Laurent d'Arvieux (21 June 1635 – 30 October 1702) was a French traveller and diplomat born in

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fra ...

.Le Consulat de France à Alep au XVIIe siecle2009, p.29-38 D'Arvieux-1672

Arvieux is known for his travels in the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

, which began in 1654 as a merchant in the Ottoman port of

Smyrna Smyrna ( ; grc, Σμύρνη, Smýrnē, or , ) was a Greek city located at a strategic point on the Aegean coast of Anatolia. Due to its advantageous port conditions, its ease of defence, and its good inland connections, Smyrna rose to prom ...

. From 1658 he travelled throughout the

Levant The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is ...

(Lebanon, Syria and Palestine) and in 1666 visited

Tunis ''Tounsi'' french: Tunisois , population_note = , population_urban = , population_metro = 2658816 , population_density_km2 = , timezone1 = CET , utc_offset1 ...

. Later he returned to France, and in 1674–75 was assigned as

consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states throu ...

Algiers Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques d ...

, then later served as consul to

Aleppo )), is an adjective which means "white-colored mixed with black". , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = , map_caption = , image_map1 = ...

from 1679 to 1686. During Arvieux's travels he was witness to 17th-century Arab and Turkish societies, and gained important insight involving all facets of their culture and customs. He also familiarized himself with the languages of the region, and learned to speak

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

, Turkish, Persian,

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

and Syriac languages. Because of his knowledge of Turkish manners and dress he collaborated with

Molière Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (, ; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, , ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language and world ...

on the development of '' Le Bourgeois gentilhomme''. At the time of Arvieux's death, he left behind a manuscript of his memoirs, a portion of which was edited by Jean de la Roque (1661–1745) and published in 1717 as ''Voyage dans la Palestine''. Later Arvieux's memoirs were edited and published in their entirety by Jean-Baptiste Labat (1663–1738) as ''Mémoires du chevalier d'Arvieux'' (6 volumes, 1735). An English account of his travels was published in 1962 by

Warren Lewis Warren Hamilton Lewis (16 June 1895 – 9 April 1973) was a British historian and officer in the British Army, best known as the elder brother of writer and professor C. S. Lewis. Warren Lewis was a supply officer with the Royal Army Service Co ...

, entitled ''Levantine Adventurer: The Travels and Missions of the Chevalier d'Arvieux 1653-1697''.

References

Exiles and Migrants
by Anthony Coulson * ''Parts of this article are based on a translation of an equivalent article at the

French Wikipedia The French Wikipedia (french: Wikipédia en français) is the French-language edition of Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia. This edition was started on 23 March 2001, two months after the official creation of Wikipedia. It has articl ...

''.

External links

Laurent d'Arvieux
at

Bibliothèque nationale de France The Bibliothèque nationale de France (, 'National Library of France'; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites known respectively as ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository ...

''Voyage dans la Palestine''
at

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

''The travels of the chevalier d'Arvieux in Arabia the desart''
(translation of ''Voyage dans la Palestine'') at

HathiTrust HathiTrust Digital Library is a large-scale collaborative repository of digital content from research libraries including content digitized via Google Books and the Internet Archive digitization initiatives, as well as content digitized locall ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arvieux, Laurent d' 1635 births 1702 deaths French explorers Diplomats from Marseille