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A Man of Two Worlds - Pedros Bedik in Iran, 1670-1675 (Paperback, Original Paper ed.)
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A Man of Two Worlds - Pedros Bedik in Iran, 1670-1675 (Paperback, Original Paper ed.)
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Throughout history, many an ambitious diplomatic initiative has
slipped into obscurity, but few have been so thoroughly forgotten
as the efforts of a young man named Pedros Bedik to foster an
alliance between two great seventeenth century powers, Persia and
the Holy Roman Empire, against the mighty Ottoman Empire that lay
between them. As a related enterprise, he worked to end the
separation between the Western and Eastern versions of
Christianity. In 1678, he published a book written in Latin, with a
Persian introduction intended to explain the East to the West and
thus further those aims. Never reprinted or translated, it has
remained virtually unknown until now. Bedik was raised in an
Armenian, Christian community in Ottoman-ruled Aleppo. At the age
of 16, he was sent to Rome by his mother to avoid forced conversion
to Islam. For seven years he attended a missionary college there,
but his theological education abruptly ended in 1668 when he was
expelled for carousing. Soon after, he left Rome in the company of
the archbishop of Nakhchivan, in present-day Azerbaijan. En route
the two agreed to launch a project to unite the Armenian Church
with that of Rome. Bedik wanted to use this plan as leverage to get
European Roman Catholic support for the protection of Armenian
Christians. From Armenia Bedik travelled to Iran and spent 5 years
there. In his book, which is mostly about his time in there, he is
aggressively Christian and scathing about Islam, but not about Iran
and Iranians. And he goes to great pains to show that the Shah was
more than willing to enter into a pact with the Pope and the
Christian princes of Europe to jointly attack the Turks from all
sides. The value of this long-forgotten book lies in Bedik s
talents as a knowledgeable, linguistically-skilled and keen-eyed
observer, although a highly partisan one. Its pages contain
fascinating descriptions of the court, customs, and people of Iran,
including such unique information as the ash-e su memorial banquet
ceremony; the abbasiyaneh drinking custom; how Persians threw a
party and their cooking; the Nowruz ceremonies; the various breeds
of horses; the race of messengers, and the Caspian Kalmyk nomadic
tribe s annual oath to the Russian tsar. Bedik eventually returned
to Europe, entered the Holy Roman Emperor s service as diplomat and
soldier, and was made a count. In 1683, he was appointed ambassador
and sent to Iran to discuss joint military action against the
Ottomans and to seek better treatment for Iran s Christians. En
route, after discussions in Warsaw, he disappeared in Russia. In
this book, his vital and adventurous spirit lives again.
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