Everything about Jean De Th Venot totally explained
Jean de Thévenot (
June 16,
1633 –
November 28,
1667) was a
French traveller in the East, who wrote extensively about his journeys. He was also a
linguist,
natural scientist and
botanist. He was born in
Paris and received his education in the
Collège de Navarre. He was a nephew of
Melchisédech Thévenot.
Thévenot conceived a desire to travel from reading other travel writing, and his wealth allowed him to fulfill this desire. Leaving France in
1652, he first visited
England, the
Netherlands,
Germany and
Italy, and at
Rome he fell in with
D'Herbelot, who invited him to be his companion in a projected voyage to the
Levant. D'Herbelot was detained by private affairs, but Thévenot sailed from Rome in May
1655, and, after vainly waiting five months at
Malta, took passage for
Constantinople alone.
He remained in Constantinople until the following August, and then proceeded to
Smyrna, the
Greek islands, and finally to Egypt, landing at
Alexandria on New Year's Day,
1657. He stayed for a year in
Egypt, then visited
Sinai, and, upon returning to
Cairo, joined the
Lent pilgrim caravan to
Jerusalem. He visited the chief places of
pilgrimage in
Palestine, and, after being twice taken by
corsairs, got back to
Damietta by sea, and was again in Cairo in time to view the opening of the canal on the rise of the
Nile (
August 14,
1658).
In January
1659 he sailed from Alexandria in an English ship, visiting
Goletta and
Tunis on the way, and, after a sharp engagement with Spanish corsairs, one of which fell a prize to the English merchantman, reached
Leghorn on
April 12. He now spent four years at home in studies useful to a traveller, and in November
1663 again sailed for the East, calling at Alexandria and landing at
Sidon, whence he proceeded by land to
Damascus,
Aleppo, and then through
Mesopotamia to
Mosul,
Baghdad and
Mendeli.
Here he entered
Persia (
August 27,
1664), proceeding by
Kermanshah and
Hamadan to
Isfahan, where he spent five months (October 1664 - February 1665), and then joining company with the merchant
Tavernier, proceeded by
Shiraz and
Lar to
Bander-Abbasi, in the hope of finding a passage to
India. This was difficult, because of the opposition of the Dutch, and though Tavernier was able to proceed, Thévenot found it prudent to return to Shiraz. Having visited the ruins of
Persepolis, he made his way to
Basra and sailed for India on
November 6 1665, in the ship "Hopewell," arriving at the port of
Surat on
January 10,
1666.
He was in
India for thirteen months, and crossed the country by
Golconda to
Masulipatam, returning overland to Surat, from which he sailed to Bander-Abbasi and went up to Shiraz. He passed the summer of
1667 at
Isfahan, disabled by an accidental
pistol-shot; and in October started for
Tabriz, but died on the way at
Miyana on the
November 28,
1667.
Thévenot was an accomplished
polyglot, skilled in
Turkish,
Arabic and
Persian, and a curious and diligent observer. He was also well skilled in
natural sciences, especially in
botany, for which he made large collections in
India. His personal character was admirable, and his writings are still esteemed, though it has been justly observed that, unlike
John Chardin, he saw only the outside of Eastern life.
The account of his first journey was published at Paris in
1665; it forms the first part of his collected
Voyages. The licence is dated December
1663, and the preface shows that Thévenot himself arranged it for publication before leaving on his second voyage. The second and third parts were posthumously published from his journals in
1674 and
1684 (all
quarto). A collected edition appeared at Paris in
1689, and a second in duodecimo at Amsterdam in
1727 (5 vols.). There is an acceptable English translation by A. Lovell (
folio, London,
1687).
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