Against All Odds

Abstract

Attempts at diplomatic outreach encouraged France’s connection to Persia in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The descriptions of the French embassy to Persia between 1706 and 1708 reveal the challenges that the ambassador, Pierre-Victor Michel, faced navigating Persian political factions and dealing with a French rival, a woman named Marie Petit. Michel’s memoirs outline his efforts to find common tools of negotiation between France and Persia. For Michel, the Safavid government paralleled French monarchy, and he was able to find shared notions upon which he and his Persian hosts managed to draft a treaty concerning commercial and religious affairs.