COPING WITH DOUBT IN HISTORY: UNCERTAINTY AND ARBITRARINESS IN THE WRITING ABOUT THE GREAT ORIENTAL EMPIRES (1670’S‑1730’S)
COPING WITH DOUBT IN HISTORY: UNCERTAINTY AND ARBITRARINESS IN THE WRITING ABOUT THE GREAT ORIENTAL EMPIRES (1670’S‑1730’S)

Summary/Abstract: My study is based on a corpus made of three books about the Oriental empires written by the French libertine François Bernier, the Polish Jesuit Judas Thaddeus Krusinski and the Moldavian Prince Dimitrie Cantemir. In analyzing these three works, my research is, on the one hand, interested in their approach to uncertainty in history and, on the other hand, on their emphasis on the importance of arbitrary events, which seem apparently insignificant. In so doing, my article argues that the works belonging to Bernier, Krusinski and Cantemir are not histories with a linear development, exclusively based on heroic figures that perform extraordinary actions.

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