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Description

Map illustrating the route of Adam Olearius to Persia and Dagestan in 1636, 1637 and 1638 and Mandelso's route from Ispaham to the Straits of Hormuz.

Map of the Olearius' route from Atracan at the mouth of the Volga River to Ispaham, as part of an embassy to negotiate a trade route for Persian Silk to Europe.

Adam Olearus was the Secretary on an official expedition from Holstein to Persia and Russia from 1635 to 1639, aimed at negotiating a new direct trade route for Persian silk. He spent time in Persia during the reign of the Safavid Shah Ṣafi (r. 1629-1642). His report and map are considered signifiant to the cartographic depition of Persia. He also provided the first unmediated translation of Saʿdi's Golestān into German.

After traveling to Russia and obtaining the initial consent of the Czar, the embassy set out for Persia in 1635. Taking the route through Moscow and following the Volga to Astrakhan, they entered Persia after crossing the Caspian Sea at Šamāḵ-i. There, the delegation had to wait for three months before they were allowed to proceed. Olearius used the time to acquire a basic knowledge of Persian and Arabic. Their route then took them from Ardabil, Qazvin, and Kāšān to Isfahan, the capital. After a stay of several months, the mission returned without concrete results by a similar route, this time passing through Rašt.

The inset map shows the route of Johann Albrecht von Mandeslos from Persia to the Straits of Hormuz. After traveling to Isfahan with a diplomatic mission, he separated from the party and made his way to India, where he made interesting observations on the Mughal Empire, then ruled by Shah Jahan. In 1638, Mandeslo visited the ruins at Persepolis in Persia. Arriving at the port of Surat in April 1638, he moved on to Ahmedabad and Agra. While his observations of life in the capital are useful, he apparently heard nothing about the Taj Mahal, then in its sixth year of construction. He then traveled to Lahore before continuing his journey through the empire's southern provinces and travelling on to the Far East. Mandeslo is an apparent engaging and cheerful writer, whose enthusiasm for indiscriminately shooting wildlife did not endear him to his Indian travelling companions.

Pierre Du Val Biography

Pierre Duval (1618-1683) was a French geographer, cartographer, and publisher who worked in Abbeville and Paris during the seventeenth century. He was born in the former city, in northeast France, before moving to Paris. Duval was the nephew of the famous cartographer Nicolas Sanson, from whom he learned the mapmaker's art and skills. Both men worked at the royal court, having followed the royal request for artists to relocate to Paris. In addition to numerous maps and atlases, Du Val's opus also includes geography texts. He held the title of geographe ordinaire du roi from 1650 and died in 1683, when his wife and daughters took over his business.