Exotic Pleasures (Persia and Asia observations)

...certainly complete. I am pleased to exhaust the variety of the material I encountered through a short series of Reports; for this method is particularly suited to the commentaries of Travelers and is more delightful for those who read them.

The most absolute power.

The head of the Persian Empire is the King, who is elevated to the height of his Dignity by hereditary right. Both the vast mass of his territory and the immense blessings with which he is favored above the other Princes of Asia testify to his greatness. From this heap of blessings, if I may first speak of the more notable ones, I name as the first his most free and absolute Jurisdiction. I see the Powers of the whole world: some are circumscribed by explicit conditions, which they call "Fundamental Laws"; others are kept within defined limits by certain silent and insurmountable obstacles and necessities. The authority of the nobility had hitherto constrained the Autocrat of the Russians Referring to the Tsars; Kaempfer likely refers to the power of the Boyars which limited earlier Russian monarchs, who was recalled from arbitrary whims by the religious observance of ancestral custom. For the Sultan of the Turks, the license of the garrisoned soldiers The Janissaries, who often staged revolts to influence Ottoman policy. poses a barrier original: "sudem figit," literally "fixes a stake," meaning a sharp obstacle or check. that cannot be overcome by any strategy. The Great Mughal of the Indians is restrained by his own offspring, armed with the heavy support of a favoring people; not to mention more. But for the Prince of the Sophis The Safavid dynasty of Persia (1501–1736)., all obstacles having been removed, all things are permitted and unimpaired in an absolute sense: whether he wishes to forge treaties, wars, or peace; if he wishes to change the Laws of the Kingdom, or devise new types of taxes; indeed, he may extend his hand even to the lives, wives, children, and any goods of private citizens. No legal protection is left to the citizens, even the highest nobles, by which they might deflect either the lust of a degenerating Power from their fortunes, or its violence from their necks.

Innate holiness.

A second blessing is constituted by a certain venerable Holiness; not the kind we believe is divinely granted to all Majesty, but one innate to the person of the Ruler. For he is said to obtain this from Muhammad, the founder of the high priest's chair, derived successively through descending degrees The Safavids claimed legitimacy through descent from the Seventh Imam, Musa al-Kadhim, and ultimately from the Prophet Muhammad.. Since this might indeed seem doubtful, and cannot be thrust upon our belief without proof, behold the solemn [argument] of the Persians, which from the mouth of...