Dutch–Safavid relations
Open-knowledge reference entry
Dutch–Safavid relations were the historical interactions between the Dutch Republic and Safavid Iran from the 16th to the 18th century.
Political history
The Dutch had limited knowledge of Iran and its language until the 16th century. In 1546, a Persian version of the Torah was printed in Constantinople using the Hebrew alphabet, marking the first time a Persian text had ever appeared in print. Drawing on this publication, Franciscus Raphelengius (1539–1597), then a professor at Leiden University, later compiled a small Persian word list.
The first attempt at comparing Indo-European languages came from Raphelengius, who observed that some Persian and Dutch words sounded like each other. Progress stopped at this stage, however, because the older Iranian and Indian languages that would later explain these connections were not discovered until the 19th century. Raphelengius' list was modified into a short Persian-Latin dictionary by Joseph Justus Scaliger (1540–1609), another professor from Leiden University. It can be regarded as the earliest instance of Persian academic research in Europe, despite not being published.
Between 1623 and 1759, Iran's foreign trade was largely controlled by the Dutch East India Company (abbreviated VOC). Its dominance, however, was continually contested, most notably by the British East India Company.
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