Document Type
Original Study
Subject Areas
History/ Archaeology
Abstract
As secretary of a Swedish delegation to the court of Shah Sulaimān, Engelbert Kaempfer (1651-1716) travelled through what is today Azərbaycan for 77 days. He stayed in Scha- machi/Şamaxı, the former capital of the Persian province of Šervān, for four weeks, including his visit to Bakı and the oil fields of Apsheron – this report (Lemgo 1712) is well known. Not so well known are details of his stay in Scha- machi; his diary and his liber amicorum (auto- graph book with five entries from Schamachi, in five languages; not shown before) give the names of seven or eight of his local or foreign contacts – clerics of different nominations, military men and diplomats from different nations. Identifications of his contacts and details of their lives can be found in Kaemp- fer‟s “Amoenitates” and the books by European and Persian travellers (Olearius[!], Chardin, Tavernier and Ibn Muḥammad Ibrāhim). All this shows Şamaxı as an important place of intercultural contacts. For ten years from 1683 to 1692 the German travelled through parts of Russia, Persia, India, Siam, Japan and South Africa. physician Engelbert Kaempfer (1651-1716)
How to Cite This Article
Weiss, Lothar
(2011)
"Schamachi/Şamaxı in 1683/1684 – Engelbert
Kaempfer’s intercultural contacts,"
Khazar Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences: Vol. 14:
Iss.
2, Article 7.
Available at:
https://kjhss.khazar.org/journal/vol14/iss2/7
Publication Date
2011