This article reflects on a diverse set of materials that constitute a part of South Asian xenology in the early modern period. Partly derived from South India, and partly from the northern Indian core of the Mughal empire, these materials deal with the problem of the ‘Franks’, namely the Europeans—whether seen in the context of Asia or of Europe. Initially the Europeans appear as strange, wondrous and also largely untrustworthy interlocutors in the Indian Ocean. Then, with the passage of time, an image of Europe itself emerges, which is finally sealed in the later eighteenth century with the first travel accounts by Indians to Europe. However, these images are part and parcel of a more general xenological and geographical understanding of the areas that neighbour South Asia, and should hence be analysed as such.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Alam , Muzaffar & Sanjay Subrahmanyam . ‘Letters from a Sinking Sultan’, in Luís Filipe F.R. Thomaz, ed., Aquém e Além da Taprobana: Estudos Luso-Orientais à Memória de Jean Aubin e Denys Lombard,Lisbon,2002, 239– 69 .
2.
Alam , Muzaffar & Sanjay Subrahmanyam . ‘Witnessing Transition: Views on the End of the Akbari Dispensation’, in K.N. Panikkar, Terence J. Byres and Utsa Patnaik, eds, The Making of History: Essays presented to Irfan Habib,New Delhi,2000, 104– 40 .
3.
Alexander, J.E . Shigurf namah-i-velaët: Or excellent intelligence concerning Europe; being the travels of Mirza Itesa Modeen, translated from the original Persian manuscripts into Hindostanee, with an English version and notes,London,1827.
4.
Alves , Jorge M. dos Santos & Pierre-Yves Manguin . O ‘Roteiro das Cousas do Achem’ de D. João Ribeiro Gaio: Um olhar português sobre o Norte de Samatra em finais do século XVI,Lisbon,1997.
5.
Bacqué-Grammont , Jean-Louis , trans. La première histoire de France en turc ottoman: Chroniques des pādichāhs de France, 1572,Paris,1997.
6.
Bayley, E.C . The Local Muhammadan Dynasties: Gujarat,London,1886.
7.
Berthier , Pierre . La bataille de l’Oued El-Makhazen dite bataille des Trois Rois (4 août 1578),Paris,1985.
8.
Cathanar Thomman Paremmakkal . The Varthamanappusthakam: An Account of the history of the Malabar Church between the Years 1773 and 1786 (…) [and] the journey from Malabar to Rome via Lisbon and back (…), trans. Placid J. Podipara, Rome,1971.
9.
Céard , Jean . La Nature et les prodiges: L’insolite au XVIe siècle,2nd edition, Geneva,1996.
10.
Chakrabarty , Dipesh . Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference,Delhi,2001.
11.
Chatterjee , Partha , ‘Five Hundred Years of Fear and Love’,Economic and Political Weekly,33(22–30 May), 1998, 1330– 36 .
12.
Cole , Juan R.I . ‘Invisible Occidentalism: Eighteenth-Century Indo-Persian Constructions of the West’,Iranian Studies,25(3–4), 1992, 3– 16 .
13.
Daston , Lorraine & Katharine Park . Wonders and the Order of Nature 1150–1750,New York,1998..
14.
De Silva , Chandra Richard . ‘Beyond the Cape: The Portuguese Encounter with the peoples of South Asia’, in Stuart B. Schwartz, ed., Implicit Understandings: Observing, Reporting, and Reflecting on the Encounters between Europeans and Other Peoples in the Early Modern Era,New York,1994, 295– 322 .
15.
Digby , Simon . ‘An eighteenth century narrative of a journey from Bengal to England: Munshi Ismā‘īl’s New History’, in Christopher Shackle, ed., Urdu and Muslim South Asia: Studies in Honour of Ralph Russell,Delhi,1991, 49– 65 .
16.
Digby , Simon . ‘Beyond the Ocean: Perceptions of Overseas in Indo-Persian Sources of the Mughal Period’,Studies in History, n.s., 14(2), 1999, 247– 59 .
17.
Digby , Simon . Wonder-Tales of South Asia,Jersey,2000.
18.
Elison , George . Deus destroyed: The image of Christianity in early modern Japan,Cambridge, Mass.,1973.
19.
Elliot, H.M . & J. Dowson . The History of India as Told by Its Own Historians: The Muhammadan Period,VI. 8 vols, London,1867–77.
20.
Estenssoro-Fuchs , Juan Carlos , ‘Les pouvoirs de la parole. La prédication au Pérou: de l’évangélisation à l’utopie’,Annales HSS,51(6), 1996, 1225– 58 .
21.
Fisher , Michael H . Counterflows to Colonialism: Indian Travellers and Settlers in Britain 1600–1857,New Delhi,2004.
22.
Fisher , Michael H . The First Indian Author in English: Dean Mahomed (1759–1851) in India, Ireland and England, Delhi,1996.
23.
Foster , William, ed., The Embassy of Sir Thomas Roe to India, 1615–1619,London,1926.
24.
Galland , Julien-Claude . Le Paradis des infidèles: Un ambassadeur ottoman en France sous la Régence, ed. Gilles Veinstein, Paris,1981.
25.
Gernet , Jacques . Chine et christianisme: La première confrontation,Paris,1991.
26.
Goodrich , Thomas D . The Ottoman Turks and the New World: A Study of ‘Tarih-i Hind-i Garbi’ and Sixteenth-Century Ottoman Americana,Wiesbaden,1990.
27.
Gruzinski , Serge . The Mestizo Mind: The Intellectual Dynamics of Colonization and Globalization, trans. Deke Dusinberre, New York,2002.
Keene , Donald . The Japanese Discovery of Europe, 1720–1830,2nd edn, Stanford,1969 (1st edn 1952).
30.
Khan , Gulfishan . Indian Muslim Perceptions of the West During the Eighteenth Century,Karachi,1998.
31.
Khwaja ‘Abd al-Karim ibn Khwaja ‘Aqibat Mahmud Kashmiri (Shahristani). Bayān-i Wāqi‘: A Biography of Nādir Shāh Afshār and the Travels of the Author, ed. K.B. Nasim, Lahore,1970.
32.
Kuppers , Laura Lunger & Joan B. Landes , eds, Monstrous Bodies/Political Monstrosities in Early Modern Europe,Ithaca (NY),2004.
33.
Le Guillou , Jean-Yves . Le voyage au-delà des trois mers d’Afanasij Nikitin (1466–1472),Québec,1978.
34.
Lieberman , Victor B . Burmese Administrative Cycles: Anarchy and Conquest, c. 1580–1760,Princeton,1984.
35.
Lopes , David , ed. and trans. História dos Portugueses no Malabar por Zinadím: Manuscripto árabe do século XVI,Lisbon,1898.
36.
Matar , Nabil . In the Lands of the Christians: Arabic Travel-Writing in the Seventeenth Century,New York and London,2003.
37.
Matthee , Rudi . ‘Between Aloofness and Fascination: Safavid Views of the West’,Iranian Studies,31(2), 1998, 219– 46 .
38.
Matthew Ulakamthara, ed., Varttamānappustakam, athavā Rommayātrā,Kottayam,1983.
39.
Mirza Abu Talib Khan Isfahani . Masīr-i Tālibī fī bilād-i afranjī, ed. Mirza Husain ‘Ali and Mir Qudrat ‘Ali, Calcutta,1812.
40.
Mirza Sheikh I‘tesamuddin . The Wonders of Vilayet: Being the Memoir, originally in Persian, of a visit to France and Britain in 1765,trans. Kaiser Haq, Leeds,2001.
41.
Morali Seyyid Ali Efendi & Seyyid Abdürrahim Muhibb Efendi . Deux Ottomans à Paris sous le Directoire et l’Empire: Relations d’ambassade, trans. Stéphane Yerasimos, Paris,1998.
Narayana Rao , Velcheru , David Shulman & Sanjay Subrahmanyam , Symbols of Substance: Court and State in Nayaka-period Tamilnadu,Delhi,1992.
44.
Osman Agha de Temechvar . Prisonnier des Infidèles: Un soldat dans l’Empire des Habsbourg, trans. Frédéric Hitzel,Paris,1998.
45.
Pearson, M.N . Merchants and Rulers in Gujarat: The Response to the Portuguese in the Sixteenth Century,Berkeley,1976.
46.
Porcher , Marie-Claude . Un poème satirique sanskrit: La Viśvagunādarśacampū de Venkatādhvarin,Pondicherry,1972.
47.
Proust , Jacques . L’Europe au prisme du Japon, XVIe–XVIIIe siècle,Paris,1997.
48.
Qaisar , Ahsan Jan . The Indian Response to European Technology and Culture AD 1498–1707,Delhi,1982.
49.
Ravenstein, E.G . A Journal of the First Voyage of Vasco da Gama, 1497–1499,London,1898.
50.
Raychaudhuri , Tapan . Europe Reconsidered: Perceptions of the West in Nineteenth-Century Bengal,Delhi,1988.
51.
Raychaudhuri , Tapan . ‘Europe in India’s Xenology: The Nineteenth-Century Record ’, Past and Present,137, 1992, 156– 82 .
52.
Reid , Anthony . Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce, 1450–1680: Volume One, The Land Below the Winds,New Haven,1988.
53.
Roberts , Michael , ‘A Tale of Resistance: The Story of the Arrival of the Portuguese in Sri Lanka’,Ethnos,54(1–2), 1989, 69– 82 .
54.
Schurhammer , Georg . ‘The Malabar Church and Rome before the coming of the Portuguese: Joseph the Indian’s Testimony’, in Schurhammer, ed., Gesammelte Studien: Orientalia,László Szilas, Rome,1963, 351– 63 .
55.
Schurhammer , Georg . ‘Three Letters of Mar Jacob’, in Schurhammer, ed., Gesammelte Studien: Orientalia,László Szilas, Rome,1963, 333– 49 .
56.
Serjeant , Robert Bertram . The Portuguese off the South Arabian Coast: Hadrami Chronicles,Oxford,1963.
57.
Silva Rego , António da ed., Documentação para a história das missões do padroado português do Oriente: Índia, Vol. XII, Lisbon,1958.
Sousa , Lisa & Kevin Terraciano . ‘The “Original Conquest” of Oaxaca: Nahua and Mixtec Accounts of the Spanish Conquest’,Ethnohistory,50(2), 2003, 349– 401 .
60.
Spence , Jonathan D . The Question of Hu,New York,1988.
61.
Stewart , Charles , trans. The Travels of Mirza Abu Talib Khan in Asia, Africa and Europe during the Years 1799–1803, 2 vols, London,1810.
62.
Subrahmanyam , Sanjay . ‘“Through the looking glass”: Some comments on Asian views of the Portuguese in Asia, 1500–1700’, in Artur Teodoro de Matos and Luís Filipe F. Reis Thomaz, eds, As Relações entre a Índia Portuguesa, a Ásia do Sueste e o Extremo Oriente: Actas do VI Seminário Internacional de História Indo-Portuguesa,Macau/Lisbon,1993, 377– 403 .
63.
Subrahmanyam , Sanjay . ‘Dom Frei Aleixo de Meneses (1559–1617) et l’échec des tentatives d’indigénisation du christianisme en Inde’,Archives de Sciences Sociales des Religions,1031998, 21– 42 .
64.
Subrahmanyam , Sanjay . ‘Frank Submissions: The Company and the Mughals between Sir Thomas Roe and Sir William Norris’, in H.V. Bowen, Margarette Lincoln and Nigel Rigby, eds, The Worlds of the East India Company,Woodbridge,2002, 69– 96 .
65.
Subrahmanyam , Sanjay . ‘The circulation of musical instruments in the Indian world, 1500–1800’,Oriente2, 2002, 76– 83 .
66.
Terry , Edward . A Voyage to East India,London,1655.
67.
Thackston , Wheeler M. , trans. The Jahangirnama: Memoirs of Jahangir, Emperor of India,New York,1999.
68.
Thomaz , Luís Filipe . ‘Os Frangues na Terra de Malaca’, in Francisco Contente Domingues and Luís Filipe Barreto, eds, A Abertura do Mundo: Estudos de História dos Descobrimentos Europeus,II, Lisbon,1987, 209– 17 .
69.
Unat , Faik Reşit . Osmanlï Sefirleri ve Sefaretnâmeleri,Ankara,1968.
70.
Valensi , Lucette . Fables de la mémoire: La glorieuse bataille des trois rois,Paris,1992.
71.
Wachtel , Nathan . The Vision of the Vanquished: The Spanish Conquest of Peru through Indian Eyes, 1530–1570, trans. Ben and Siân Reynolds, Hassocks,1977.
