Don Juan of Persia

A Shi'ah Catholic 1560-1604

G. Le Strange, G. Le Strange, G. Le Strange

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781134284580
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Middle Eastern History
• Index: History

First published in 1926. Don Juan was a Persian Moslem who became a Spanish Roman Catholic. His description of Persia and his account of the wars waged by the Persians during the sixteenth century considerably add to modern day knowledge of the history of the period. The book describes the Safavi rule as first established, and the system of government set up in the prime of Sháh 'Abbás, as well as being an account of the long journey from Isfahán to Valladolid.
Guy Le Strange's comprehensive introduction places the book in its historical context, as well as providing important information on how the book was written. Many of the inaccuracies of the original text are corrected in translation with references and notes added to the index to guide the reader.

FIRST Book of the Account of Don Juan of Persia, in which the Provinces subje

to the Great Sophi of Persia are described, with the several peculiarities of these lands. Whereto also is added an account of the chronology of the Persian kings and rulers since the days of Nimrod.

CHAPTER I

[The Author, having become a Christian, proceeds to write a summary account of the History of Persia, and, later, to narrate the events of his voyage into Spain.—Of the errors in the works of Giovanni Botero and Thomas Minadoi.—The Author's travels may well rank with those of Marco Polo and Magellan.]

WELL may I begin quoting what the Apostle Paul sayth: Gratias ago Ei, qui me confortavit in Christo Jesu Domino nostro, qui fidelem me existimavit ponens in ministerio, qui prius blasphemus fui, et persecutor, et contumeliosus, sed misericordiam Dei consecutus sum, quia ignorans feci in incredulitate, et cetera. Blessed be the mercy of God, for that He can, from the by-ways, bring souls into His Church. And of a truth the Apostle also continues with these words following in the Epistle which he wrote to Timothy, saying: “I give thanks to Him who hath strengthened me, even to Christ Jesus our Lord, for that He hath counted me faithful: and He hath brought me out of the darkness of the false se

s of idolatry and Judaism, and taught me the true evangelical do

rine, arming me with the buckler of the faith, and giving me the inexpugnable fortress of the Catholic Do

rine.”—For this indeed is what is meant by the words of the Epistle: me confortavit in Christo Jesu. “For indeed aforetime I was a blasphemer and a persecutor of the Church, an evil-speaker, an unbeliever, and in fine an infidel. But God took me. Not because I was worthy, but because it so pleased Him, that in His most merciful intent, and by His divine providence, I might be accounted afterwards among the faithful, to make me a participator in the ineffable mystery of His most holy Passion. Thus I am now become His faithful servant, for I hold that the Divine Majesty in so deigning to grant me this supreme mercy, saw and pitied the crass ignorance in the which I had been hitherto overwhelmed, being born one of a false and faithless creed. So was it done, for all was by His divine mercy.”¹

Thus far we have been following Saint Paul, though of a certainty these are words many of which I must not take to myself, being so great a sinner, though some indeed of them after a fashion may be applicable to the Divine mercy shown in my case, I too having been called. For my parents and fore-bears were all misbelievers, and I myself grew up in this same state of misbelief, being of the false se

of Mahomed, and living in the country and under the rule of an infidel Prince, a country situate far distant, more than three thousand leagues from Spain, where I now write this Book in the city of Valladolid. But God indeed showed very singular mercy towards me, using me with all favour, in that I was chosen to be one of the Secretaries of the Embassy sent by the King of Persia to this kingdom of Spain; thus to make manifest in me the truth of the Gospel, even as in Divine Wisdom it is said: Quasi myrrha dedi suavitatem odoris, vel odorem suavitatis: the which is a sweet savour to my soul.

And this same allegorical interpretation we may apply in a pra

ical sense, for verily this is indeed the understanding of things which experience gives to a prudent man, and forsooth it is the sign which David sayeth is stamped upon all our foreheads. Thus to me was granted this sweet savour of the mode of life of Christian folk: and the effulgence of the Gospel Doctrine entering into me by this gate caused me, from the moment that I understood, to desire to strive faithfully to believe those dogmas which, though yet they may not be fully understood by me, are indeed necessary to orthodox belief: namely, the Mysteries of the Faith, So at last I came to desire, even as did Saint Peter, that I should be bathed in the water and dew of the Do

rine of Christ Jesus: non tantum manus et caput, but indeed my very soul in the waters of baptism. Of my conversion, however, and the manner thereof, I shall now not speak more fully, leaving this matter for later, where in its proper place I shall describe the same in detail.

Now the voyage we took from Persia into Spain was of a very great length, and was through most remote lands and by diverse seas, and the same was by a very different route from that which the Portuguese now take when they go to India, or to Ormuz, which same is on the borders of the Persian kingdom; and we saw many strange matters during our long voyage. Further, it is borne in on me that I be not slow in manifesting gratitude to God for the merciful kindness which He vouchsafed to me and to my two companions—an incomparable grace, and, by human effort, one never to be repaid—in that He caused us to become Christians. Thankfulness also is due for the great liberality shown to us at the august hands of his Most Catholic Majesty, who indeed has treated us, and daily does treat us, after a most noble and Christian fashion.

Therefore now I, who have studied somewhat in the Arabic and Turkish tongues, learning the principles too of the Alcoran, shall proceed to give to the Kingdoms of the West a description of all that our eyes have seen on this same journey, in order that here in Spain the Faithful, seeing what diversity of provinces and peoples the Demon still holds under his sway, in the first place may give due thanks to God for His singular and ever present mercy in having brought those of the Orthodox Faith, as we may say, into port, where they are subje

to the law of His divine grace; and in the second place, that they may in their prayers give due thanks, beseeching that it may please God to ordain the prompt conversion to Christianity of these infidel folk.

Further, it will not be found contrary to the general desire of our readers that we here describe carefully all the many provinces and diverse races of men whom we visited, carefully noting their various rites and ceremonies. At the same time, I do protest, and call on God to witness—who, as I well know, shall never be invoked for any untrue statement, quia Deus in cælo fidelis est—that we only now describe what we have a

ually ourselves seen in the course of our travels, without adding thereto for the sake of pleasing, or diminishing therefrom for the sake of displeasing, wherefore we say, quod vidimus testamur. Further, to conform to the canon of good custom in our writings, we shall begin this Book by the description of the kingdom of Persia, where we were born and from whence we set forth, and we shall do this making no special reference to the cosmographies of ancient days, on which same already so many authors have written. We shall give a succin

but exa

description of our country as it is at the present time, setting down the native Persian names, which may thus be compared and adjusted to those given by ancient and modern authorities who have written or shall in the future write from hearsay. For indeed in this matter I speak as an eye-witness, and therefore, if in the works of Thomas Minadoi or Giovanni Botero any diversity of names be found from what I shall here set down, the reader must know that mine are the real Persian names, as spoken in the native tongue of my country, while theirs are but mistaken versions, being, in fa

, misunderstood or wrongly pronounced words.

And to finish, I do not think there has been any voyage comparable to ours from Persia to Spain, since the travels published and described by Marco Polo the Venetian, and the recent record of discoveries attributed to the Infant of Portugal, [Prince Henry the Navigator,] and the circumnavigation of the globe made by the ship named Vi

oria;² and so I trust that my account which follows may be found acceptable.

CHAPTER II

The description of Persia, and of the provinces subje

thereunto.

ACCORDING to Strabo, Persia is the country lying south of Parthia and Carmania, between the provinces of Media on the west and Hircania on the east, having—if we are to believe Peter Apianus¹—Arabia to the south of the same. But Giovanni Botero, in his book, justly remarks² that Ancient Persia is in fa

solely the province which is now known as Fars, or Fársistán, whose frontiers lie at the rivers Sirto and Iesdri, and the same extends from the borders of Carmania, now called Kirmán, to the borders of Media, now known as Hamadán,³ these frontiers standing at a distance of more than 400 leagues one from the other.

The principal metropolitan city and the capital of Fárs is Shíráz, which stands on the banks of the river Band-i-Amir.⁴ This city was in ancient days called Persepolis, the same that was burnt down by Alexander the Great, and its population is to-day little less than it was then, seeing that within its present walls the inhabitants number 70,000 householders⁵ [31,500 souls]. Now Josaphat Barbaro gives Shíráz a circuit of 20 miles; but I, who frequently have walked about this city and so to speak measured it, am of opinion that in its extreme length and breadth—including the orchards and gardens, for there is no house here but has its own garden—the circumference of Shíráz may be set down at four Castilian leagues. The city has much commerce by reason that all the merchandise from Zagatay [or Tartary] to India has to pass through this town, it being the custom-house or land-port for those parts. To Fárs or Fársistán also belong the distri

s of Lur [otherwise Luristán]; and included in Lur is the province of Susiana, whose chief town is Shustar, lying on the river Saymarah; and the climate here is so hot that the people, in the height of the dog-days, put themselves in water up to their necks, in order the more comfortably to pass the heat of the day.

To the north of the province of Fárs, as already said, lies Parthia, which at the present time is the province of Persian ‘Iráq, the capital of which is the city of Isfahán, where the kings of Persia now hold their court, and from the which city we set forth on our journey to Spain. Isfahán is at present so populous that they call it the city of Nisf-i-Jahán, which in the Persian tongue signifies Half-the-World; but reduced to a

ual count its population may number 80,000 householders [or 360,000 souls], more rather than less. The concourse of men here is notable, and may be realized by the number of hostels that stand at the entrance gates of the city, upwards of 600 in number, and called here caravanserais. There are also 300 bath-houses which they call Hammáms. The country round and about Isfahán lies low, being somewhat swampy, and from the exceeding dampness not very healthy. The city lies on the banks of a river, which is known as the Zandarud. Within its walls 10,000 shops of merchants are to be found, shops both of clothes-stuffs and of supplies for vi

uals, these shops being called the Bazaar. And from its very origin its star had made Isfahán to be the King's Court, for, as we learn from Strabo, this is the ancient Hecatompy-los—which means the City of a Hundred Gates. At the present day Isfahán still counts a hundred very notable buildings, namely, at least that number of towers rising up above the private houses of the city, These are watch-towers, and they are so lofty that, besides beautifying the appearance of the town by their stru

ure, you may overlook the country round from their windows to a distance of more than six leagues. The greatest of all these towers is the one that stands in the Royal Stables; and its summit is built up of an extraordinary material, for it is formed of .30,000 skulls of deer and harts which were all killed in the battue of a day's spo...