André Du Ryer was French vice-consul in Egypt from 1623 to 1626, and both as adviser and interpreter to the French ambassador in Istanbul and ambassador extraordinary of the sultan to France in the early 1630s, he assembled a fine collection of Turkish, Persian, and Arabic manuscripts most of which are now in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. After reconstructing his diplomatic career and his life after his return to France in 1633, the authors assess Du Ryer's contribution to Turkish and Persian studies, his translation of the Quran both in France and in the countries where it was translated (England, Holland, and Germany), and his manuscript collection. Du Ryer is presented in the historical context of French diplomatic relations with the Ottoman Empire and in the context both of contemporary European orientalism and of the development of French literature in the reign of Louis XIII and the minority of Louis XIV. He emerges as an important and influential figure whose significance has never previously been appreciated.
Andre Du Ryer was an important and influential seventeenth-century orientalist and diplomat. After reconstructing his diplomatic career, the authors assess Du Ryer's contribution to Turkish and Persian studies, his influential translation of the Quran, and his manuscript collection. He emerges as an important and influential figure whose significance has never previously been appreciated.
...this monumental work should be read by anyone seriously interested in learning about aspects of Islam and the West in the seventeenth century, which are so vividly brought to life here.
