Persian Letters Summary

This summary is based on the John Davidson translation, published in 1899 by Gibbings & Co., London. The translation is in the public domain and is available at

http://rbsche.people.wm.edu/teaching/plp/

Letter 1: from Usbek (Tauris) to his friend Rustan (Ispahan)

Usbek explains that he and Rica stayed only one day at Koum, continuing to Tauris immediately, and will be continuing to Erzeroum to stay there for some time. He claims to be traveling in search of knowledge, but asks what is being said about his departure.

Letter 2: from Usbek (Tauris) to his chief black Eunuch (the Seraglio in Ispahan)

This letter is dated three days after the previous one. Usbek explains that it is the addressee’s duty to watch over Usbek’s women, enforcing their dutiful and virtuous behavior and punishing them on his behalf should their modesty lapse. Ironically, the addressee is himself a slave and must submit to the lawful commands of the women he governs. Usbek reminds the addressee that he has raised him from the lowest ranks to the position of Usbek’s greatest trust, and explains that he is giving his permission for the women may be taken into the country, but tells the Eunuch to constantly remind the women of how powerless they are.

Letter 3: from Zachi (Seraglio at Ispahan) to Usbek (Tauris)

This letter was written about a month before the two that precede it. It is written by Zachi, one of Usbek’s wives. She describes a trip to the country with the chief of the Eunuchs (incidentally, this would have occurred prior to Usbek having given permission for this to occur). Zachi recalls her past happiness with Usbek and is pining after him. She recalls an erotic scene in which she and Usbek’s other wives, having asserted their superiority in beauty, challenged him to pick the most beautiful. But those good days are in the past: she now asserts that Usbek has abandoned them.

Letter 4: from Zéphis (Seraglio at Ispahan) to Usbek (Erzeroum)

This letter was written after the first two, and the fact it is addressed to Usbek at Erzeroum suggests that at least one and possibly both of the first two letters have been received. She is upset because the Chief Black Eunuch has accused her of inappropriate conduct with a female slave Zelida.

Letter 5: Rustan (in Ispahan) to Usbek (Erzeroum)

Rustan is replying to Usbek’s first letter, saying that nobody knows why Usbek left, forsaking his wives, relations, and friends. This suggests that Usbek did not tell anyone of the reason behind his departure, and that it was abrupt and unexpected. Rica’s mother is very upset at her son’s absence, and Rustan doesn’t know how to explain it to anyone.

Letter 6: Usbek (in Erzeroum) to his friend Nessir (Ispahan)

Usbek describes his travel from Erivan, during which time he reached Erzeroum. Here, Usbek and Rica stopped and stayed three or four months. Erzeroum is part of the “Osmanli” or Ottoman Empire, and is outside Persian territory and in Turkey. Usbek misses his wives. Although he claims to have “forestalled” love for them, he is still extremely jealous of them. He is also sad because his friends aren’t allowed to ask any questions about his departure. Clearly something is amiss: Usbek claimed in his first letter to Rustan that he and Rica left in search of knowledge, and the excuse should probably be circulating, but something has occurred that makes the excuse implausible. The reader should now understand that there is more behind Usbek’s departure than the desire to study abroad.

Letter 7: Fatmé (the Seraglio at Ispahan) to Usbek (Erzeroum)

A third wife of Usbek’s is writing to him. She says he has been gone two months. She claims to be enthralled by Usbek’s beauty, although in fairness she was never allowed to look at any other men prior to being married to him. She expresses physical passion and sexual frustration, because the only man she is permitted to allow to satisfy her is unavailable. She expresses her love for him. Fatmé is under the impression that Usbek will weary of his travels and return home. This is the only time that Fatmé writes, or is even mentioned by name. There is a location called the Gardens of Fatmé, however both the Gardens and Fatmé herself are named after somebody else.

Letter 8: Usbek (Erzeroum) to Rustan (Ispahan)

Usbek acknowledges the receipt of the letter from Rustan. He claims to have no remorse about his departure, because he is following the dictates of “his own free soul”, which he deems to be above the “petty maxims” that guide his enemies. For the first time, Usbek reveals some information about himself that should have been well known to a close friend. He has been a courtier since early youth, yet he is committed to the cultivation of his own virtue and the rejection of vice. He spoke truth to power, found himself “unable” to engage in flattery, and must have been rewarded for it because other ministers became jealous of him. He left the “corrupt” court, feigning an interest in science, but claims to have become genuinely attached to it (although none of his subsequent letters describe scientific or technical wonders). But after receiving information that his enemies were planning something horrible for him, Usbek went to the King, explained his desire to study science in the West, and received the King’s approval. He set out quickly enough to stymie his enemies.

There are a few things wrong with Usbek’s account. Had he the King’s approval and protection, particularly in public, it is unlikely his enemies would have succeeded in carrying off whatever plot they had dreamed up. Furthermore, he asks Rustan to not defend Usbek or offer any explanation except to his friends. The last line suggests that Usbek may have left permanently and that his enemies still pose a danger to him.

Letter 9: The Chief Eunuch (the Seraglio in Ispahan) to Ibbi, (Erzeroum)

The Chief Eunuch, who is not the Chief Black Eunuch, is writing to another of Usbek’s eunuchs who is traveling with him on his adventures. The Chief Eunuch envies Ibbi the new sights and entertainments, because he hates his job. He is bored. After fifty years of work, he has never known a peaceful moment.

As a very young man, the Chief Eunuch agreed to let his first master have him made into a eunuch, thinking that the sacrifice of his passions would be repaid by wealth, he was cruelly cheated. Having been castrated he is unable to have sex in the normal way, but his desire for it was unaffected. Although he would much rather have seduced and loved the women in his care, he was forced to feign anger and annoyance. He lost control of himself and took some physical liberties with a woman in his care, and she blackmailed him into allowing her to do whatever she wanted.

At this point in his life, the Chief Eunuch regards all women with indifference. In fact, he goes out of his way to abuse his authority to annoy and antagonize Usbek’s wives. They are therefore his enemies. They do not taunt him but send him on meaningless errands and pretend that someone else is about to do something that is less than virtuous. Meanwhile, since Usbek favors his wives, he is treated as always being in the wrong. He described a scene in which he delivered an unwilling, complaining woman to his master’s bed, and listened to her objections. At last, ruin overtook him and he was—and perhaps is now—the victim of what he describes as an amorous intrigue.

Letter 10: Mirza (Ispahan) to his friend Usbek, (Erzeroum)

Mirza misses Usbek and Rica. He describes some excellent debates and disputes on morality, particularly one about whether true happiness consists in pleasure and sensual gratification, or in the practice of virtue. Mirza is unsatisfied with the mollahs’ religiously inspired answer. He asks Usbek to explain what he means by the idea that “men were made to be virtuous” and that “justice is as indispensable to existence as life itself”. This identifies Mirza as a thinker, philosopher, and debater who proposes to correspond with Usbek some more about deep philosophical thoughts.

Letter 11: from Usbek (Erzeroum) to Mirza (Ispahan)

Usbek begins with an allegorical story about the tribe called Troglodites. Initially, this group of people were ruled only by their own savage instincts. They practiced subsistence farming, each planting only enough to satisfy himself. When one man carried off his neighbor’s wife and the two men quarreled, the man they asked to judge the matter told him he didn’t care. So the man whose wife had been stolen immediately stole the judge’s wife instead. The Troglodites’ self-interest kept them from bargaining effectively or exchanging their goods, since neither person cared whether the other party got what he needed out of the deal. A physician from a nearby country cured the Troglodites during a great plague, but they refused to pay him for his effort. When the disease broke out again, he refused to help them.

Letter 12: Usbek (Erzeroum) to Mirza (Ispahan)

This is a continuation of Letter 11. Only two families of Troglodites were spared from the plague, and they happened to be people who were humane and lovers of virtue. They survived by living far away from their self-absorbed fellows. Their virtue was rewarded by the earth, and the two families multiplied, creating generation after generation of happy, pro-social people. Selfishness and covetousness was completely unknown among them.

Letter 13: Usbek (Erzeroum) to Mirza (Ispahan)

This is a continuation of Letter 12. Usbek described how the Troglodites went out of their way to ease each other’s burdens and find ways to make another happy. They did things that improved their community, such as planting trees to provide shade to workers. Another nation, hearing of the Troglodites’ prosperity, plotted to carry off their cattle. The Troglodites responded with: “come join us, we’ll share what we’ve got.” The invaders decided to make war, but were repulsed by the Troglodites’ courage and willingness to lay down their lives to protect each other. So despite a nearly Athenian level of disinclination to war, the Troglodites turned out to be good at it.

Letter 14: Usbek (Erzeroum) to Mirza (Ispahan)

When the Troglodites increased in number, they decided to find the most just man among themselves, who was the most venerable by reason of age and virtue. The man they chose as King didn’t wish to serve as such, and claimed that the Troglodites needed no ruler but virtue, and that they were making a mistake.

All this talk about virtue, and about living a virtue-based life instead of following one’s own desires, contradicts what Usbek himself actually does. Back in Letter 8, he asserted that following the commands of his own heart was better than following the “maxims” of his enemies or submitting himself to rules. When it comes to his own conduct, Usbek judges himself by a different standard and does not need to do “virtuous” things by upholding his duty, attending to his home and family, or even returning from exile or bringing his wives to him. So the justice and pro-social regard for other people’s well-being, which Usbek studiously ignores, is a virtue he preaches but does not seem to practice.

Letter 15: the First Eunuch (the Seraglio at Ispahan) to Jaron, the black Eunuch (Erzeroum)

The First Eunuch is writing to a man he regards as a son. Jaron, according to the First Eunuch, is in danger of being corrupted by contact with “unbelieving Christians”. He appears to believe that Usbek is going to return, at which point he could take Jaron to Mecca.

Letter 16: Usbek (Erzeroum) to the Mollah Mehemet Ali (Koum)

Usbek begins by flattering the “divine Mollah”, praising his perfection and knowledge. This exaggerated flattery contradicts Usbek’s statement in Letter 8 that he was “unable” to practice flattery as a courtier would generally do. This further undermines Usbek’s excuse for leaving, and it exposes him as a liar despite all of his claims to virtue and honesty. He begs for the benefit of the Mollah’s divine knowledge.

Letter 17: Usbek (Erzeroum) to the Mollah Mehemet Ali (Koum)

Usbek, voyaging in a strange land, is experiencing doubt. He flatters the Mollah again, and asks for some clarification about the reasons behind some common Islamic practices. He asks why pork is forbidden, why touching a corpse is forbidden, and why it is necessary to wash so frequently. Usbek is trying to reason out the logic behind these various injunctions. He asks whether it is reasonable to let his senses judge whether something is clean or unclean.

Letter 18: Mollah Mehemet Ali (Koum) to Usbek (Erzeroum)

The Mollah is answering both of Usbek’s letters to him and possibly others. He calls Usbek on his flattery, saying that he respects the life of the Mollahs but doesn’t have the courage to embrace and follow it. He suggests that Usbek simply reads the traditions of other learned men, or the Quran itself, to answer all his questions. After aptly chastising Usbek, the Mollah describes a physically impossible scene in which a pig was created out of elephant excrement. Because Usbek either does not know this story or chooses to not believe it, the Mollah describes him as “ignorant”.

Letter 19: Usbek (Smyrna) to Rustan (Ispahan)

Usbek and Rica are on the move again. They left Erzeroum, stayed only eight days at Tocat, and after thirty-five days they came to Smyrna. During this time, Usbek notices that the Ottoman Empire is in ruins. The pashas are corrupt and bankrupt, so they plunder the provinces they are appointed to govern. The militia runs amok and does whatever it wants. Cities are deserted, the country is desolate, and commerce is neglected. The Christians and Jews who are doing actual work are taxed and harassed. Property laws aren’t being respected and the people in power do whatever they like. But even the art of war is not advancing, since people cling to their backward ways instead of embracing or improving new technology like the Europeans do.

Letter 20: Usbek (Smyrna) to Zachi (the Seraglio in Ispahan)

Usbek is telling Zachi off for having broken one of the many irrational laws of the seraglio, and was found alone with Nadir, a white eunuch, in her chamber. Apparently she should have used one of the black eunuchs to run errands instead. This somehow robs Usbek of honor. He taunts Zachi, asking her whether he thinks she could actually escape. He blames Zachi for a “gratuitous wrong” in order to satisfy her “sinful desires”, and questions what would happen if she were actually allowed her freedom or if she escaped the seraglio. He claims that all Zachi’s companions are happy in the seraglio and consider it a welcome refuge from the terrible world outside.

Exactly how Usbek came by this information is not clear. He may have received letters besides what were printed, or he might have other sources of information real or imagined. At this point in the narrative the reader already knows that Usbek is mistaken about a number of things, including exactly who did what with or to whom.

Usbek is terrified about what would happen if Zachi were left to herself, with no defense other than her love for him and her sense of duty. He says her love for him has been shaken, although it has been due to his own conduct, and claims Zachi is derelict in her duty. Usbek takes the side of the Chief Eunuch, saying that the familiarities Zachi supposedly took with Zelida were unbecoming. Yet in letter 4, written by Zéphis, it is clear that Zéphis, and not Zachi, is the one who was punished for inappropriate behavior with the young slave Zelida. Accordingly, the other wrong for which Usbek rebukes Zachi might also be either imaginary or committed by some other woman.

For the first time, Usbek mentions his “new” wife Roxana, bringing the total to four: Zachi, Zéphis, Fatmé, and Roxana. Only Zachi, Zéphis, and Fatmé have written to Usbek. Later in the book a letter appears from another wife named Zélis, bringing the total to five, which is one more than Usbek’s sacred Koran allows. Usbek claims that all four women are equal in beauty, however Roxana is virtuous as well so he loves her better.

Letter 21: Usbek (Smyrna) to the Chief White Eunuch (the Seraglio in Ispahan)

This letter is rebuking the man Usbek left in charge of the Seraglio for having allowed the eunuch Nadir to be summoned into one of the women’s bedrooms (possibly Zachi’s) which are apparently off limits to him. Usbek is now aware that “some” of his wives are angry and restless, so he resolves to do the thing that annoys them most and surround them with more black eunuchs. He threatens to punish the Chief Eunuch as well.

Letter 22: Jaron (Smyrna) to the Chief White Eunuch (the Seraglio in Ispahan)

Jaron is upset at being told to return to guard the Seraglio. He would far rather have continued traveling with Usbek toward the west. Usbek, he says, is grieving and suspicious about his wives’ behavior and anxious to exert a stronger control on them from afar. But instead of moving closer, he is continuing to travel in the West.

Letter 23: Usbek (Leghorn) to his friend Ibben (Smyrna)

Usbek describes the way Italian women are allowed to look at men through a window, go out every day provided they are with some other old woman, or wear only one veil. All their male relatives are allowed to visit them, and it doesn’t bother their husbands. This is the first Christian town Usbek has ever been in. He’s excited and plans to continue to Paris by way of Marseille.

Letter 24: Rica (Paris) to Ibben (Smyrna)

This is the first letter written by the young, sarcastic Rica. The two men have been in Paris about a month. He compares Paris to Ispahan, noting the higher houses in Paris and the dense population. Rica describes the French as being obsessed by vehicles. Rica satirically describes the French king as a great magician: he describes the printing of paper money by the King, and the resulting inflation, as the King exercising his power over his subjects’ belief. But more powerful still is the Pope, who can make the King believe that three and one are the same number, that bread is not bread, and that wine is blood. These are references to the Holy Trinity and the sacramental bread and wine used in the Holy Communion which are deemed to take on the spiritual value of the body and blood of Christ when used as symbols in the Communion. Rica describes the ongoing debate over the French Constitution and asserts that it is the women who are chiefly responsible for the changes in government.

Letter 25: Usbek (Paris) to Ibben (Smyrna)

Usbek says that Ibben’s nephew Rhedi has left Smyrna to visit Italy. Usbek and Rica are still traveling together and Usbek expresses gratitude for Ibben’s having hosted them in Smyrna. He expresses a desire to see Ibben again soon, which suggests that Usbek’s stay in Paris will not be long.

Letter 26: Usbek (Paris) to Roxana (the Seraglio at Ispahan)

Usbek explains to Roxana, his favorite wife, how happy he thinks she is in Persia as opposed to in France, where the Persian notions of shame and virtue are unknown. He relates how, during the first days of their marriage, Roxana ran away from him and hid. She even attacked him with a dagger. Two months passed in the struggle, at which point Usbek essentially raped her. She then regarded him as an enemy who had outraged her, and for three months she could not look at him without blushing with what Usbek describes as modesty. She continued to avoid him and make no attempt to please him. This somehow turned Usbek on.

In Paris, unlike in Ispahan, women are not served by eunuchs. They walk around with their faces showing, and they have what Usbek describes as a brute-like independence. Usbek believes very few of them are unfaithful to their husbands, because although they might flirt they are brought up with a sense of virtue that prevents them from doing more. Yet Persian women must be locked away, not for fear of what they might do if they escaped, but because contact with other men would somehow damage them and render them unclean. Usbek says that “we” Persian men are not really afraid of infidelity, but of their wives’ loss of purity.

Despite everything he just admitted having done to his wife, Usbek believes she loves him. Even as she competes with the other women, refusing to dance in sync with them, Usbek thinks it’s out of love for him. He says that she deserves a husband who would never leave her. But to a modern reader (and perhaps to a contemporary one as well) Roxana is most likely thrilled that Usbek is gone.

Letter 27: Usbek (Paris) to Nessir, (Ispahan)

Usbek says he is having Ibben send a box from Smyrna to Nessir, containing some presents. Rica is doing well but Usbek is deeply depressed. He tells him to not tell his wives how depressed he is.

Letter 28: Rica (Paris) to an unknown person

Rica describes a theater comedy, where people are running about indulging in romantic excesses, and describes an Opera performer who, seven or eight months pregnant by an Abbe who either raped her or seduced her with promises of marriage (her story varies), asks Rica to take her back to Ispahan, where she thinks she could make a very good living.

Letter 29: Rica (Paris) to Ibben, at Smyrna

Rica is satirically describing the Pope, the bishops to whom all the annoying work is delegated, and a number of heresies and new doctrines that are being debated. In Spain and Portugal, people are still occasionally burned at the stake for doing so. The religious judges apparently always find an accused person guilty, condemning the accused to death and taking all his property to console themselves afterwards.

Letter 30: Rica (Paris) to Ibben (Smyrna)

Rica describes the Parisians’ response to him. He’s stared at a lot when out in public, and his portrait is suddenly everywhere. He’s fashionable because of his novelty. But when he exchanges his attire for the same kind of clothing men wear in Paris, he disappears from notice and is treated more normally.

Letter 31: Rhedi (Venice) to Usbek (Paris)

Young Rhedi from Smyrna has arrived at Venice, where he is astonished to see towers and churches rising out of the water. But the city lacks pure water. Rhedi is doing what Usbek proposed to do while abroad: he is studying medicine, physics, astronomy, commerce, government, and the arts. This is a contrast with what Usbek appears to be doing (moping and complaining to and about his wives).

Letter 32: Rica (Paris) to an unknown person.

Rica is looking at the public almshouse set up to help wounded soldiers, who, having been disabled in the service of their country, are excluded from it. He is led through Paris by a blind man, who has been playing cards with another blind man. But he’s heading into a church, which he expects to be far less crowded than the streets.

Letter 33: Usbek (Paris) to Rhedi (Venice)

Usbek is complaining about the price of wine. In Persia, where it is illegal, people drink it to excess and alcoholism is a major social problem. In Paris, the princes are allowed to use it and it appears to do them no harm (suggesting that the brainpower of the elite is not so good to begin with). Usbek speaks approvingly of the practice of altering one’s mental state for medical or emotional reasons. Quite possibly he’s drunk.

Letter 34: Usbek (Paris) to Ibben (Smyrna)

Usbek is comparing the women of Persia to those of France. The Persian women are “finer” but the Frenchwomen are prettier. He is no longer shocked by them, and enjoys their good humor. In Persia, women’s health is supposedly preserved by the dull and uniform seraglio life, but in France men and women alike are more cheerful. He describes the French antipathy for people who keep slaves and eunuchs, but the man he quotes writes those institutions off as being the predictable vices of people raised by slaves and eunuchs instead of being well brought up.

Letter 35: Usbek (Paris) to his cousin Gemchid (Tauris)

Usbek asks his cousin, who is a dervish, whether Christians might be proto-Muslims because of some similarities in belief and custom.

Letter 36: Usbek (Paris) to Rhedi (Venice)

Usbek describes the French coffee-house tradition. A great deal of debate and argument occurs there, while at the Sorbonne and the University people do it for a living.

Letter 37: Usbek (Paris) to Ibben (Smyrna)

Usbek is complaining about the elderly King Louis XIV, who is a mess of contradictions. Usbek lists some of them.

Letter 38: Rica (Paris) to Ibben (Smyrna)

Rica is debating whether women’s liberty is a good thing. He presents both sides, then resorts to a quotation from the Prophet.

Letter 39: Hagi Ibbi (Paris) to the Jew Ben Joshua, Mohammedan Proselyte (Smyrna)

A man who has made the pilgrimage to Mecca, is writing to a Muslim of Jewish descent at Smyrna, sharing an account of the somewhat fantastic circumstances of Mohammed’s birth. This letter is postmarked from Paris, and is the first time Ibbi is mentioned. Nothing is known about him at this point except that he has been to Mecca, which suggests that he is very religious. He may also be well read in the legends and histories of his religion.

Letter 40: Usbek (Paris) to Ibben (Smyrna)

Usbek is morose again. He speaks of the futility of ceremonies such as funerals, and suggest that people should be “bewailed” at their birth instead for all the sorrow they endure. He says that mirth and sadness are nearly always false, and public ritual is stupid and extravagant.

Letter 41: The Chief Black Eunuch (the Seraglio at Ispahan) to Usbek (Paris)

One of the black eunuchs, Ishmael, has died and the Chief Black Eunuch wanted to replace him by castrating one of the slaves from Usbek’s country estate. The man escaped and has threatened to write to Usbek.

Letter 42: Pharan (the Gardens of Fatmé) to Usbek (Paris)

Pharan is writing to Usbek to complain that the Chief Black Eunuch has held a grudge against him and tried to castrate him. He says that if he were castrated he would die of grief. He adores Usbek and begs for help. How he will get it—it takes several months for letters to travel from Persia to France and back again—is not clear.

Letter 43: Usbek (Paris) to Pharan (the Gardens of Fatmé)

Usbek tells Pharan he must be spared and forbids his other slaves to attempt to harm or castrate him. They are to purchase the eunuch they need.

Letter 44: Usbek (Paris) to Rhedi (Venice)

Usbek is satisfying Rhedi’s thirst for knowledge by telling him how the three French privileged classes (the Church, the military, and the nobility) have contempt for one another.

Letter 45: Rica (Paris) to Usbek (somewhere else)

Usbek has gone somewhere. Rica writes to him to describe an encounter with a man who is convinced he has discovers how to make the Philosopher’s Stone.

Letter 46: Usbek (Paris) to Rhedi (Venice)

Usbek describes the local habit of discussing and debating religion instead of observing it. How to pray, how to kneel, and whether a particular piece of meat is appropriate to eat varies depending on whom you ask.

Letter 47: Zachi (the Seraglio at Ispahan) to Usbek (Paris)

Zachi and Zéphis have patched up a quarrel. Zachi threw a big party to honor Zéphis, inviting all of Usbek’s female relatives. They came on horseback (having been allowed to ride, though veiled). But when Usbek’s wives went into the country they had to ride in a palanquin, and in a box in a ferry to avoid other people on a river. A storm blew in, and the sailor suggested the women be freed so as to save themselves. The eunuchs insisted they would rather let the women drown. The Chief Eunuch threatened to kill anyone who tried to save the women, and the eunuchs killed two men who got too near the box where the women were being carried. The discrepancy between how Usbek’s family travels and how he requires his wives to travel is notable. At this point the reader must begin to question whether the very extreme rules of Usbek’s seraglio are normal even by contemporary Persian standards.

Letter 48: Usbek (Paris) to Rhedi (Venice)

Usbek describes people he meets at a fancy party: a farmer-general, a priest, a poet, an old soldier, and a rake.

Letter 49: Rica (Paris) to Usbek (somewhere else)

Again, Rica and Usbek appear to have parted company. Rica describes a friar who comes to ask him to obtain, from the Persian king, an establishment in Casbin for two or three Capuchin friars. Initially Rica thinks the man wants to emigrate to Persia, and is supportive. But the friar is simply looking for an excuse to establish a colony there. Rica refuses.

Letter 50: Rica (Paris) to an unknown person

Rica describes a habit whereby people brag of their own modesty and virtue. He says he likes people who apply themselves to their duty and do not dwell on discussions of virtue, so that the reader must wonder what he makes of Usbek, who obsesses over it. The people Rica meets talk constantly of themselves. He describes a man who brags about his modesty (which is contradictory).

Letter 51: Nargum, the Persian Envoy in Muscovy, to Usbek (Paris)

For the first time, Usbek is contacted by a representative of the Persian government. He asks Usbek why he had to hear of it from somebody besides Usbek. Nargum has been in Muscovy (Moscow) for five years. He does not like the climate and he speaks highly of the Tsar, Peter II who is now known as Peter the Great. Nargum describes some differences between Russian and Persian culture.

A certain amount of domestic violence is—he says—customary and expected in Muscovy, to the point where he says the Russian women do not feel loved if they are not occasionally beaten or mistreated by their husbands. The author indicates that these customs “have changed”, and to a modern reader the intent is clearly satirical, however to a contemporary reader may have had some difficulty understanding the irony and sarcasm in the allegory.

Throughout the novel, the family can be regarded as an allegory for a state, with the patriarch of the family representing the head of the state and the other members of the family, such as wives and children, representing the subjects. This allegorical significance will be of particular interest in the context of Usbek’s own absentee rulership of his seraglio.

Letter 52: Rica (Paris) to Usbek (elsewhere)

Rica describes some women he met at a party. There were four, separated in years by about twenty years apiece with the eldest being eighty and the youngest twenty or twenty-two. Each woman criticizes the one older than herself for displaying an interest in makeup, fashion, or adornment that is appropriate only to the younger set. He flatters each of the older women by pretending to think that she is about twenty years younger than she really is.

Letter 53: Zélis (the Seraglio at Ispahan) to Usbek (Paris)

This is the first appearance of Usbek’s fifth wife, previously not mentioned She is not Usbek's most recent wife (that would be Roxana). But unlike the other three who have written so far, she does not flatter Usbek with professions of love.

Zélis explains that Cosrou, the white eunuch, has asked for the slave woman Zelida in marriage. Zelida’s mother does not object, nor does Zelida herself. Zélis considers the match to be a farce but has heard that eunuchs are indeed capable of having some kind of sexual pleasure, just not in the usual way. She is still frustrated: she seeks love but cannot find it.

Letter 54: Rica (Paris) to Usbek (elsewhere)

Rica describes a man he overheard next door: for the last three days he’s been ignored. He’s been nursing witticisms and charming stories in my head, hoping to shine socially, and failing. His friend proposes to act as a sort of partner, with each of them making the other look good and helping him in conversation.

Letter 55: Rica (Paris) to Ibben (Smyrna)

Rica is explaining that, in Europe, people consummate their marriages immediately instead of contesting the issue as is customary in Persia. In France, a jealous husband is universally hated. Adultery is not uncommon, but instead of making a big deal about it the victims practice a combination of savoir-faire and revenge.

Letter 56: Usbek (Paris) to Ibben (Smyrna)

Usbek explains the Parisian fascination with gambling. Women are particularly fond of it, and can bankrupt their husbands. So Usbek believes that the Persian law that forbids it is good. He believes that the Prophet’s laws are intended to control and subdue people who might otherwise give in to their extreme passions.

Letter 57: Usbek (Paris) to Rhedi (Venice)

Usbek describes two groups of people maintained by Parisians: courtesans and “dervishes” or priests. He describes his encounter with a casuist who specializes in finding excuses and weaseling out of duty. In Persia, he would have been executed by impalement for it.

Letter 58: Rica (Paris) to Rhedi (Venice)

Rica describes various confidence schemes being run in Paris: alchemy, magic, or the renewable virginity of a prostitute. Professors of languages or arts teach what they do not know.

Letter 59: Rica (Paris) to Usbek (off somewhere else again)

Usbek has been stepping out of Paris a lot lately, except all his letters originate from there. By now the reader must be wondering just where Usbek is going so frequently but briefly. Rica describes a party in which people always seemed to judge the merits of other things in terms of immediate application to their own self-interest. They consider a law or policy good if it benefits them personally.

Letter 60: Usbek (Paris) to Ibben (Smyrna)

Usbek is replying to a letter, not included, in which Ibben asks whether there are Jews in France. Usbek says that, yes, there are, and that they are associated with banking and money related businesses. There’s a great deal of pride in the French Jewish community, as in Persia, and an invincible attachment to religion that manifests as a refusal to completely integrate with the cultures of the nations in which they reside.

Letter 61: Usbek (Paris) to Rhedi (Venice)

Usbek describes a conversation with a priest, who informs him that priests must attempt to avoid offending people. He uses, as an example, the story of the Emperor Theodosius.

Letter 62: Zélis (the Seraglio at Ispahan) to Usbek (Paris)

Zélis and Usbek have a daughter, who is now seven years old. She is being sequestered in the inner apartments of the seraglio early, instead of waiting for the age of ten. Zélis’s goal is to deprive her daughter of the liberty of childhood so as to get her accustomed to confinement. Zélis disagrees that women should be forced into the seraglio as adults, because it makes them miserable. However, despite all the guards, restraints, and oversights Usbek puts in place, Zélis has realized that Usbek’s constant jealousy makes him more of a prisoner than she. She realizes that she has the power to make him uneasy, and so she enjoys doing it. Although Zélis calls Usbek her “dear” husband, she does not express any particular love for him. She is resigned to being treated poorly and like a criminal despite having done nothing wrong. But in the seraglio she has discovered pleasures of which Usbek knows nothing. Whether these are intellectual, spiritual, or sexual pleasures is not clear. But she taunts Usbek, telling him to continue to have her watched. She dreads nothing except his indifference. This is the first time one of Usbek’s wives openly defies him.

Letter 63: Rica (Paris) to Usbek (outside Paris)

Now the reader learns where Usbek has been going during his frequent departures from Paris. He is going into the country, and living in a pleasant house where he can think and speculate at will. Rica is going into society and adopting European manners. He is particularly pleased to have learned more about women in just a month of being in Paris than he could have learned in a seraglio in thirty years.

Letter 64: The Chief of the Black Eunuchs (the Seraglio at Ispahan) to Usbek (Paris)

This letter is written a week after Zélis’s challenge. War has broken out in the seraglio again, and even the eunuchs are taking sides. However everybody is united against the letter writer, who is despised despite his position of authority. The Chief of the Black Eunuchs explains to Usbek how to run an orderly seraglio. In the kind of system he proposes, each woman has her own space, and everything runs on a schedule. The women enter the bathing area one at a time, at an appointed hour, and there is silence overall since the women do not interact with each other or communicate. Access to the master of the seraglio is a privilege, not a right, decided by the Chief Eunuch.

The letter writer believes that if he was allowed to punish the wayward women and run the seraglio the way he knows how, everything would be orderly and Usbek would be shown the proper respect. Yet at this point in the story over two years have passed since Usbek’s departure. The letter writer does not ask whether Usbek is coming back.

Letter 65: Usbek (Paris) to his wives (the Seraglio at Ispahan)

This letter is a response to the last one, which—the reader will note—took months to arrive. Usbek asks his wives to behave, to stop quarreling, and to obey the Chief Black Eunuch. He wants to be remembered as their husband, not their master. But at this point he has really made no distinction between the two.

Letter 66: Rica (Paris) to an unknown person

Today, Rica is mocking the French fascination for science. Everyone wants to be a wit, and to write books. This doesn’t please Rica, because wit is fleeting whereas books have a longer life. He is also not a fan of compilations in which compilers pick and choose the highlights from other people’s work and publish them separately.

Letter 67: Ibben (Smyrna) to Usbek (Paris)

Usbek hasn’t written lately, and Ibben is worried about him. He thinks perhaps Usbek has found other friends to occupy his time. Ibben’s philosophy is to live—wherever he is—as though that will be his location for the rest of his life. He seeks out and makes friends.

Ibben relates the tale of a Guerbre Zoroastrian man named Apheridon and his wife Astarte. Among the Guerbre, sibling marriage is considered a good thing. Apheridon fell in love with his sister, but their father knew that such a marriage was taboo under Islamic customs and law. So he placed his daughter in service to a sultana, where she was taught to forget the Guerbre ways. When the girl reached maturity, she was married to a eunuch. Eventually her brother Apheridon got permission to visit her. Their love for one another was in no way diminished, but Astarte had lost her faith and direction after years of being required to follow another religion. Apheridon slipped her a copy of Zoroaster’s work. After reading it, Astarte remembered who she was: a Guerbre woman who had every right to follow her customs, and who was still in love with Apheridon.

Astarte used a file and rope to escape her seraglio and ran away with Apheridon. The two had their marriage solemnized by a Guerbre priest. They lived peacefully in Georgia, until Astarte was kidnapped in a Tartar raid and sold to a Jewish trade caravan heading for Turkey, leaving behind only a little daughter.

To free Astarte, Apheridon sold himself and their daughter to an Armenian merchant. Astarte, however, came to the merchant and offered her services too. The merchant agreed that if they served him for a year he would set the family free, and he did. The family moved to Tiflis and then to Smyrna, where Apheridon brought his family with him. He has since met the Armenian merchant again and has been able to repay the favor.

Analytically speaking, this story shows the extreme difference between Usbek’s behavior—abandoning his wives and living abroad, allowing others to care for them, and issuing rebukes instead of correcting the problems in person—and Apheridon’s. Apheridon willingly sacrifices himself for the sake of the woman who risked everything to marry him.

Letter 68: Rica (Paris) to Usbek (elsewhere)

Rica is describing a magistrate. He expects the man to be preoccupied with other people’s business. Yet the magistrate is not preoccupied, because he just doesn’t care. He keeps no study, sold his library, and used the money to pay for the post (which he purchased). As a judge, he feels no need to stuff his head with knowledge, because the lawyers tell him everything he needs to know while presenting their case. Rica wonders whether the judge is being frequently deceived.

Letter 69: Usbek (Paris) to Rhedi (Venice)

Usbek now considers himself a philosopher. Instead of combining the best attributes of humanity to create an image or concept of God, he says that God is His own law. Usbek believes it is impossible that God should predict the future, “because that which has not happened does not exist, and consequently, cannot be known.” God cannot read a will that does not exist, because until the mind is made up, the thing to be decided is not inside it.

Letter 70: Zélis (the Seraglio at Ispahan) to Usbek (Paris)

Zélis is writing to Usbek, telling him that Soliman (most likely a relative) agreed to allow his daughter to marry a young man named Suphis. The dowry had been agreed upon and the marriage consummated, but Suphis mutilated the girl, claiming she was not a virgin, and sent her back to her father. If Zélis’s daughter were ever subjected to such a fate, Zélis says she would die of grief.

Letter 71: Usbek (Paris) to Zélis (the Seraglio at Ispahan)

Usbek expresses sympathy not for the injured young woman, but for her father Soliman and the honor of the family. Suphis was within his rights under the law. He is pleased that Zélis is paying attention to “her” daughter’s education and he expresses hope that she have a good husband and live in wealth and comfort. He also wishes to see her in all her glory. Of course this desire does not imply an actual intention to return to Ispahan. It is now late in 1714. Nearly four years have passed since Usbek left.

Letter 72: Rica (Paris) to Ibben (somewhere else, not necessarily Smyrna)

Rica describes a man who is convinced he knows everything, whose mind is not troubled with the least doubt. Because he has read Tavernier and Chardin, who described Persia in writing, he believes he knows the country better than Rica, who lived there all his life.

Letter 73: Rica (Paris) to someone unknown

Rica is now mocking the French Academy, which is a kind of intellectual tribunal responsible for establishing and enforcing the rules of the French language.

Letter 74: Usbek (Paris) to Rica (somewhere else)

For the first time, Usbek is in Paris and Rica is not. Usbek has been introduced to a man who is a great lord. He finds him supercilious, haughty, indifferent, and inconsiderate of others. Usbek thinks about how terrible it would have been if he and Rica, back in Persia, had behaved in a similar way. But he pats himself on the back by assuring Rica that they did not. Because they did not have to win the respect of the people below them, Usbek claimed that they did their very best to win their affection and show compassion. Only on the battlefield did they assume haughty looks or expressions. But this statement blatantly contradicts Usbek’s attitude and conduct toward his wives.

Letter 75: Usbek (Paris) to Rhedi (Venice)

Usbek notices that the Christians he’s met have a vast difference between profession and belief, between belief and conviction, and between conviction and practice. For many, religion is a subject of debate. Many people demand that the priests prove things that they themselves cannot disprove, but have made up a mind not to believe.

Letter 76: Usbek (Paris) to Ibben (Smyrna)

Usbek complains to Ibben that he is depressed, forced to labor for a society to which he refuses to belong, and held to an agreement made without his consent. European law is very much against suicide.

Letter 77: Ibben (Smyrna) to Usbek (Paris)

Ibben comforts Usbek by reinterpreting misfortunes as warnings instead of punishments. In the context of Usbek's family trouble, Ibben's words can be taken as a suggestion that Usbek should get home as quickly as possible, or else find a way to bring his wives to him.

Letter 78: Rica (Paris) to Usbek (elsewhere)

Rica is sending a copy of a Frenchman’s description of Spain which presents a critical view of the contemporary Spanish monarchy and of the Inquisition.

Letter 79: Usbek (Paris) to Rhedi (Venice)

Usbek is describing legislators or lawmakers as inferior people who, having lucked into some power, proceed to use it to advance their own prejudices and whims. He states that “morality makes better citizens than law”.

Letter 80: The Chief Black Eunuch (the Seraglio at Fatmé) to Usbek (Paris)

The Chief Black Eunuch has just bought a young Circassian slave girl for Usbek’s enjoyment upon his return. It is now 1715, and more than four years have passed since Usbek’s departure. The Chief Black Eunuch is writing from a second seraglio at Fatmé. This appears to be Usbek's country estate.

Letter 81: Usbek (Paris) to Rhedi (Venice)

Usbek is describing the many varieties and forms of government he has seen in Europe, which differs from the uniform rules of policy he says are “the same” everywhere in Asia. He believes that the best government is the one run with the least amount of difficulty and friction. Usbek notices that people obey the law better when punishment is mild instead of severe. He states that when punishment is too severe, rebellion will occur. This statement foreshadows the rebellion in the seraglio.

Letter 82: Nargum (Muscovy) to Usbek (Paris)

Nargum is extolling the “Tartars”, meaning the Mongols, whom he describes as the “veritable ruler of the earth”. Besides having conquered China twice, they have subdued Muscovy, taken over much of the Mogul empire, and made conquests in Europe, Asia, and even Africa. Yet they gave no thought to commemorating their fame.

Letter 83: Rica (Paris) to Ibben (Smyrna)

Rica describes the Carthusian monks, who periodically take vows of silence and are known for not speaking much. He segues into a story about how a person who is a good listener, or who can draw out a story from anyone, can be a social success.

Letter 84: Usbek (Paris) to Rhedi (Venice)

Usbek is speculating as to why people behave unjustly. He says it is because they are acting out of self-interest, and they prefer their own satisfaction to that of other people. But he does not believe that such self-interested behavior, or injustice, is ever committed by God.

Letter 85: Rica (Paris) to an unknown person

Rica has visited the Hotel des Invalides, established for the retirement and comfort of disabled soldiers. He believes that fallen soldiers should have their names immortalized for posterity, and he is greatly impressed with a king who would establish such an institution.

Letter 86: Usbek (Paris) to Mirza (Ispahan)

After a long silence, Usbek is writing to his friend Mirza again. This time he’s speaking against bigotry. Yet he himself practices extreme ethnic bigotry in his interactions with his “Black Eunuchs”, and gender based bigotry in controlling and dominating his wives. Usbek likes the idea of multiple competing religions, and thinks that having more than one option make people more zealous and loyal to their own faith.

Letter 87: Rica (Paris) to an unknown person

In France, according to Rica, people exert only nominal authority over one another. If there is an actual dispute, the law punishes excessive abuse of authority. Rica describes a court of law.

Letter 88: Rica (Paris) to an unknown person

Rica describes some people who are “society itself”: social butterflies who are always in a hurry, always talking to people, and constantly visiting, congratulating, or consoling others. One of them died, and on his tomb was engraved a list of his accomplishments, which were entirely social.

Letter 89: Usbek (Paris) to Rhedi (Venice)

According to Usbek, but ironically to the modern reader, Paris is full of liberty and equality (fraternity, the third part of the goal of the French Revolution, not being mentioned). People are supposedly not jealous about rank as much as they are about who has the best horses. Pleasure, rank, and recognition is associated with access to the King and ministers, and having ancestors, debts, and independent sources of wealth. People can be “great” by an accident of birth. By contrast, in Persia the only people considered great are the ones on whom the monarch bestows official authority.

Letter 90: Usbek (Paris) to Ibben (Smyrna)

Usbek equates the desire for glory with the instinct of self-preservation. But glory is “never the companion of slavery”. According to this logic, Usbek’s household can never be glorious, but Usbek characteristically overlooks the fact.

Letter 91: Usbek (Paris) to Ibben (Smyrna)

Usbek describes the “point of honor” or key objective of every profession, particularly the military profession. In the distant past, the French used these points of honor to regulate their lives. This recalls Letter 79, in which Usbek said that morality makes better citizens than laws. Yet, as is often the case with Usbek, when he sees his ideal put into practice he doesn’t really like it. Dueling was the way to resolve disputes of honor, and frequently the contest went to the best fighter as opposed to the person who had right on his side. Dueling was therefore outlawed and made punishable by death. This produces a Catch-22 of sorts: if one follows the law of honor (and fights a duel) he will be condemned to death, but if he does not, he is banished socially.

Letter 92: Usbek (Paris) to Rustan (Ispahan)

Usbek describes a charlatan who is presenting himself as a Persian ambassador in a way that misrepresents and embarrasses them. He asks Rustan to say nothing of it to the King, because so much of what the comedic charlatan mocks is actually true.

Letter 93: Usbek (Paris) to Rhedi (Venice)

Louis XIV, the Sun King, is dead. His heir, a great-grandson, is only five years old. Already there is strife between the Regent (the new King’s uncle) and Parliament.

Letter 94: Usbek (Paris) to his brother, who is a Santon at the Monastery of Casbin

Usbek begins by flattering his brother, who is living a cloistered religious life much like a monk. He, Usbek, is being tormented by temptations. It is 1715, more than four years since Usbek left Ispahan. Usbek is beset by doubt.

Letter 95: Usbek (Paris) to Rhedi (Venice)

Usbek is explaining the differences between civil law, which regulates the affairs of individuals, and international law.

Letter 96: Usbek (Paris) to Rhedi (Venice)

This is a continuation of the last letter. Usbek believes there should be magistrates to mediate disputes between citizens, but that nobody should interfere in disputes between nations. He believes that disputes are almost always clearly defined and easily decided. He also believes that the only kind of just wars are to repel an attacking enemy or to aid an ally who is under attack (thereby interfering in a dispute between nations). These two beliefs contradict one another. The rest of the letter is a rationalization.

The letter, and its rather naive assumptions, suggest that Usbek himself has never experienced war. Having supposedly lived most of his life as a courtier he must have seen a great deal of politics in Persia, and the reader must wonder exactly how he could retain such a simplistic and inaccurate view of the world.

Letter 97: the Chief Eunuch (the Seraglio at Ispahan) to Usbek (Paris)

The Chief Eunuch, not the Chief Black Eunuch, has bought another woman. This time he bought one for Usbek’s brother, the governor of Mazenderan (who is clearly not the brother who is the reclusive religious scholar) and another for Usbek. The woman, a “yellow” one from the kingdom of Visapour, is extremely beautiful. The eunuchs have noticed that the more women are in the seraglio, the less trouble they give to the eunuchs. Things appear to have cleared up for the moment, however it would be best if Usbek returned. The Chief Eunuch begs him to do so.

Letter 98: Usbek (Paris) to Hassim, Dervish of the Mountain of Jaron

This is another religious and philosophical letter, however instead of asking for enlightenment Usbek is informing. He relates how Western philosophers, deprived of the “perfection” of Oriental wisdom, have used reason to lead them to some of the same insights and laws. He describes some basic laws of physics as he understands them, but he does not understand them very well. For a man who had a sincere love of science, Usbek doesn’t seem to have learned any during his journey, which is now well into its sixth year.

Letter 99: Usbek (Paris) to Ibben (Smyrna)

Usbek is talking about socioeconomic mobility. In France, people periodically become extremely rich (or lose everything) due to a change in circumstances.

Letter 100: Rica (Paris) to Rhedi (Venice)

Rica is describing the excesses of French fashion, particularly for the women. He describes ridiculously high heels, tall headdresses, and wide skirts.

Letter 101: Rica (Paris) to Rhedi (Venice)

This is a continuation of the last letter. Rica describes the influence of fashion on the French people, who find foreign clothing and fashion ridiculous but who frequently change their own, in some pretty radical ways as he has described in his previous letter. In terms of policy, politics, and philosophy Rica says the French are content to import most of their laws and ideas from elsewhere—this is a clear dramatic irony even to a contemporary reader who would be familiar with some of the Enlightenment thought that was originating in France at that time.

Letter 102: Usbek (Paris) to an unknown person

Usbek is describing the ongoing debate over the French Constitution. He also describes a man behaving irrationally and uttering nonsense, claiming that he was inspired by the Holy Ghost. According to Usbek—who is now speaking as readily and sarcastically as young Rica—the man needed inspiration from such a source, and was in grave need of enlightenment. This letter is unusual, because in terms of tone and content it is more similar to Rica’s voice and style than to Usbek’s. Usbek is a morose pedant not given to verbal quips.

Letter 103: Usbek (Paris) to Ibben (Smyrna)

Usbek is describing the various states in Europe, of which only a few are truly united and ruled by a monarch. There is a multitude of tiny states, and the Italian city-states tend to be vassals of more powerful neighbors. He notes that, when a state in Persia is run poorly and a person angers his sovereign, that person will be put to death. This penalty is identical to the penalty for an assassination attempt. So a person who has incurred the Persian sovereign’s wrath has nothing to lose by attempting an assassination. In Europe, by contrast, people who upset the ruler are simply excluded from Court. Accordingly, fewer European princes die violently.

Letter 104: Usbek (Paris) to Ibben (Smyrna)

Usbek relates a statement made by a “sensible European” saying that the princes of Asia made a mistake by shutting itself up instead of by being visible to the people. Quoting that source, Usbek says that it’s surprising there aren’t more assassinations given the despotic conduct of some of the rulers and local rulers in Persia and elsewhere.

Letter 105: Usbek (Paris) to Ibben (Smyrna)

Usbek draws distinctions between the ways European nations interact with their rulers. English kings rule as first among equals, and the only tie that can bind them is gratitude. Oddly enough, nobody in Europe who decides to dethrone a king believes that he himself is a usurper, but believes that the king has behaved unjustly toward his people. This is a reference to Charles I of England. At the time the Persian Letters were published, the French Revolution had not yet occurred, nor had the execution of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette. That didn’t happen for another forty years. Yet to a modern reader, this letter contains a warning.

Letter 106: Rhedi (Venice) to Usbek (Paris)

Rhedi tells Usbek that he’s not impressed with new technology, art, and science as cultivated in the West, because it keeps being used destructively. The princes of Europe no longer trust their own citizens, and since the invention of gunpowder, no fortress is impregnable and there is no such thing as a refuge from violence. He dreads that one day human beings will discover an even more efficient way to kill one another. According to Rhedi, all the monarchies have been founded by war, and ignorance of the arts. They have been destroyed by over cultivation of the arts which weakens the state militarily or ends in an over empowerment of the constituency that necessitates a change in leadership. Persia itself may be in danger from the Mongol hordes. In closing, Rhedi reflects on a “happier time” or Golden Age in which everything was peaceful and simple. This reflects a radical lack of knowledge of history. Human beings have always fought with one another and have usually struggled for survival. This was obvious even in the 1700s.

Letter 107: Usbek (Paris) to Rhedi (Venice)

Usbek is responding to Rhedi’s letter and calling him on the hypocrisy of leaving his country to acquire knowledge, yet despising “all” knowledge. This is a reduction to absurdity; Usbek is exaggerating Rhedi’s point in order to argue. A super-weapon, according to Usbek, would immediately be limited by law of nations and suppressed by unanimous consent: princes want to gain subjects, not soil. This, for a courtier, is an incredibly naive statement. But Usbek makes a very good counterargument to the notion that a fondness for the arts makes people weak. He points out that artists are driven by self-interest just like other people, and that the art they create is worth something. It lasts a long time and contributes to the wealth of the kingdom. The more wealth in the kingdom, the more powerful the ruler.

Letter 108: Rica (Paris) to Ibben (Smyrna)

Rica describes the young King, Louis XV. He’s surrounded by women—female caretakers—but Rica notes that he’s also the one monarch who has the least use for them, given his youth. Yet, in fairness, the previous king was governed by women too because of the amount of influence his mistresses and female friends had with regard to government appointments and favors.

Letter 109: Usbek (Paris) to an unknown person

Usbek describes the French journal, which at the time was not a newspaper so much as a notice of newly available books hot off the press. The journals contain comments on the new books that are mostly positive, however authors cannot tolerate criticism.

Letter 110: Rica (Paris) to an unknown person

Rica describes the University of Paris and an argument concerning how to pronounce the French letter “Q”. This is an incident that actually occurred. Montesquieu simply found it ridiculous and repeated the story because it fit the other events of the Letters.

Letter 111: Rica (Paris) to an unknown person

Rica is describing the activities of a fine lady, which revolves around her toilette, her parties, and her entertainments. At a recent supper party in the country, which was dull, the ladies insisted they were all being thoroughly amused. Rica’s power of wit evaded him and he fell asleep.

Letter 112: Usbek (Paris) to an unknown person

Usbek is describing the present fashion of writing and speaking almost exclusively about the events that occurred during the late King’s minority. Few things are written except accounts of these times. This is odd and disturbing: for example it is fashionable to speak ill of Cardinal Mazarin, who died in 1661. It is now 1718.

Letter 113: Rhedi (Venice) to Usbek (Paris)

Rhedi believes the world very underpopulated compared to the way it supposedly once was. No matter where he goes, he sees nothing but ruins of ancient Italian buildings that were far more impressive and powerful than what he sees now. There is not necessarily any truth to Rhedi’s assertion that the ancient world was more populous, however some resources such as the trees that once covered that part of the world had been long since depleted.

Letter 114: Usbek (Paris) to Rhedi (Venice)

Usbek believes that the answer to Rhedi’s question revolves around plagues such as the Black Death. He believes that many disasters that befell humanity were a result of divine will.

Letter 115: Usbek (Paris) to Rhedi (Venice)

This is a continuation of the last letter. Usbek discusses polygamy, which was prohibited in the Roman world. He sees a conflict between the number of wives permitted by the Koran and the injunction to satisfy all of them. He is starting to think that eunuchs, who are necessary to guard women, represent a waste of human potential. Apparently locking up the women in the first place is not something he regards as a waste of human potential. Accordingly, instead of resulting in a lot of children, polygamy as practiced in the Persian fashion limits the population because of all the people necessary to provide slaves for the seraglio, which ensures they are not available to marry and reproduce.

Letter 116: Usbek (Paris) to Rhedi (Venice)

Usbek compares the institution of slavery in ancient Rome to that of contemporary Persia. In Rome, Usbek believes the slaves were more efficiently used to the benefit of the republic.

Letter 117: Usbek (Paris) to Rhedi (Venice)

Usbek expounds upon divorce, which was forbidden in Christianity. Being unable to divorce made large numbers of people miserable. Instead of working to resolve problems, mindful of the option of ending the marriage, people to whom divorce was forbidden felt trapped and treated each other poorly. Miserable people tend to not have large numbers of children together, in Usbek’s opinion.

Letter 119: Usbek (Paris) to Rhedi (Venice)

Usbek describes the number of priests and nuns who take vows of celibacy and chastity, who are not marrying and reproducing, and points to this trend as a reason for the perceived drop in population since antiquity. He is still replying to Rhedi’s question about population change.

Letter 119: Usbek (Paris) to Rhedi (Venice)

Usbek is speculating about the reason for a perceived decline in population in Africa, compared to ancient times. He thinks it must be depopulated due to the habit of selling people to the European slave traders for transportation to the American colonies for the past two hundred years.

Letter 120: Usbek (Paris) to Rhedi (Venice)

Usbek continues to speculate about the reason behind population decline.

Letter 121: Usbek (Paris) to Rhedi (Venice)

Usbek speculates that, in hunter-gatherer or “savage” societies the population is sparse because hunting and fishing are often unproductive. Also, in such societies, women have the option of ending their pregnancies. According to Usbek they do so in order to remain attractive to their husbands, however if an unmarried woman hides her pregnancy and the child dies she herself is put to death. Usbek does not quite understand why any woman, not wishing to be put to death for a late miscarriage and lacking family resources to feed and care for a child, would find it expedient to simply end the pregnancy early and thereby avoid the risk of being blamed for a late miscarriage and put to death for it.

Letter 122: Usbek (Paris) to Rhedi (Venice)

Usbek speculates about the effect of colonial expansion on population. He believes it weakens the countries from which the colonists originate without strengthening the destination country. However Usbek does not appear to have taken into account any actual census or quantitative information about the Americas.

Letter 123: Usbek (Paris) to Rhedi (Venice)

Increase of population, says Usbek, is aided by a mild government.

Letter 124: Usbek (Paris) to the Mollah Mehemet Ali, Guardian of the Three Tombs (Koum)

Having perhaps recovered from the rebuke of Letter 9 (it's been a few years), Usbek writes again asking the purpose of the fasts and sack cloths. The Ottoman Empire has just been shaken by two different defeats. Given this setback, Usbek wants to know why the fasting continues.

Letter 125: Usbek (Paris) to Rhedi (Venice)

Usbek marvels at the great financial gifts given by princes to their courtiers. They are surrounded by greedy people yet they continue to give, possibly to bribe but also to play people off against each other. Usbek imagines that in time he will soon see a royal decree stating that, owing to the immense number of favors granted to office-seekers and pension-seekers, the Crown is obliged to tax the peasants and working class for an extra fifth of their income in order to cover the expense.

Letter 126: Rica (Paris) to an unknown person

Rica wonders what religion should offer a virtuous person. He relates the story of a woman from India who, having lost her husband, went to the governor of her city to ask to burn herself to meet her standards of religious decency and carry on family tradition. She was denied permission, and during the investigation one of the holy men who recommended her self-immolation encouraged her to go through with it anyway, so that she could be reunited with her husband in the afterlife and begin another more eternal marriage. At that point she lost all interest and accepted Islam on the spot.

It is not clear exactly to whom Rica is writing, however it is important to note that his raunchiest letters and the ones with sexual content are not addressed to any of the other named characters. Given the subsequent events in the seraglio, it would be quite comical if the confiscated letter that appears later in the book had been written to one of Usbek's wives.

Letter 127: Rica (Paris) to Usbek (out in the country)

Rica is expecting Usbek to return, and is forwarding some letters from Ispahan. There has been a change of position with regard to the Spanish ambassador. He feels great sympathy for everyone involved in the intrigue.

Letter 128: Rica (Paris) to Ibben (Smyrna)

King Charles XII of Sweden, his conquest ended by a head wound in Norway, is dead. Rica has abandoned sobriety out of necessity, risking his relationship with Usbek in the process.

Letter 129: Rica (Paris) to Usbek (out in the country)

Rica describes the behavior of a “geometer” or mathematician who specializes in geometry. The man is interested only in quantitative information and behaves in a very social awkward way.

Letter 130: Rica to an unknown person

Rica describes the “Quidnuncs” who imagine themselves of great consequences. They know a great deal of trivia, and they anticipate the future. They hang out in the Tuileries and habitually prognosticate about politics and military matters. They also frequently bet on the results.

Letter 131: Rhedi (Venice) to Rica (Paris)

Rhedi recounts a history of republics—a topic which interests him.

Letter 132: Rica (Paris) to Rhedi (Venice)

Rica describes a man who has a great deal of income from his land, but is ruined by excessive debt. Another man has been ruined by converting his income into worthless bank-notes. Also present is an astrologer and a Quidnunc, both of which predict imminent disaster.

Letter 133: Rica (Paris) to an unknown person

Rica has visited a major library that is supported by a monastery, such that they are required to admit the public within certain hours. He asks the monk about some of the books, but the monk has no clue. The librarian is the one who does all the work, yet the monks consider him worthless and an unnecessary expense because he works for the library instead of contributing to the monastery. The monk forces Rica out of the library, shuts the door, and rushes off to his prayers, because being seen there is far more important than performing the work for which the monastery was built.

Letter 134: Rica (Paris) to an unknown person

This time Rica talks to a different man at the library. Some of the books are interpretations of the Scriptures, so Rica thinks there must no longer be many doubts about religion. Yet the books are chiefly explanations about what the authors believed, based on their interpretation. There is a great deal of debate in the Christian community over doctrine and Scripture.

Letter 135: Rica (Paris) to the unknown person

Rica’s new friend, the librarian, continues to introduce books by grammarians, commentators, and other people who have been able to dispense with common sense. Likewise there are orators, geometers, and metaphysical books. There are books about medicine, anatomy, and even judicial astrology which is well respected in Persia. The librarian is shocked, however Rica explains that all the Persian astrologists together commit less folly than the average French algebraist.

Letter 136: Rica (Paris) to the unknown person

Now the books being introduced relate to modern history: the Church, the Pope, the Roman Empire and other nations.

Letter 137: Rica (Paris) to an unknown person

Now Rica is describing the poetry section of the library. Both he and his guide find poetry irritating and romantic poetry especially dull.

Letter 138: Rica (Paris) to Ibben (Smyrna)

Rica is describing four changes in the financial system within three years. There is a great deal of economic confusion in France due to the Duke of Noailles, John Law—who put the economy into what he thought was a better state of order—and the stock market is making some people suddenly rich but others suddenly poor.

Letter 139: Rica (Paris) to Ibben (Smyrna)

Rica describes the decision of Queen Ulrica-Eleonora of Sweden to share the government with her husband.

Letter 140: Rica (Paris) to Usbek (elsewhere)

Rica describes the exile of Parliament, which opposed the edicts of John Law.

Letter 141: Rica (Paris) to Usbek (elsewhere)

Rica relates the story, told to him by a woman who knew the Koran extremely well, of a jealous husband named Ibrahim who killed his wife Anais for objecting to cruel treatment.

Anais was received in a paradise where every possible pleasure was provided for her, including men who dedicated themselves to her pleasure. She commanded one to take the form of her husband, go to the seraglio, get rid of Ibrahim, and stay there until she recalled him. This he did, and he treated the women with so much more decency and courtesy that they preferred him over their real husband. However in order to keep the eunuchs from asserting the status quo even in Ibrahim’s absence, because they had done so while the angelic servant carried Ibrahim two thousand miles away, he found it necessary to stay for three years. During this time he spent all Ibrahim’s money and fathered a bunch of children with his wives.

This missive contains a few subtle criticisms of John Law’s economic reforms, but taken literally must have driven Usbek wild with jealous rage because it coincides with some trouble in his own seraglio. To an essayist who wishes to implicate Rica in the destruction of Usbek's seraglio, this letter is vital evidence because it contains a suggestion that Rica somehow knows what's going on even before Usbek does. As will be revealed in later letters, things are deteriorating there. It is now 1720 and the men have been gone nearly nine years.

Letter 142: Rica (Paris) to Usbek (elsewhere)

This letter presents a satire, in which the author criticizes the financial System of John Law. The satire is presented not through Rica’s observations, but in two enclosed letters. The first is purportedly from a collector of antiques who pays top value for old items such as Diogenes’ lamp and a mirror once belonging to Virgil, however it is obvious that many of the old items are counterfeit and that the rest are without value.

The second letter "included" by Rica is an allegorical satire about a man who, armed with a bag of winds, defrauds the people of Betica of much of their wealth. The System of John Law, in which the French government sought to improve and regulate the failing French economy through a series of royal decrees that deprived many families of their accumulated wealth and that enriched only speculators, is presented in an allegorical fashion.

Letter 143: Rica (Paris) to Nathaniel Levi, Jewish Physician (Leghorn, Italy)

Rica appears to be replying to a question from Levi about what Rica thinks of amulets or talismans. Rica acknowledges that both he and Levi are from groups of people known for their superstition. Rica himself carries about an impressive number of passages from the holy Koran along with the names of various dervishes and saintly people. This, to the reader, will be surprising given how Rica responded to the superstitions of others in earlier letters. Rica says he carries the letters out of long habit and a desire to do what other men of his tradition do. He presents it as the equivalent of wearing lots of jewelry and personal ornaments. He does not really believe that the arrangement of certain letters on a page can protect a person from accident or disease. Rica doesn’t really believe that spells or invisible powers can influence a battle as much as armies, troop positions, the situation of the field, and the experience of the generals.

As a postscript, which is longer than the letter, Rica includes a satirical letter from a country physician to one in Paris. A patient is suffering from insomnia, but instead of taking the opium prescribed by his physician (a dangerous and addictive substance) he calls upon a bookseller to provide a cure for insomnia: an extremely dull and boring book. The physician therefore proposes the work of other writers as purgatives, emetics—to make the patient vomit—and a work with lengthy sentences to cure asthma by increasing the desire to breathe.

Letter 144: Usbek (Paris) to Rica (also in Paris)

This is one of the letters added by Montesquieu in 1754. Usbek is deploring the influence of vanity on people who have too much of it. Given the events of the last letters in the novel, he may be talking about himself.

Letter 145: Usbek (Paris) to an unknown person

Usbek describes the behavior of a man of genius, and the attributes and behaviors he mentions bear a striking resemblance to himself. But a scientist’s lot is not a happy one. To illustrate his point, Usbek includes a letter from a savant who, having dissected a neighbor’s dog, is subsequently blamed for every dog in the neighborhood who disappears. He then provides his own analysis, showing how the people who attain excellence in science, history, and other fields of study are respected and admired only by other people in their own field.

Usbek is suggesting that he, personally, has been wrongly accused or punished for excellence. This, perhaps, was his reason for leaving Persia and living in self-imposed exile. This, perhaps, is his reason for going so frequently out into the country. But there’s a problem with such a hypothesis: the text provides no evidence of Usbek actually studying, writing, or publishing anything that would acquaint him personally with the consequences of excellence. Yet he takes on the tone of a martyr nonetheless.

Letter 146: Usbek (Paris) to Rhedi (Venice)

Usbek states, as a maxim, that a minister cannot be great unless he is sincere. He mentions a fact he believes Rhedi should know: that the trip to France is not Usbek’s first voyage abroad, and that he travelled in the Indies for a long time. This is interesting new information for the reader. Did Usbek travel as an unencumbered single man, the way Rica did, or is this not the first time he has abandoned his family for years on end? Also, why has this accomplished world traveler never performed the Hajj pilgrimage?

Usbek describes a nation in which, led by a minister who set a bad example, the people in an entire nation adopted a victim mentality and used any available means, including legal redress, to support “iniquitous deeds” to avenge with real consequences these imagined slights. This letter is another satire on the economic system of John Law, with emphasis on the dubious value of paper money.

Letter 147: The Chief Eunuch (the Seraglio at Ispahan) to Usbek (Paris)

The Chief Eunuch has observed several violations of protocol from Usbek’s wives, who after nine years appear to have decided that Usbek is gone permanently. Zélis let her veil fall on the way to the mosque, so that other people saw her face. Whether the wardrobe malfunction was accidental or deliberate is not clear, but the Chief Eunuch believes it was deliberate. Zachi was caught in bed with one of her maids, and the Chief Eunuch has intercepted a letter but does not know who the addressee might be. Furthermore, a young man was observed in the seraglio garden; he made his escape by scaling the wall. Between all these things and the facts he has not yet discovered, the Chief Eunuch is certain Usbek has been betrayed by at least one of his wives.

This letter creates a turning point in the plot, because up until now the Chief Eunuch, having been ensnared in a romantic intrigue as per the events of Letter 9, has not been satisfied with Usbek's injunction to his wives to play nicely and to obey. Interestingly, the offenses the Chief Eunuch describes are all the sort of thing that could be noticed by other people and reported independently to Usbek. To prevent disaster to himself, the Chief Eunuch turns on the women, effectively throwing them under a bus by pretending he was never involved in the deception.

Note the 1718 date on the letter. It takes four to six months from a letter to travel between Paris and Ispahan. While these things were occurring, and while the seraglio was collapsing, Usbek was pontificating about how a good and gentle government, a just monarchy where the leader sets a good example, is necessary to the propagation of the species.

Letter 148: Usbek (Paris) to the Chief Eunuch (the Seraglio at Ispahan)

Usbek gives unlimited license to the Chief Eunuch to punish, chastise, and bring secrets to light. He says to “purify” the seraglio and will hold the Chief Eunuch responsible for the slightest fault. He also says it was most likely Zélis who was supposed to receive the letter. This could be because of Zélis’s letter to him in which she asserted that she’d found other ways to occupy her time and comfort herself for the loss of the absent Usbek.

Letter 149: Narsit (the Seraglio at Ispahan) to Usbek

Narsit reports that the Chief Eunuch has died. Two days after his death, a letter for the Chief Eunuch arrived. Narsit, having taken the Chief Eunuch’s place, does not open it. So the instructions to enforce order are ignored. Narsit does not mention any particular disorder in the seraglio, which suggests that the Chief Eunuch did not discuss the problems with him. This is consistent with the notion that the Chief Eunuch has been blackmailed or bribed into going along with bad behavior, or that the Chief Eunuch's report to Usbek might be false or exaggerated in order to obtain power to punish the women he despises.

Letter 150: Usbek (Paris) to Narsit (the Seraglio at Ispahan)

Usbek rebukes Narsit for not opening the letter to the Chief Eunuch. He says the seraglio is in complete disorder and instructs Narsit to enforce the rules.

Letter 151: Solim (the Seraglio at Ispahan) to Usbek (Paris)

It is unclear as to exactly who Solim is: he might be the Soliman whose daughter was mutilated by her bridegroom, or he might be another eunuch. In any case he is someone in whom the Chief Eunuch confided. He reveals that a letter from Usbek has been intercepted and stolen prior to its arrival. Exactly who arranged the interception is unclear, but there are at least two young men involved because the slave in charge of Usbek’s country home has been bribed to conceal them in a hidden room. The women are relaxed, happy, and having a good time except for Roxana who maintains her customary aloof behavior.

At this point, the reader still has no direct evidence of bad behavior from the women, apart from the Chief Eunuch’s word which has been communicated directly to Usbek and also indirectly to Solim.Solim has not personally seen any of the incidents the Chief Eunuch reported, but he is definitely is in a position to advance his career at the women’s expense.

Letter 152: Narsit (the Seraglio at Fatmé) to Usbek (Paris)

Now we know more about the second seraglio: it is one that Usbek’s wives frequently occupy themselves. But Roxana and Zélis were anxious to visit, and judging by the last letter the reader can deduce that each of them has a lover there.

Narsit congratulates himself on running a well-ordered seraglio and mentions that the slave sent to retrieve the letter from Usbek from some Armenian merchants was robbed: the letter was taken (suggesting that the woman to whom it was written has influence outside the seraglio). Would Usbek please write again?

Letter 153: Usbek (Paris) to Solim (the Seraglio at Ispahan)

Usbek places all power in Solim, to enforce his vengeance. He indicates that he is Solim’s “master”, meaning that Solim and the aforementioned Soliman are not in fact the same person, and promises rewards for restoring order to the seraglio. Meanwhile, Solim is effectively promoted to Chief Eunuch.

Letter 154: Usbek (Paris) to all of his wives (the Seraglio at Ispahan)

Usbek informs his wives that Solim is now the Chief Eunuch, and will punish them and enforce discipline.

Letter 155: Usbek (Paris) to Nessir (Ispahan)

Usbek is whining about how he’s living in an offensive, barbarous country far away from everything in which he is interested. Clearly science has lost its appeal. He is depressed because of the events occurring in the seraglio. He cannot endure exile any longer. He claims to have asked Rica to return “a thousand times”, but Rica refuses and somehow keeps the older man in Paris. He proposes to return to Persia, even though in the process he might “hand his head to his enemies”. This indicates that whatever crime Usbek may have committed is severe enough to still be punishable by death even nine years later, and that the apparent favor of the Persian king is not enough security to protect him should he return.

Usbek is also worried about exactly what he will do, or what he can do, if he has to personally order punishments. While Usbek remains in Paris he can order dire punishments through his eunuchs and pretend to be personally innocent of the grief they cause. If he is personally present, he will be too sad and emotional to actually enforce the level of rigor he desires. No matter how welcoming his wives are, he will still have his suspicions and his jealousy. He believes that slaves, who he considers to be incapable of love, are better off than he is, because he is miserable. The modern reader will feel very little sympathy for him at this point.

Letter 156: Roxana (the Seraglio at Ispahan) to Usbek (Paris)

Roxana is furious at the outrageous activity of a “tiger”, Solim, who is raging and punishing at will. He has tortured two white eunuchs, sold off the women’s slaves, and beaten both Zachi and Zélis. Each of the women is confined to her personal apartment, forced to wear a veil even while alone, and prohibited to speak or write. The only thing they are allowed to do is weep. Their sleep is being interrupted constantly by new eunuchs who take turns waking the women up with suspicions that may or may not be real. Roxana says that her troubles will end with her life, and that she will not give Usbek time to put an end to the physical, verbal, or emotional abuse ordered on his behalf. She intends to take her own life.

Letter 157: Zachi (the Seraglio at Ispahan) to Usbek (Paris)

Zachi is complaining because Solim beat her in a humiliating way, asserting that he was following Usbek’s orders. Although she’s maintained a constant love for Usbek, dedicating every moment to him, she cannot endure the humiliation. She begs Usbek to return to either love her or allow her to die at his feet. This suggest that Zachi also plans to take her own life.

Letter 158: Zélis (the Seraglio at Ispahan) to Usbek (Paris)

Zélis has also been beaten, and wonders why Usbek thinks he has any grounds to condemn her, having been a thousand leagues away for years. She understands that Solim’s barbarous treatment of her is on Usbek’s orders, and that Usbek is solely to blame for what is being done to her. She asserts that she no longer loves him, and that she has lost respect for him. His soul, she says, is debased and he has become cruel.

Letter 159: Solim (the Seraglio at Ispahan) to Usbek (Paris)

Solim has bad news: despite the beatings and the constant surveillance, and perhaps because she herself is not being watched since she has managed to deflect suspicion onto the other women, Roxana managed to sneak a lover into the seraglio. The eunuchs surprised him. He stabbed Solim and made a long defense, wounding several of the other eunuchs who surrounded him until he himself was killed. He plans to punish the women immediately.

Letter 160: Solim (the Seraglio at Ispahan) to Usbek (Paris)

Solim has decided he is going to punish, and he’s thrilled at the idea. He’s actually going to shed blood. This suggests that he may kill Roxana or at least severely harm her.

Letter 161: Roxana (the Seraglio at Ispahan) to Usbek (Paris)

Roxana has taken poison and will die presently, but before she leaves she sends off a letter to Usbek. She reveals that although she hates Usbek and has always hated him, she figured out how to transform his seraglio into a place that still had some comfort and love for her. She has no reason to live, now that the man she loved is dead, and oh, by the way, she has also murdered the eunuchs. So Solim won’t get to spill any blood after all—he is dead because Roxana found a way to kill him before he attacked her—and the other wives, if they are still alive, are free to leave or to do whatever else they please.