Labels

An Armenian Merchant from Poland Visits Safavid Persia | Michael Polczynski

48. Sefer Muratowicz

The early modern era was a period of tremendous fluidity in terms of borders of identities. In this podcast, we discuss the life and times of Sefer Muratowicz, an Armenian merchant born in Ottoman Anatolia during the late sixteenth century who settled in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and became an envoy to the Safavid Shah in Persia through his role as a merchant. Sefer left an account of his visit, which our guest Michael Polczynski has translated and analyzed. The account provides information about Sefer's journey as well as his diplomatic and mercantile activities, painting a picture in the process of some aspects of travel, diplomacy, and perhaps even espionage in borderlands regions during the early modern period.



Michael Połczyński is a PhD student studying Ottoman and Polish history at Georgetown University (see academia.edu)

Chris Gratien is a PhD student at Georgetown University studying the history of the modern Middle East (see academia.edu)
Fatih Çalışır is a PhD student at Georgetown University studying early modern Ottoman history (see academia.edu)


Select Bibliography


Juan, and G. Le Strange. Don Juan of Persia : A Shi'ah Catholic 1560-1604. London; New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2005.


Matthee, Rudolph P. The Politics of Trade in Safavid Iran : Silk for Silver, 1600-1730. Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999.



Muratowicz, Sefer, Józef Epifani Minasowicz, and Wawrzyniec Mitzler de Kolof. Relacya Sefera Muratowicza Obywatela Warszawskiego Od Zygmunta III Krola Polskiego Dla Sprawowania Rzeczy Wysłanego do Persyi w Roku 1602. W Warszawie: w Drukarni J. K. Mci y Rzpltey Mitzlerowskiey, 1777.



Nadel-Golobič, Eleonora. "Armenians and Jews in Medieval Lvov : Their Role in Oriental Trade, 1400-1600." Cahiers du monde russe et soviétique.


Szuppe, Maria. 1986. “Un marchand du roi de Pologne en Perse, 1601–1602.” Moyen Orient & Ocean Indien, XVI-XIX siecles 3: 81–110.


Sherley, Anthony. Sir Antony Sherley: His Relation of His Travels into Persia. London: Printed for N. Butter, and I. Bagset, 1900.
Labels:

Comments

Sebouh Aslanian said…
Thank you for this informative discussion, which I will listen to closer in coming days. In the meantime, you might want to include the following important study to your otherwise fine bibliography:

Szuppe, Maria. 1986. “Un marchand du roi de Pologne en Perse, 1601–1602.” Moyen Orient & Ocean Indien, XVI-XIX siecles 3: 81–110.

My book, From the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean also has background information and brief mention of Muratowics' journey based on Szuppe's study.

Sebouh D. Aslanian
5/3/12 21:10

Post a Comment

Due to an overwhelming amount of spam, we no longer read comments submitted to the blog.

Ottoman History Podcast is a noncommerical website intended for educational use. Anyone is welcome to use and reproduce our content with proper attribution under the terms of noncommercial fair use within the classroom setting or on other educational websites. All third-party content is used either with express permission or under the terms of fair use. Our page and podcasts contain no advertising and our website receives no revenue. All donations received are used solely for the purposes of covering our expenses. Unauthorized commercial use of our material is strictly prohibited, as it violates not only our noncommercial commitment but also the rights of third-party content owners.

We make efforts to completely cite all secondary sources employed in the making of our episodes and properly attribute third-party content such as images from the web. If you feel that your material has been improperly used or incorrectly attributed on our site, please do not hesitate to contact us.