François Bernier (1625 – 1688) was a French physician and traveller, born at Joué-Etiau /Anjou. He was physician for 12 years to the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, and published Travels. Events March 27 - Prince Charles Stuart becomes King Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland. ... // Events A high-powered conspiracy of notables, the Immortal Seven, invite William and Mary to depose James II of England. ... Physician examining a child The word physician should not be confused with physicist, which means a scientist in the area of physics. ... A traveller (American English traveler) is a person or an object travelling between two or more locations. ... Anjou is a former county (c. ... The Mughal Empire, (Persian: مغل بادشاہ) was an empire that at its greatest territorial extent ruled parts of Afghanistan, Balochistan and most of the Indian Subcontinent between 1526 and 1857. ... Abu Muzaffar Muhiuddin Muhammad Aurangzeb Alamgir (Persian: ابو مظفر محی الدین محمد اورنگزیب عالمگیر) (November 3, 1618 – March 3, 1707), usually known as Aurangzeb, but also sometimes as Alamgir I, was the ruler of the Mughal Empire from 1658 until 1707. ...

His 1684 publication Nouvelle division de la terre par les différentes espèces ou races qui l'habitent is considered the first post-Classical published classification of humans into distinct races. He wrote Travels in Mughal Empire which is mainly about Dara Shikoh's and Aurangzeb's period. Events France under Louis XIV makes Truce of Ratisbon separately with the Empire and Spain. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Validity of human races. ... Dara Shikoh (1615–1659) was the eldest son of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan and his wife Mumtaz Mahal. ... Abu Muzaffar Muhiuddin Muhammad Aurangzeb Alamgir (Persian: ابو مظفر محی الدین محمد اورنگزیب عالمگیر) (November 3, 1618 – March 3, 1707), usually known as Aurangzeb, but also sometimes as Alamgir I, was the ruler of the Mughal Empire from 1658 until 1707. ...

His Life

A son of farmers, François Bernier, very young, became an orphan and was cared for by his uncle, the curé de Chanzaux. At 15 years of age he moved to Paris to study at the Collège de Clermont (the future Lycée Louis-le-Grand) where he was invited to stay at the home of his younger friend, Chapelle the natural son of Luillier, a counselor at the parliament in Metz. There he most probably met Cyrano de Bergerac and Molière, but certainly the philosopher Pierre Gassendi(1592-1655), whose aid and secretary he became. He developed a taste for travel (1647) in the company of monsieur d'Arpajon, the French ambassador to Poland and Germany. The Lycée Louis-le-Grand, in Paris is one of the most famous lycées providing preparatory classes for grandes écoles. ... Savinien Cyrano de Bergerac (March 6, 1619 – July 28, 1655) was a French dramatist born in Paris, who is now best remembered for the many works of fiction which have been woven around his life story. ... Molière, engraved frontispiece to his Works Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, better known as Molière (January 15, 1622 – February 17, 1673), was a French theatre writer, director and actor, one of the masters of comic satire. ... Pierre Gassendi (January 22, 1592 – October 24, 1655) was a French philosopher, scientist and mathematician, best known for attempting to reconcile Epicurean atomism with Christianity. ...

In 1652 during a prolonged stay with Gassendi in the south of France, he managed to become a medical doctor on the strenght of a speed-course at the famous Faculté de Montpellier: an intensive three month course gave the medical degree providing one did not practise on French national territory. Pierre Gassendi (January 22, 1592 – October 24, 1655) was a French philosopher, scientist and mathematician, best known for attempting to reconcile Epicurean atomism with Christianity. ... Location within France Montpellier (Occitan Montpelhièr) is a city in the south of France. ...

Liberated from his ties to France by the death of Gassendi (1655) he set out on his twelve year yourney to the East -36 years of age-: Palestine, Egypt, one year in Cairo, Arabia, Ethiopia. In 1658 he debarked at Surat in India -Gujarat. Attached at first and for a short while to the retinue of Dara Shikoh -the history of who's downfall he was to record- he was installed as a medical doctor at the court of Aurangzeb, the last of the great Mughal emperors. Pierre Gassendi (January 22, 1592 – October 24, 1655) was a French philosopher, scientist and mathematician, best known for attempting to reconcile Epicurean atomism with Christianity. ... Surat (Gujarati:સુરત) is a port city in the Indian state of Gujarat and administrative headquarters of the Surat District. ... Gujarat (Gu: , De: ; , IPA ; also spelled Gujrat and sometimes (incorrectly) Gujarath) contained many of the former Princely states of India, and is the most industrialized state in India after Maharashtra. ... Dara Shikoh (1615–1659) was the eldest son of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan and his wife Mumtaz Mahal. ... Abu Muzaffar Muhiuddin Muhammad Aurangzeb Alamgir (Persian: ابو مظفر محی الدین محمد اورنگزیب عالمگیر) (November 3, 1618 – March 3, 1707), usually known as Aurangzeb, but also sometimes as Alamgir I, was the ruler of the Mughal Empire from 1658 until 1707. ... The Mughal Empire (alternative spelling Mogul, which is the origin of the word Mogul) of India was founded by Babur in 1526, when he defeated Ibrahim Lodi, the last of the Delhi Sultans at the First Battle of Panipat. ...

A tour of inspection by Aurangzeb (1664-1665) gave Bernier the oportunity to describe Kashmir, the first and for a long time the only European to do so. In: "Voyages de F.Bernier (angevin) contenant la description des Etats du Grand Mogol, de l'Indoustan, du royaume de Kachemire" -David-Paul Maret ed. Amsterdam, 1699. Shown in green is the Kashmiri region under Pakistani control. ...

After his return from Kashmir, he travelled around on his own, meeting with Jean Baptist Tavenier in Bengal and - preparing for a yourney to Persia at Surat- with Jean Chardin, that other great traveller in the Orient.(1666) Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin (November 2, 1699 - December 6, 1779) is considered by some to be the greatest of the 18th-century French painters. ...

He returned once more to Surat (1668) to write a memoir on Indian commerce to be used by Jean-Baptiste Colbert (who had recently founded the Compagnie de Indes Orientales) and in 1669 he left India for Paris, to stay. Surat (Gujarati:સુરત) is a port city in the Indian state of Gujarat and administrative headquarters of the Surat District. ... Jean-Baptiste Colbert Jean-Baptiste Colbert (August 29, 1619 – September 6, 1683) served as the French minister of finance for 22 years under King Louis XIV. He achieved a reputation for his work of improving the state of French manufacturing and bringing the economy back from the brink of bankruptcy... The neutrality and factual accuracy of this article are disputed. ...

In 1671 he was almost jailed for writing in defense of the ideas of René Descartes, against which a judicial arrest had been issued, an exploit he followed with an "Abrégé de la Philosophie de Gassendi", also not a subject to arouse official aproval.(1674) For other things named Descartes, see Descartes (disambiguation). ...

Meanwhile he was a favoured guest at some of the great literary circles a.o. at Marguerite de la Sablière, who introduced him to Jean de La Fontaine; or at Ninon de Lenclos. Marguerite de la Sablière (c. ... Jean de La Fontaine (c. ... Anne Ninon de lEnclos also spelled Ninon de Lenclos and Ninon de Lanclos (November 10? sometime between 1615 and 1623 - October 17, 1705) was a French author, and patron of the arts. ...

In 1685 he visited Engeland and London where he met with some famous exiles from France: Hortense Mancini, Duchesse de Mazarin, niece of the redoubtable Cardinal; Saint-Evremond ... He returned to Paris via the Netherlands, where he probably visited his philosophical correspondent Pierre Bayle. Hortense Mancini, Duchess of Mazarin (1646 - 1699), was niece of Cardinal Mazarin and a mistress of Charles II. One of five sisters noted for their great beauty, she was born in Rome in 1646, but moved to France at an early age. ... Cardinal Jules Mazarin, French diplomat and statesman Jules Mazarin, born Giulio Raimondo Mazzarino; but best known as Cardinal Mazarin (July 14, 1602 – March 9, 1661) served as the chief minister of France from 1642, until his death. ... Charles de Marguetel de Saint-Denis, seigneur de Saint-Évremond (April 1, 1610 - September 29, 1703), was born at Saint-Denis-le-Guast, near Coutances, the seat of his family in Normandy. ... Pierre Bayle (November 18, 1647 – December 28, 1706) was a French philosopher and writer. ...

He died in 1688, the year that saw the publication of his "Lettre sur le Quietism des Indes".(see note: [[1]]) Quietism is a term with multiple meanings and definitions. ...

Foremost among his correspondents to India had been Jean Chapelain, who shipped him crates of books, Melchisédech Thévenot, François de La Mothe-Le-Vayer. From Chapelains corespondence we know of a link with the elder Pétis de la Croix, whose son François Pétis de la Croix was send on a language course to Persia two years after Berniers return from India. Jean Chapelain (December 4, 1595 - February 22, 1674) was a French poet and writer. ... Melchisédech (or Melchisédec) Thévenot (ca. ... François de La Mothe-Le-Vayer (1588 - 1672) was a French writer. ... François Pétis de la Croix (1653 - 1713) was a French orientalist. ...

Note: the content of this description of the life of François Bernier is abstracted from a French introduction by France Bhattacharya who critically re-edited " Voyage dans les Etats du Grand Mogol" after 150 years of neglect in the French language.(ed. Arthème Fayard, 1981)

François Bernier and Danishmand Khan

In India Bernier came under the protection of Daneshmand Khan -Mulla Shafi'a'i, a native of Yazd- an important official at the court of Aurangzeb: secretary of state for foreign affairs, grand master of the horse, later treasurer (mir bakshi) and governor of Delhi. (died 1670)

Two exerpts from "Travels in the Mughal Empire" may serve to illustrate the interchange that followed. The importance of the detail could only fully be appreciated in the last decades of the 20th century, following the monumental contributions by Henry Corbin and Seyyed Hossein Nasr to the history of Islamic philosophy.(ref.Saiyid Athar Abbas Rizvi 1986) The Mughal Empire (alternative spelling Mogul, which is the origin of the word Mogul) of India was founded by Babur in 1526, when he defeated Ibrahim Lodi, the last of the Delhi Sultans at the First Battle of Panipat. ... Henry Corbin (1903-1978) was a famous French philosopher, professor of philosophy at Sorbonne University, and orientalist. ... Nasr is an internationally acclaimed scholar [1]. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, (Persian: سيد حسين نصر) A lifelong student and follower of Frithjof Schuon, Persian philosopher and renowned scholar of comparative religion, is a prominent authority in the fields of Islamic esoterism, sufism, philosophy of science, and metaphysics. ...

1° -commenting on the yogi manner of meditation: "However I know that this ravishment and the way to enter it are the great mystery of the cabal of the Yogis, as it is of the Sufis.I say mystery because they keep it hidden amongst them and if it were not for my Pandit; and that Danishmand Khan new the mysteries of the cabal of the Sufis, I would not know as much as I did."

2° "(...)do not be surprised if without knowledge of Sanskrit I am going to tell you many things taken from books in that language; you will know that my Agha Danismand Khan payed for the presence of one of the most famous pandits in India, who before had been pensioned by Dara Shikoh, the oldest son of Shah Jahan, and that this pandit, apart from atracting the most learned scientists to our circle, was at my sides for over three years. When I became weary of explaining to my Agha the latest discoveries of William Harvey and Pequet in anatomy, and to reason with him on the philosophy of Gassendi and Descartes, which I translated in Persian (because that is what I did during five or six years) it was up to our pandit to argue."(exerpts taken from the chapter "Lettre à Monsieur Chapelain, de Shiraz en Perse, le 4 octobre 1667" ed.Fayard 1981) Dara Shikoh (1615–1659) was the eldest son of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan and his wife Mumtaz Mahal. ... Ghiyasuddin Shah Jahan (also spelled Shah Jehan, Shahjehan. ... William Harvey (1578–1657) was a medical doctor who is credited with first correctly describing, in exact detail, the properties of blood being pumped around the body by the heart. ... Pierre Gassendi (January 22, 1592 – October 24, 1655) was a French philosopher, scientist and mathematician, best known for attempting to reconcile Epicurean atomism with Christianity. ... René Descartes René Descartes (IPA: , March 31, 1596 – February 11, 1650), also known as Cartesius, worked as a philosopher and mathematician. ...

A candidate to being Berniers "pandit" would probably have come from the circle around Hindu scholars such as Jagannatha Panditaraja who was still at work under Shah Jahan or Kavindracharya, who taught Dara Sikhoh Sanskrit.(ref.Tara Chand 1961)

His intellectual partner could be someone like Zu'lfaqar Ardistani (died 1670), author of the "Dabistan-i Mazahib" -The Dabistan or the School of Manners translated by David Shea and Anthony Troyer Paris, 1843- an overview of religious diversity (Jewish,Christian Buddhist,Hindu,Muslim ...), educated perhaps by Mir Abul-Qasim Astrabadi Findiriski -(Mir Fendereski, as noted by Henry Corbin in his "History of Islamic Philosophy"): a link between the religious tolerance aspect of the great project of Persian translations, initiated by Akbar and continued by his great-grandson Dara Shikoh, and the School of Isfahan near the end of the Safavid reign- or perhaps educated by Hakim Kamran Shirazi, whom Mir Findiriski refered to as "elder brother", who studied Christian theology and Gospel under Portugese priests, traveled to India to study Sanskrit Shastra, lived with the yogi Chatrupa at Benares,and died -chanting the liberation of the philosophers- at the age of 100. Those were scholars who had a profound knowledge of Greek peripatetic philosophers (mashsha'un, falasifa - through the Arabic translations) as well as a profound respect for Ibn Sina and Shihabuddin Yahya Suhrawardi Maqtul (hikmat al Ishraq). Henry Corbin (1903-1978) was a famous French philosopher, professor of philosophy at Sorbonne University, and orientalist. ... This topic is considered to be an essential subject on Wikipedia. ... Dara Shikoh (1615–1659) was the eldest son of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan and his wife Mumtaz Mahal. ... Isfahan or Esfahān can refer to either a city or a province in Iran (Persia): Isfahan (city) Isfahan (province) Isfahan (rugs) Isfahan is the name of a song by the Jazzist Duke Ellington Ispahan a kind of rose and an older pronunciation of the citys name. ... The Safavids were a long-lasting Turkic-speaking Iranian dynasty that ruled from 1501 to 1736 and first established Shiite Islam as Persias official religion. ... For the genre of Christian-themed music, see gospel music. ... Shastra is a Sanskrit word used to denote education/knowledge in a general sense. ... This page is Yogi as advanced practitioners of Yoga. ... Benares (also known as Banaras, Kashi, Kasi and Varanasi (वाराणसी)) is a Hindu holy city on the banks of the river Ganga or Ganges in the modern north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. ... Peripatetic means wandering. The Peripatetics were a school of philosophy in ancient Greece. ... This article needs cleanup. ... Persian philosopher شهاب الدين يحيى سهروردى or Shihabuddin Yahya as-Suhrawardi (born 1153 in North-West-Iran; died 1191 in Aleppo) was the founder of School of Illumination, one of the most important islamic doctrine in Philosophy. ...

An interesting philosophical aside may be noted: France Battacharya tells us she has removed in her critical edition based on the 1724 edition the chapter: "Lettre à Chapelle sur les atomes" as being not so relevant to the context.One wonders...

Note: the background to Berniers philosophical interchange was composed from data collected in "Shi'i Contributions to Philosophy,Science and Literature in India" by Saiyid Athar Abbas Rizvi in "A Socio-Intellectual History of the Isna 'Ashari Shi'is in India" 1989.

References

• Francois Bernier: "Voyage dans les Etats du Grand Mogol", introduction de France Bhattacharya -Arthème Fayard ed. Paris, 1981
• Saiyid Athar Abbas Rizvi: "A Socio-Intellectual History of the Isna 'Ashari Shi'is in India Vol II" -Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd. /Ma'rifat Publishing House Canberra Australia, 1986
• Dr.Tara Chand: "Indian Thought and the Sufis" 1961 in "The World of the Sufi",an antholgy. -Octagon Press ed. London, 1979
• Lens: "Les Correspondants de François Bernier pendant son voyage dans l'Inde -Lettres inédits de Chapelain" in Memoires de la Société nationale d'agriculture, sciences et arts d'Angers (ancienne Académie d'Angers) -Tome XV, 1872