Featured Graduate Student Research: Alexandria Brown-Hedjazi

This summer, with funds from the Austria Visitor Program, I retraced the path of the Safavid 1601 embassy to Europe, concentrating especially on the portion of the mission that traveled through the Hapsburg Empire and Central Europe. The ambassadors traversed through Budapest, Vienna, and Prague, where I followed their itineraries as recorded in travelogues and several European and Safavid primary sources. My goal was to consult and unearth new primary sources related to the Safavids, examining both archival documents in libraries, and visual documents (frescoes, maps, paintings, and prints) in museums, private collections, libraries, and sacred and secular institutions. This goal was met, and added a significant portion of research to my dissertation.

During my time in Central Europe this summer, I followed the trails of diplomatic letters, and searched for visual representations of the embassies. This allowed me to re-assemble the full view of the Safavid presence and exchange with the Hapsburgs and surrounding territories. I consulted archival materials in the state archives of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague, as well as libraries with specific holdings related to international affairs during the early modern period. My visit to the Austrian National Library Vienna was especially lucrative, as it was there that I studied contemporary news pamphlets relaying news of the Mamluks, Ottomans and Safavids at the Hapsburg court. Overall, the research trip funded by The Europe Center was extremely productive and beneficial to my dissertation research. I am thankful to have had the opportunity to research the Safavid connection to Austria and Central Europe, a geographic connection I had not yet considered. Thank you.

 

Alexandria Brown-Hedjazi is a PhD candidate in Art & Art History.