduisent avec tant d'inegaliie, comme je l'ai
rapporte, Le plus grand mal est que ne connois.sam point le prix de la vertu et du
merite, ni le merite meme, ils n'y ont nul egard en donnant les emplois.' This judgenient ha« been taken forgranted by modern historiography, förexample Hans Roben
EmjeCöert Kaempfer's Report on Persiu * 243
would do the rest to keep him away form government business.' 1
This odious socialisation must have been stage-managed by the courtiers to prevent the heir to the throne frorn seizing the reins: these
practices served äs the basis for the power of the grand vizier and his
follöwing. 52
Even if Chardin and Kaempfer by no means intended to imply that
the Persians were of slavish character, they contributed to the concept
of Asiatic despotism by this neat connection established in their
thinking between the harem and political system. Anyway, their perspective of Fersian society was characterised by inconsistencies. They
Roemer, Persieii auf dem Weg in die Neuzeit: Iranische Geschichte von 1350-1750,
Stuttgart, 1989: 325-27; iäem, The Safavid Period', in Peter Jackson and Laurence
Lockhan (eds), Ttie Cambridge l-Iistoiy of Iran, vol. 6, Cambridge, 1986: 189-350,
esp. 305-7.
51 Kaempfer, Amoenitates exoticae: 19-20: 'Quid? Quod nondum pube.scenti
associentur uxores, quarum convictu ingenii scintiilas facile extinguuntur, & Übera
mens novitii amoris lenocinio, a virtute & magnarum rerum desideriis abrepta,
obsequio mancipatur corporis. Vix enim Venereum hoc delibavit poculum. cum
sangninis sui, & ad quanram spanam genitus sit, oblitus, omne Studium vitamque
perniciosas Veneri devovet. In hujus ille campis virilem aucupari gloriam allaborat,
&, ne inconatudefic'iat, in dies suppetias virium, quas tyroni natura non suppeditabat,
a medicis repetit. Has illi efficacissimas conficiunt ex capitibus Papaveris: cujus
succum inspissatum (Opium vocantj cuin mosco, ambrä & aromatis subactum, in
formä minutissimarum p i l u l a r u m exhibent. quarum subinde unicam Prim,ipi
deglutiendam suadent; . . . In foro Medicorum hoc pharmaci genus appellatur
remedium magnanimitatis. Remedium vero exitiosum & execrabiie! quippe cujus
virtus post paucas horas dissipata, pedissequam relinquit timiditatem & tri.stitiam;
longior vero usus enervato corpori Hippocraticam inducit maciem, debilitatem
sensuum, & torpeniis ad pra^clara omnia ingenii stupid i tatem.'
52 Kaempfer, Amoenitates exoticae: 23: 'His igitur Rex consiliis & occasionibus a
Reipubücae studio distractus, ad incuriam & ventris obsequium disponitur, segnius
imposterum publica, intentius ea curaturus, quas ad delicias & vana serviunt explenda
corporis desideria. Durn interea aciministratio Regni in Senatorum versatur manibus,
dirigenda ex arbitrio summi Prassulis, quem vocant AthemaadDaulßth, id est, fuicrum
& refugium Aula?, Hujus inquam oculis Rex, tanquam conspicillo Imperii scenam
conspicit, ingenio dirigit, consilio tuetur.' Chardin, Voyage, vol. ~>\0 '. . . le.s
souverains mahometans etant eleves dans des serail avec des femmes et des
eunuques, ils sont si peu capables de regner, qu'ii faul, pour !e bien des peuples et
pour la sürete de l'etat, qu'on mette quelqu'un sous eux pour gouverner en leur
place. Ainsi l'on peut dire que les rois en Perse, et dans le reste d'Orient. sont des
rois pour la montre. ei que leurs grands-visirs sont comme de vrais roi.s. pour avoir
soin desaffairs; et, comme ces rois de l'Orienr ne songent d'ordinairequ'aux plai.sir.s
des sens, il est d'autant plus necessaire qu'il y ait quelqu'un qui pense ä la conservation et ä la gloire de l'empire. Ce sont lä les principaies raisons du pouvoir
extreme des grand-visirs.'
244 # Stefan Bmfeensiefe
truly admired its religious tolerance and they were completely aware
of the greater personal freedom and better economic condition of
ordinary people in Persia äs compared to those in Europe. But they
were repelled by sorne aspects of the political System which came
into conflict wich their 'proper' concepts of honourand masculinity.
This may explain why such open-minded travellers äs Kaempfer and
Chardin reverted to Aristotelian concepts and, by doing so, unintentionally paved the way to orientalism.
Alain Grosrichard has dealt with this very subject in Freudian
terms—and his way of thinking is an interesting conceptualisation.53
He provides Solutions to the general problem of how to understand
what happens when you step frorn the observation to the explanation
of a phenomenon: you can approach this magic rnoment in terms of
imagination, like Lorraine Daston54 has done, you can use the Freudian
tools or you can speak about tradition like most historians would
prefer to do. However all these explanations remain unsatisfactory.
The crucial point where empirical cognition turns into knowledge
remains an empty place, that is necessarily filled with our own
imagination.
In recapitulating the findings about the sources, the structuring of
the material, the formal model for the account, and the conceptualisation pre-forming the political judgement, Kaempfer's Report on
Persia seems to be epigonic. But this does not get to the heart of the
matter. A comparison of the first book of the Amoenitates exoticae
with other contemporary publications shows that Kaempfer is familiär
with them and uses them. His report atternpts greater precision rather
than originality. Even if there have been errors in his reporting, most
of it has stood up to the critical counter-checks of actual research.55
But his political judgement, especially the correlation established
between socialisation of the future Shah in the harem and the political
System, rests upon weak plausibility. Even if he supplies a chapter
" Grosrichard, Stmcture du serail.
s" Lorraine Daston, Wunder, Beweise und Talsa-.i.-e: Zur Geschichte der
Rationatität, Frankfurt am Main, 2001.
" Bertold Spuler, 'Fremde Augen: Überlegungen zu Engelbert Kämpfers
Reisebeschreibung', Materialia Turcica, vols 7-6, 1981-82: 325-35; K. Röhrborn,
'Regierung und Verwaltung [rans unter den Safawiden', in Regierung und Verwaltung
des Vorderen, Orients in Islamischer Zeit (Handbuch der Orientalistik, vol. 1.6).
Leiden/Köln, 1979: 17-50; Roger M. Savory, 'The Safavid Administrative System', in
The Cambridge Histoty oflran, vol. 6: 351-72.
Etujetfert Kaempfer's Report on Pcrsia * 245
on the architecture of the harem based upon his own observation.s,
the praised judge by appeärances does not play any role in the formulation of a broader judgement. Therefore I suggest that Kaempfer
obtained evidence through communication with European experts—communication that provided him mernbership of the scientific
cornmunity.56
While examining the preconditions of political judgement, a
distinction must be made between ontological constants and specific
circumstances. As historians we are mainly interested in the specific
conditions of the investigated period—-but fundamental problems
should be mentioned. It is well known that there are epistemological
difficulties in ascertaining the interrelation between observation and
judgement. Each perception is at least tnfluenced if not guided by
conceptualisations. These can follow unconscious patterns, and in
the best case a person names his concepts explicitly. Poürical judgement normally does not work this way. Even if the criteria of scientific
production have been rnet, there can be an all too justified suspicion
that formal structuring or unconscious rnotivation have been of
decisive significance.
Alterity belongs to the ontological determinations of judgement;
the experience of the 'other' shapes and sharpens the perception of
the 'own'. The seventeenth Century reports on Persia show that all
occidental travellers evaluated the poiitical, economic, cultural and
religious situations abroad with those at home, and by doing so they
became convinced that there was a common definition of Europe.
The similarities of their daily life and the communication among Europeans in Isfahan surely reinforced this phenomenon: The differences
between French, German, Swedish and Dutch appeared marginal
compared to the cultural gap which opened up berween the European
and the Persian. This refers to a general problem of that time: occi
dential thinking at the end of the seventeenth Century required a
moral and political concept to dissociate the 'own' from the 'other'.
This need was all the more urgently feit äs Christendom's conceptualisation of seif had come to lose its unquestioned centrality
during the process of secularisation.
50 K. Elke Werger-Klein, 'Engelbert Kaempfer, Botanist at the VOC, in Haberland,
Kaempfer: Werk und Wirkung: 39-60; Detlef Haberland, 'Engelbert Katrmpfer und
die Respublica Litteraria', in Haberland, Engelbert Kaempfer: Briefe-. 59-96; LaurenctLockhart. 'European Contacts with Fer.sia', in Cambridge Histoiy of Iran, vol. 6:
373-ill, esp. 397-404.
246 » Stefan Brakensiek
But modes of communication among people of different origin
could not be understood by confining interaction only with one side.
Here, Kaempfer's work opens the rare opportunity of comparison:
the differences between his reports on Japan and on Persia could
only be explained by the pecularities in the respective attitudes of
the indigenous persons he met. Presumably these specifities refer to
cultural differences that shaped the encounter of Japanese and Europeans in contrast to that of Persians and Europeans in general. Whereas in Japan well educated translators waited for Dutch merchants,
specialised persons eager to understand their European counterparts,
the Situation in Persia was different. One gets the Impression that the
Persian sources of Kaempfer, rnainly courtiers, were very polite and
provided information about their country willingly, but without getting involved in close contact with a stranger.57 Surely, the Safavid
court was open for Europeans: ambassadors were welcome, new
technology, such äs clocks produced by European horologists, was
willingly adopted, Italian and Dutch painters were engaged to
decorate the palaces.58 But it does not look like the courtiers were
deepiy interested in the European experience. Their points of cultural
reference were mainly in the neighbourhood, at first the Indian and
the Ottoman empires, both belonging to the Islamic world even
though they followed a different denomination. What is more, for an
educated Persian, encounters with people from neighbouring countries were facilitated by the circumstance that Turkish was rhe court
language in Persia whereas Persian was spoken at the Mogul court
in India. If Europeans wanted to establish contact, they had to learri
one of these languages, and by doing this demonstrate their dependency. The restricted interest on the side of the Persian contemporaries,
together with the need of Europeans to experience alterity in order
to define their identity, may explain the limitations of mutual
understanding.
57 Kaempfer's Persian sources could be reconstructed by examining the
Amoenitates exoticae, his travei diaries, correspondence and album: Karl MeierLemgo, 'Das Stammbuch Engelbert Kämpfers', Lippische Mitteilungen aus Geschichte
und Landeskunde, vol. 21, 1952: 142-200, esp. 174-84.
58 Sybilla Schuster-Walser, Das Safawidische Persien im Spiegel Europäischer
Reiseberichte (1502-1722): Untersuchungen zur Wirtschafts- und Handelspolitik,
Baden-Baden/Hamburg, 1970: 49-55; Robert Hillenbrand, 'Safavid Architecture', in
The Cambridge History oflran, vol. 6: 759-842, esp. 840-42; HJ.J. Winter, 'Persian
Science in Safavid Times', in ibid.: 581-609; Basii Gray, 'The Arts in the Safavid
Period', in ibid.: 877-912. esp. 907-9.
Reprinted from
Medieval History Journal
Copyright © The Medieval History Society, New Delhi
All rights reserved
Published by
Sage Publications India Pvt Ltd
Post Box 4215
New Delhi 110 048, India