The Voyages and Travels of the Ambassadors

Episode 31: Home, and Execution

Our ambassadors arrive in the Russian city of Astrakhan on June 15, 1638, and stay until September 7. Bruggeman has a guilty conscience for his “many imprudent actions” during the journey. He also fears being punished by Duke Frederick upon returning to Holstein, a fear which causes him to make even more bad decisions. They leave Astrakhan on September 7, after being informed by some local rogue Cossacks that they have successfully robbed so many people on the river that they are eager to see if they can also rob the Germans. The Volga is beginning to freeze, and the three ships barely make Casan on November 6. The river is impassable the next morning, and the mayor of the city – who has a decidedly unfriendly view of the German trade mission – prohibits them from coming ashore. They reach Moscow on January 2, 1639, staying at the ordinary house appointed for the reception of ambassadors. Everyone is back at Duke Frederick’s home at Schloss Gottorp on August 1, 1639. Olearius writes: “And so they concluded their Travels into MUSCOVY, TARTARY, and PERSIA. FINIS.” This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit semipropilgrim.substack.com [https://semipropilgrim.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Episode 30: The Most Dangerous Place in Europe

It is the middle of April, 1638, and our German trade ministers are roughly two-thirds of the way through their 9,000-mile round-trip to Isfahan. They are stuck in the city of Tarku, on the coast of the Caspian Sea, which today bears the name of Makhachkala and is the capital of Russia’s Republic of Dagestan. They are stuck because independent warlords control every village, city, and river crossing in Dagestan, all of them have their own plans for robbing or killing the Germans, none of them want to let the other warlords get the upper hand, and none of them want to supply the Germans with the food they need to reach the Russian city of Astrakhan. All of this makes Tarku most dangerous place of the entire journey. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit semipropilgrim.substack.com [https://semipropilgrim.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Episode 29: Barbarians of Dagestan

Our ambassadors leave the city of Schamachie on March 30, 1638, keeping an eye out for highway robbers, and a week later arrive in Derbent. The coastline of Derbent is pure rock, and serves as the foundation of the city wall, which is so broad that a wagon easily be driven on top of it. The city is sometimes called the Gate of Persia, since it lies on the extreme northwestern edge of the empire, and its walls extends from the sea to the top of a nearby mountain. This long defensive wall is known as Dagh Bary, which literally means “Mountain Wall” from the Turkish word for mountain and the Persian word for wall. According to the Encyclopedia Iranica, it stretched “many kilometers” into the mountains and had numerous fortresses and towers of its own. It is also called Alexander’s Wall because legend has it that Alexander the Great built the wall to defend against the tribes of Gog and Magog to the north. An order comes down from the ambassadors that no one should tempt any citizen of Derbent to quarrel with them, lest the locals fall upon the whole company and murder them. Before leaving, the ambassadors take stock of their weapons, counting 52 muskets and firelocks, 19 cases of pistols, two brass cannons, and four murdering-pieces (the stone-firing cannons), all fit for service. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit semipropilgrim.substack.com [https://semipropilgrim.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Episode 28: The Sign of the Seven Stars

“Having travell’d two leagues, we were got to the Caspian Sea-side, whence we saw the Countrey, which is all cover’d with Trees and Forests towards the North and South, spreading itself like a Crescent a great way into the Sea, on the right hand, from about Mesanderan and Ferahath, and on the left, from about Astara. We travell’d about a league along the Caspian Sea-side, and lodg’d at night upon the Torrent Nasseru, in a house call’d Ruasseru-kura, which had but two Chambers in all, so that being streightned for room, most of our people were forc’d to lie abroad, at the sign of the Seven-Stars.” The date is February 1, 1638, and our ambassadors are roughing it on the coastal road of the Caspian Sea. That is, Secretary Olearius and the other gentlemen are sleeping in a two-room roadhouse while everyone else sleeps under the stars. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit semipropilgrim.substack.com [https://semipropilgrim.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Episode 27: Paradise and Punishment

Our ambassadors are in the northern Persian city of Caswin, about 50 miles from the Caspian Sea, and near their lodgings is a tree full of nails and ribbons. A saint who once performed miracles is buried under the tree, and a holy man at the site collects alms and offerings from people who come for healing from toothaches, fevers, and other diseases. The healing is not free, of course, and the alms collected by the holy man encourage impostors to set up shop at other trees where no saints are buried. The Germans leave Caswin on January 20, 1638. Fifteen miles to the west, they spend the night in the small town of Achibaba, which, we are told, was named after an old man who lived there in the time of Sheikh Sefi, the mystic Sufi master whose name was taken by the Safavid dynasty. Allah performed a miracle for the old man and his wife – who were then near 100 years old – by reviving what Olearius calls “the heat of younger years” and giving them a son. The modern name of the town is Aghababa, but some sources refer to it as Aqbaba. Aside from census data and weather reports, there is very little information about the town, but one nugget makes up for all that is missing. To find it, we have to travel forward in time to the year 1921. For in 1921, the little town of Aqbaba served as the launchpad for a mostly-bloodless coup by Col. Reza Shah Pahlavi and the Persian Cossack Brigade that ended the reign of the Qajar dynasty, which had ruled the country since 1785. Achibaba, Olearius tells us, is at “the foot of the mountain” – the mountain being part of the Alborz range between Caswin and the Caspian Sea – and the road passes through fruitful country where the people of Caswin graze their cows on plentiful, excellent good grass. On January 23, the road leads through a forest of olive trees to a narrow passage, anciently called the Fauces Hyrcaniae, that leads to Kilan province and thence to the Caspian. On the last day of January, the khan of Kurab greets the Germans with 100 horsemen, accompanies them to their lodgings, and sends them a gift of four wild boars. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit semipropilgrim.substack.com [https://semipropilgrim.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]