Abstract
Russia and the Caucasus Through the Eyes of a Western Orientalist
In the 17th and 18th centuries, Russia together with Peter the Great, being caught by winds of change, strived for a place in the changing world order and economy. A Dutch traveler and painter Cornelis de Bruijn presented a very significant data about this changes that he witnessed and Russia’s economic, historical, cultural and sociological view in that period in his work, in two tomes named “Travels into Muscovy, Persia, and Part of the East-Indies” which he wrote after his travels started in1701 and ended in 1709 through Russia, Iran and East India. Basically, the aim of our study is to present how Russia’s and Caucasia’s social, cultural and economic activities which were, in the mentioned years, greatly different from the Bruiin’s culture environment, were shaped and interpreted in the mind of a Western Orientalist Bruijn.<
Keywords
Cornelis de Bruijn, Travel book, Orientalist, Russia, Caucasus.
