Masashi Haneda. « Les compagnies des Indes orientales et les interprètes de Bandar ‘Abbās », in : Michele Bernardini, Masashi Haneda and Maria Szuppe, eds., Eurasian Studies [Liber Amicorum. Études sur l’Iran médiéval et moderne offertes à Jean Calmard]. Vol. V/1-2, 2006, pp. 175-193.
Full text
1[Cet article est la version française du précédent (n° 186), publié en japonais à Tokyo].
2In October 1728, Pieter ‘tLam, the director of the Dutch VOC at Bandar ‘Abbās signed an agreement with the garrison of Hormoz which granted the Dutch (from their own point of view) the possession of the whole island including the fortress, and two months later, before the Dutch could move their factory to the island, the same ‘tLam was arrested by the new Afghan governor of Bandar ‘Abbās, together with two other Dutch officials. A rescue attempt by the Dutch caused the murder of two hostages (the third had died earlier on of deprivations and mistreatment). A peaceful solution of the “affaire d’Hormuz” was eventually brought about by negotiations which required the presence of an interpreter and translator, namely, that of the English factory at Bandar ‘Abbās. The Author focuses on this translator and his role as mediator in the episode (pp. 185-190): such men certainly played a great role in the life of the European trading companies in Persia, but the Author’s general conclusion that they “font bien moins figure de professionnels de la traduction que d’éminences grises impliquées dans les négociations politiques et diplomatiques” (p. 190) is not warranted by the evidence he presents. In the last part of the article (pp. 191-193), the Author makes a brief comparison between the interpreters at Bandar ‘Abbās during the Safavid period and those at Nagasaki during the Edo period: he reaches the conclusion that the two groups had virtually nothing in common. He also acknowledges the great differences existing among the ports and societies located between Japan and the Persian Gulf (“Inde, Sud-Est asiatique et Chine”, p. 193), which mark the farthest limits reached by the European East India Companies to the East and to the West, and he wonders what the status of the interpreters may have been in those ports and societies. The question is certainly interesting and deserves to be further investigated, but one should also add Isfahan and the Ottoman Empire to the list of the possible terms of comparison.
References
Electronic reference
Giorgio Rota, “Masashi Haneda. « Les compagnies des Indes orientales et les interprètes de Bandar ‘Abbās », in : Michele Bernardini, Masashi Haneda and Maria Szuppe, eds., Eurasian Studies [Liber Amicorum. Études sur l’Iran médiéval et moderne offertes à Jean Calmard]. Vol. V/1-2, 2006, pp. 175-193.”, Abstracta Iranica [Online], Volume 29 | 2008, document 187, Online since 15 September 2008, connection on 14 June 2025. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/abstractairanica/28422; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/abstractairanica.28422
Top of pageCopyright
The text only may be used under licence CC BY-SA 4.0. All other elements (illustrations, imported files) are “All rights reserved”, unless otherwise stated.
Top of page