West meets East: sir Anthony Jenkinson's journeyto the Safavid empire

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to present a comprehensive study of Sir Anthony Jenkinson’s role in introducing the British a Safavid culture as a part of Eastern/Muslim world. The methodology of the research is based on the application of the principles of historicism, objectivity and comprehensiveness. In the research there have been used general scientific methods such as analysis, synthesis, comparison, and generalization. The scientific novelty of the article is that although there is a significant body of works on Safavid-English relations, this article represents the first attempt to study comprehensively Anthony Jenkinson’s role in introducing Safavid culture to the English. The Conclusion. The “Declaration…” of the journey to the Safavid Empire of a famous English traveller, mercer and diplomat Sir Anthony Jenkinson in 1561 – 1563, who was regarded as one of “the great pioneers of Elizabethan travel”, is a valuable source not only on the history and culture of the Safavid Empire, but also Safavid-English relations. Jenkinson’s “Declaration” is the first English attempt to describe Safavids’ diplomatic and military history, socio-economical, cultural, theological life, as well as lifestyle and even local mythology. The study of Jenkinson’s detailed description proves that England’s interaction with the Safavid Empire wasn’t English colonization, as the majority of Western and Soviet historians used to present mistakenly, but discovery by the English of a new, previously unknown Eastern/Islamic world, i.e. Safavid Empire. As the first Eastern/Muslim country that Elizabethan England sought to ally, Jenkinson’s “Declaration” of the Safavid Empire is one of the first mentions both in English and European contemporary sources about the religious distinction between Sunnis and Shiites. Jenkinson’s unique map of 1562 as the result of his journeys is the oldest and first visual representation of the Safavid Empire in English sources that contain ethnographic information. Jenkinson’s journey to the Safavid Empire in 1561 – 1563 opened a new chapter in the history of both Anglo-Islamic and East-West relations and cultural exchange on the basis of Islam-Christianity dialogue that revealed inadequacy of such Eurocentric concepts as predominance of Europe over the East, “cultural polarizing” of the continent, dispelled the myth of monolithic culture.