Iranian Studies in the Netherlands

Abstract

Up to the end of the Middle Ages, the opportunities to acquire information about the world of Islam were very few in the Low Countries. Moreover, the little knowledge which could be derived from books, from the participation in a crusade, or from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, did not reach much futher than the coasts of the Mediterranean. The Iranian hinterland of the countries inhabited by Saracens and Turks remained beyond the horizon of the Dutch, intellectually as well as in terms of actual experienceDirect contacts with Iran developed only in the early 17th century when, shortly after the establishment of an independent republic of the Netherlands, the “United Provinces,” Dutch trade began to expand to the four corners of the world. The first journey of a Dutch fleet to the East Indies and back was completed in 1597.