Jean Chardin

Sir Jean Chardin (* November 26, 1643 in Paris, † January 26, 1713 in London) was a French explorer who traveled to the Middle East in particular. His parents were Huguenots ( Protestants ): Jean Chardin, a jeweler on the Place Dauphine in Paris and a shareholder of the French East India Company, and his wife Jenny Ghiselin. He was married to Esther de Lardinière Peigne, daughter of an alderman in Rouen, who moved to London with him.

Life and work

As the son of a jeweler, he had enjoyed an excellent education and also learned his father's profession. So he was able to the age of 21 in 1664 with a merchant from Lyon via Turkey, the Black Sea (Crimea ) and Armenia travel to Persia. In Isfahan he enjoyed the favor of Shah Abbas II, who gave him an order for the production of a piece of jewelery. When he then died in 1666, was Chardin witness the coronation of his son Shah Safi II, who appointed him to the court jeweler and gem dealers. During the period of his stay Persie Chardin traveled twice the ruins of Persepolis and also took a trip to India. 1670 he went to six years back with a rich collection of Earth and archeology to France. He published in 1671 a report on the coronation festivities. In Paris, however, he faced many persecutions suspended because he was Protestant faith. This prompted him to go for the second time to Asia. In 1673 he reached Isfahan, where he remained several years. From there, he again traveled to India, before he finally returned in 1677 via the Cape of Good Hope with new collections to Europe, where he in 1681 settled with his family in London. King Charles II knighted in 1681 hit him and sent him as an agent of the English East India Company in Holland.

Chardin was elected on the proposal of Sir Christopher Wren in 1682 as a member ( "Fellow" ) to the Royal Society, however, ruled out again on 22 July 1685 because he had not paid his contribution. He died on January 26, 1713 in Turnham Green, Middlesex, near London. He was buried in the Church in Chiswick Middlesex.

Works

• Voyages en Perse et aux Indes orientales. (London, 1686). This issue was so remarkable that they are already a year later in a German translation appeared (Leipzig, 1687 )

His entire travel appeared in 10 volumes in 1711 "Journal du voyage du chevalier Chardin ". Chardin gives a detailed and objective description of the Persian society based on serious research and his knowledge of the language and literature. He still enjoys a reputation as one of the best -informed European observers in Persia at the time of the Safavids.