Overview

A landmark of seventeenth-century travel writing—now available for the first time in a complete, fully annotated English translation. When the Roman nobleman Pietro della Valle set out for the East in 1614, he imagined a pilgrimage. What he produced instead was one of the most vivid and detailed portraits of Safavid Iran ever written. His letters from Isfahan, Shiraz, Farahabad, Qazvin, and Basra—part reportage, part ethnography, part personal confession—capture a world in the midst of transformation under Shah Abbas the Great. In these pages, della Valle records court ceremonials and bazaars, gardens and palaces, mineral lore and medical practices, and the daily life of Persians, Armenians, Turks, Kurds, and Indians. He writes with equal intimacy about politics and architecture, marriage customs and music, caravan life and commerce. His account of Isfahan—its Maydan, palaces, caravanserais, and tree-lined avenues—remains one of the greatest city descriptions of the early modern world. Despite the enormous popularity of Viaggi in the seventeenth century, no complete English translation has ever existed. Drawing on the authoritative two-volume 1843 Brighton edition, Willem Floor has translated and annotated every letter concerning Iran, including della Valle’s Baghdad letters and materials from Muscat and Basra when relevant. The result is a monumental work: over 1,100 pages of translated text—57 percent of the original Viaggi—presented with meticulous notes, modernized place and personal names, and a detailed index and bibliography. Elegant, intimate, and encyclopaedic, Travels in Persia, 1617 to 1622 of Pietro della Valle opens an unparalleled window onto Safavid Iran and stands as an indispensable source for historians, scholars, and general readers fascinated by the early modern Middle East.

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Pietro della Valle (1586–1652) was an Italian nobleman, traveller, and writer whose letters from the East rank among the most important travel accounts of the early modern period. Born in Rome into a distinguished aristocratic family, he was classically educated and active in the city’s literary and musical circles before embarking on a journey that would take him across the Ottoman Empire, Safavid Iran, and as far as India. Beginning in 1614, della Valle travelled through Constantinople, Egypt, the Holy Land, Syria, Mesopotamia, Persia, and India, recording with exceptional attentiveness the political life, religious practices, architecture, commerce, and everyday customs of the societies he encountered. His descriptions of Safavid Iran—especially Isfahan under Shah ʿAbbās the Great—remain among the most vivid and detailed eyewitness accounts of the period. During his travels he married the Assyrian Christian Sitti Maani Gioerida, whose death in Persia deeply shaped his later writings. After returning to Rome in 1626, he was honored by Pope Urban VIII and devoted the remainder of his life to scholarship and music, contributing both compositions and theoretical writings. Della Valle’s letters were published posthumously as the Viaggi, a work that combines autobiography, ethnography, and historical reportage. This English edition, Travels in Persia, 1617–1622, presents for the first time a complete translation of all his writings relating to Iran, offering modern readers direct access to one of the most perceptive European observers of Safavid society. Willem Floor studied development economics and non-western sociology, as well as Persian, Arabic and Islamology from 1963-67 at the University of Utrecht (the Netherlands). He received his doctoral degree from the University of Leiden in 1971. Since 1983, Dr. Floor was employed by the World Bank as an energy specialist. Throughout this time, he has published extensively on the socio-economic history of Iran. His books include: Public Health in Qajar Iran, Agriculture in Qajar Iran, and The History of Theater in Iran, as well as, The Persian Gulf: A Political and Economic History of 5 Port Cities, 1500-1730, its second volume, Persian Gulf: The Rise of the Gulf Arabs, 1747-1792, third volume, The Rise and Fall of Bandar-e Lengeh, the fourth volume, Bandar Abbas: The Natural Gateway of Southeast Iran, and the fifth volume, The Persian Gulf: Links with the Hinterland Bushehr, Borazjan, Kazerun, Banu Ka'b, & Bandar Abbas. He has also published, Travels Through Northern Persia, 1770-1774, Titles and Emoluments in Safavid Iran, and A Social History of Sexual Relations in Iran; Labor and Industry in Iran, 1850-1941; Guilds, Merchants and Ulama in 19th Century Iran; The Rise and Fall of Nader Shah; Games Persians Play. His translations include: Samuel Gottlieb Gmelin’s Travels Through Northern Persia 1770–1774 , and with Hasan Javadi, Abbas Qoli Aqa Bakikhanov’s The Heavenly Rose-Garden: A History of Shirvan & Daghestan; and Evliya Chelebi’s Travels in Iran and the Caucasus, 1647 and 1654. His most recent book, which he translated and annotated, is Astrakhan: Anno 1770, Its History, Geography, Population, Trade, Flora, Fauna and Fisheries by Samuel Gottlieb Gmelin.

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