Catholic Converts Abandoned by Louis XIV

Bibliographic Data

ID8940666
AuthorsJunko Thérèse Takeda (corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume47
Issue4
Pages571-590
Publication date2024-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueFrench Historical Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0016-1071 • E-ISSN: 1527-5493
PublisherDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1215/00161071-11284387
OpenAlexW4404790686
LanguageEN
References cited20

In the first decade of the eighteenth century, two converts to Catholicism from Western Asia sought Louis XIV's patronage. One was Vakhtang VI, a crypto-Catholic Georgian regent imprisoned by Persia's Soltan Hosayn. He hoped to secure his release with the French king's help and establish himself as a political and religious ally in the Caucuses. The other was Avétik, an Armenian Orthodox patriarch from the Ottoman Empire imprisoned at the Bastille. He abjured Orthodoxy and became a Catholic priest in Paris. Ethnic and religious minorities from the Safavid and Ottoman Empires, Vakhtang VI and Avétik relied on conversion to forge partnerships with French representatives. They failed. This article explains why the French king snubbed these prominent converts from the Islamic world while unifying France under the banner of religious uniformity and projecting himself as the world's preeminent Catholic ruler. It centers the lives, voices, and writings of traditionally overlooked minorities who shaped French diplomatic conversations with Islamic empires from the margins and who remained particularly vulnerable to imperial violence. It also shows how including ethnic minorities in studies of France's engagement with the Safavids and Ottomans complicates our understanding of France's relationships with Islamic empires in the Mediterranean world

Art history · Political science · St louis · European Political History Analysis · Historical Art and Culture Studies · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History

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