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In 1770, Astrakhan, on the left bank of the Volga River close to
where it discharges into the Caspian Sea, was Russia's most
important southern port through which all its trade with Iran and
the Orient was conducted. Astrakhan had been a Tatar city until
1556 (when Ivan the Terrible conquered it), a fact reflected in the
composition of its population in 1770: Tatars, Russians, Armenians,
and Iranians. Samuel Gottlieb Gmelin, a young member of the Russian
Academy of Sciences, lived for almost a year in the city in 1770
and left a very detailed account of its geography, history, people,
economy, flora, and fauna. Gmelin first describes the model colony
of Sarepta established, by special agreement with the Russian
government, by the German Moravian Brothers in 1765. Then he moves
his narrative to Astrakhan, the Russian outpost on the Caspian Sea
and provides us with a detailed description of its history,
including that of Stenko Razin's 1672 rebellion that devastated the
port and its people. Gmelin takes us on an extensive tour of the
city and provides us detailed plans and panoramas of the city,
which was also important for its fisheries and salt works. All
these economic activities are described in great detail, as are the
flora and fauna of the city's environs. Gmelin's descriptions of
these activities are embellished with exquisite drawings that show
the people, their activities, the plants, and the animals. The
descriptions of the city, its people and their activities are so
vivid and given in such detail that the reader will literally be
taken back in time and place. Willem Floor has published numerous
works of history as well as translations, which include: volumes 3
and 4 of Samuel Gottlieb Gmelin's Travels Through Northern Persia
1770-1774; as well as Mirza Naqi Nasiri's Titles and Emoluments in
Safavid Iran: A Third Manual of Safavid Administration. He has also
translated, in collaboration with Hasan Javadi, The Heavenly
Rose-Garden: A History of Shirvan & Daghestan by Abbas Qoli Aqa
Bakikhanov; and Evlya Chelebi's Travels in Iran and the Caucasus,
1652 and 1655.
In 1770 the young German scientist and explorer Samuel Gottlieb
Gmelin embarked on a journey on behalf of the Russian Academy of
Sciences and in the service of Catherine the Great. These
heretofore little-read accounts of his travels and broad research
in Northern Persia, first published in German in St. Petersburg in
the 1770's, have now been translated for the first time into
English by renowned scholar Willem Floor. In the two voyages
recounted in this volume, Gmelin kept journals describing the
customs, industry, political world, warfare, geography, and plant
and animal life of Northern Persia, until his capture and
imprisonment in the village of Parakay near the Caspian Sea in
1774--a misfortune that he also was able to record, and which is
included here in the final volume of his travelogue.
This Book Is In German. Due to the very old age and scarcity of
this book, many of the pages may be hard to read due to the
blurring of the original text.
Continent Tabulas Aeri Incisas LXVII. This Book Is In Latin.
This Book Is In German. Due to the very old age and scarcity of
this book, many of the pages may be hard to read due to the
blurring of the original text.
Continent Tabulas Aeri Incisas LXVII. This Book Is In Latin.
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