Jean de Thévenot (1633-1667) was born in France. He travelled to England, the Netherlands, Germany and Italy when he was twenty years old. While in Rome, he met B. d’Herbelot de Molainville, who asked Thévenot to accompany him on his journey to the East. Finally, D'Herbelot was unable to travel and Thévenot left on his own in May 1655. After a five-month wait in Malta he sailed out to Istanbul, where he stayed until August 1656.

Afterwards, Thévenot visited Smyrna, Chios and other Greek islands in a space of five months and reached Alexandria on New Year's Eve of 1657. He stayed in Egypt for a year, visited Cairo and the Sinai Peninsula, and made the pilgrimage to the Holy Land. In January 1659 he sailed out from Alexandria, reached Livorno by way of Tunis, and finally returned to Paris in 1659 with a vast collection of plants. Thévenot introduced coffee grains to Paris, a few years after a French merchant had brought them to Marseilles.

After publishing the first part of his chronicle, Thévenot left again in 1663, to visit India by way of Syria and Mesopotamia. He toured the empire of Persia for several months, travelling for some time in the company of French merchant J.B. Tavernier (Hamadan, Kermanshah, Shiraz, Persepolis, Isfahan and Basora). He then crossed to India, where he stayed for eleven months. He died in 1667 at the age of thirty-four on his way to Tauris, before the complete edition of his travel account could be published.

Thévenot was a fluent speaker of Turkish, Arabic and Persian. Eager for knowledge and keenly observant as well as a fanatic of botany, he composed an original description of everyday life in the East, a pioneering text considered equal to Spon's work on systematic archaeological research, The first part of Thevenot's travel impressions was published in Paris in 1665. The second and third part were published posthumously in 1674 and 1684. A complete edition was released in Paris in 1689 and another one, illustrated with splendid copper engravings, was printed in Amsterdam in 1727. Thevenot did not possess a special education and did not travel on a mission. He was rather an honest and ingenuous traveller, who wished to relate what had already been said hundreds of times in the most simple and immediate way.

Written by Ioli Vingopoulou

• 

  View of the catacombs of Alexandria.

• 

  Water fountain in the open sea, a natural phenomenon common around the tropics. Thevenot claims to have witnessed this natural phenomenon, which he actually describes as a typhoon, while traveling in India.

• 

  Encoded script in the Malayalam alphabet, Brahmic script of India.

• 

  Portrait of the author. Dressed in traditional costume of the East, Thevenot indicates the regions he visited on the map.

• 

  Title page.

• 

  Title page of the first part of the book.

• 

  Plants and fruits of bushes from the Isfahan region, in Iran.

• 

  Persian mausoleum in Çehel-minar, close to Şiraz (Iran).

• 

  Title page of the third part of the book.

• 

  The Malayalam alphabet, Brahmic script of India.

• 

  Frontispiece with themes related to the author's journey.

• 

  Title page of the first volume of the edition.

• 

  Portrait of author Jean de Thevenot in oriental costume.

• 

  Fountain at the remains of church near the sea walls of Topkapi palace in Istanbul. According to the author, the Greek Orthodox of Istanbul would come to the fountain on the feast of the Transfiguration. Several of them would bury themselves in the sand and then drink from the holy fountain, thus realizing a symbolic transfiguration.

• 

  Scene at a bath, Istanbul.

• 

  Leisure scene at the streets of Istanbul during the Bayram feast.

• 

  Muslim funeral in Istanbul.

• 

  Festivities at the port of Istanbul, to celebrate the construction of a new ship.

• 

  Scene from the Janissaries' revolt against Grand Vizier Ibsir Pasha in 1655. The Sultan receives the Janissaries' claims; at the same the dead body of the Chief Eunuch of the Harem is surrendered to the insurgents through the palace window.

• 

  Procession accompanying the Sultan from Topkapi Palace to the mosque.

• 

  Scene from the siege of Rhodes, 1522.

• 

  Title page of the second volume of the edition.

• 

  The author's travelling companions study a mummy at a pyramid of Memphis in Egypt.

• 

  The Nilometer, square cistern with a marble column, used to measure the levels o the Nile in Egypt.

• 

  The author travelling in Egypt on a camel. In the foreground, Arab companions of the author give alimony to a man in need.

• 

  Reception of a caravan comprised of officials on a pilgrimage at a convent in Jerusalem.

• 

  The interior of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem: a priest distributes the Holy Fire.

• 

  Privateers attacking a ship.

• 

  The Bey (Ottoman official) of Upper Egypt , enters in Cairo.

• 

  Ways in which captives are tortured in Egypt.

• 

  The author's ship is attacked by three privateer ship outside Tunis.

• 

  Title page of the third volume of the edition.

• 

  Preparation of wine at Rosetta, Egypt.

• 

  The fountain at the courtyard of Sinan Pasha mosque in Damascus.

• 

  Water cisterns in Kteifa, town at the outskirts of Damascus. According to the author the cisterns provided water to the inn of the city and were also used as water troughs for domestic animals.

• 

  Preparation of wine at Aleppo, Syria.

• 

  Soldiers and guilds parade during the festivities which customarily took place when an Ottoman prince was born. The author had occasion to watch such a parade during his stay in Aleppo.

• 

  The lunar eclipse which the author watched during his stay at Mosul. In the foreground a mullah explains to a Western European, possibly the author himself, the high importance of this phaenomenon to Muslims.

• 

  A raft crosses Tigres river at Mosul, Irak.

• 

  Game of Persian cricket at a public square in Isfahan, as watched by the author.

• 

  Preparation of lime for construction purposes, Persia.

• 

  A prisoner is executed by torture on the orders of Shah Abbas in Persia. On the right, a Portuguese merchant turns his head away from the horrendous sight.

• 

  Prisoners executed by torture in Persia. On the left, a woman is killed after the executioner has placed a rabid cat under her clothes. At the centre, prisoner tortured with hot irons.

• 

  Leaves, stems and flowers of small bushes from Isfahan area.

• 

  Title page of the fourth volume of the edition.

• 

  Rock-cut Persian mausoleum at Çehel-minar near Şiraz, southwestern Iran.

• 

  Pearl fishing outside Bahrein at the Persian gulf.

• 

  Ruy Freire de Andrade, 17th-century Portuguese naval commander and colonist, throws into a boiling cauldron the new-born baby of a family native to the Persian gulf islands.

• 

  Title page of the fifth volume of the edition.

• 

  The mausoleum of Muslim saint Shah Alam in Ahmedabad, India.

• 

  Preparation of palm wine, known as tari in Hindi and as tadi to British colonists, out of coconuts.

• 

  Celebration at the streets of Visapur, India, for the wedding of the daughter of the local governor.

• 

  Local costumes of Agra, India.

• 

  Woman bandit on the route from Agra to Delhi.

• 

  Carriage typically used by affluent merchants of India.

• 

  Celebration of the feast of Huli in Kabul. The feast, a remnant of pagan cults, lasted the two days of the full moon of February. On the second day, the inhabitants of Kabul would gather at the central square and destroy a gigantic effigy made especially for this festivity. The feast closed as a child, symbol of the new-born god, shot his arrows at the giant's heart.

• 

  Death of an Indian fakir on the shores of Ganges river.

• 

  Acrobats performing on the street at the city of Amer, India.

• 

  A woman is thrown into her husband's funeral pyre, India.

• 

  Characters of the Malayalam alphabet.

• 

  View of the mausoleums of Qutb Shahi dynasty at Golkonda, India.