8vo. 422 pp., [1], half title, illustrations, tables, publisher’s original wrappers, biblio, annex, index, preface by Nikita Elisseeff, previous owner’s small stamp on title page, spine faded, otherwise copy clean inside & in very good condition, from the Histoire et Perspectives Mediterraneennes Series, Editions L’Harmattan, Paris, first edition, 1988.

Synopsis

Yvelise Bernard’s thesis examines the stories of eighteen French travellers of the sixteenth century who travelled to the East for various purposes. The author relies on detailed narratives, not only shares the reactions of travellers, but also traces, as emphasized by Ellisseeff in the preface, an image of the Muslim society of the time as she perceives it through its sources. In the second part, the author devotes a chapter on Mohammed and the Muslim religion. Then she focuses on the Sultan and how he manages his society, which comes in the form of a structured state, religious, police, which was
at its peak under Soliman the Magnificent (1520-1566) and experienced a first decline under Selim II (1566-1574) with the defeat of Lepanto (1571).
[Robert Santucci, Histoire d’outre-mer, t. LXXVIII (1991), No 292].