© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2009 DOI: 10.1163/138537809X12498721974660 Journal of Early Modern History 13 (2009) 173-207 brill.nl/jemh Immediacy, Mediation, and Media in Early Modern Catholic and Protestant Representations of Safavid Iran 1 Sonja Brentjes Seville Abstract In this paper I argue that none of the sources produced by European visitors to Safavid Iran are unmediated, immediate expressions of observations, experiences, emotions and descriptions of the country’s nature and culture. I offer as evidence different kinds of tex- tual sources created by four travelers in the early seventeenth century, maps of Iran pro- duced in various European cities and prints and engravings made by artists. I show that partly contradictory discourses governed these textual and visual representations of Iran and that particularities of each kind shaped the practices and norms of the creation of its individual representatives. Keywords Representation, discourse, Safavid Iran, maps, travel accounts, images, Catholic and Protestant Europe A.D. 1628. he benefit, my Lord, which a Prince receiveth by his Ambassador unto any other King or State, consisteth not altogether in effecting the business for which he was sent (a thing not always in his power) but in learning thereby the nature, qual- ity condition and strength of that Prince or State unto whom he sendeth. My Lord died before he could accomplish his embassy . . . . Yet notwithstanding, his Majesty . . . shall reap, I hope, this benefit by my poor relation, to understand some part of the nature of the Persian; what small hold he can have of their word, in all treaties with them; how good cheap hereafter he may entertain an Ambassador sent from Persia; and those gentlemen, whomsoever it shall hereafter please his Majesty to send unto 1 I speak of Catholic and Protestant representations only, not about those compiled by Orthodox Christian, Jewish and Muslim European travelers to western Asia of whom only a few also visited Safavid Iran. I say Catholic and Protestant rather than European Christian because I refuse to participate in the widespread practice of silent omission of non-Catholic and non-Protestant populations of Europe from European history.