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39-619: Marie Petit was born in Moulins , France, in 1673 to a cobbler and laundress. When Petit was in her twenties she moved to Paris, where she ran a gambling house, a maison de jeu , located between Mazarine and Rue Dauphine . Petit became very wealthy through her endeavors with the gambling house. In 1702, Petit met with Jean-Baptiste Fabre (c. 1650–1706) who had just been appointed as the French ambassador to Persia by King Louis XIV. Scholars have suggested that they may have been neighbors or that Fabre

78-404: A full riot. She was imprisoned for three years before she received a verdict of an additional year in prison. She was released in 1713. After she was released, Petit eventually returned to Paris in 1715, having lost all of her wealth and possessions. In 1719, she obtained a hearing to revoke all of her past legal judgements, which she was granted. Little else is known about her later life, but it

117-785: A knowledge of Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and European languages. In the Ottoman Empire , Dragomans were mainly members of the Ottoman Greek community, who possessed considerable multilingual skills, because Greek trading communities did substantial business in the markets of the Mediterranean Sea , the Black Sea , the Atlantic Ocean , and the Indian Ocean . To a lesser extent, other communities with international commercial links, notably

156-653: A prison for women, particularly prostitutes, where she stayed from 1709–1713. She was about 35 years old when she arrived. She was accused of poisoning Fabre, abandoning the Catholic faith, prostitution, and attempting to assassinate Michel. Petit fought these accusations through several trials and lawsuits, claiming that all of these accusations were baseless and made by Michel and Ferriol in an attempt to taint her reputation. In her trials, she showed letters from Vakhtang VI in her support and received letters on her behalf from Fabre’s widow, Anne Cataro. Petit's lawyer argued that Petit

195-468: A system of concessions on rivers. This was the birthplace of the great 19th-century operatic baritone and art collector Jean-Baptiste Faure . In the 20th century, Coco Chanel went to school in Moulins as an orphan, before moving to Paris, where she became a fashion designer and major innovator in women's clothing. Moulins is the prefecture of Allier , even though it is not the most populated commune of

234-563: A task for which he had to create an entirely new vocabulary. Following Ishak, the grand dragoman and his staff were Muslims, and the Translation Office ( Tercüme Odası , "Translation Room", in Turkish), with its familiarity with things European, became a new major ladder to influence and power in the Tanzimat era; this knowledge largely replaced the older ladders of the army, the bureaucracy, and

273-583: Is obviously more closely related to the other languages mentioned, though both are derived from the same Semitic root. There has been speculation of a Hittite origin of the term (Salonen, p. 12; Rabin, pp. 134–136). During the Middle Ages the word entered European languages: in Middle English as dragman , from Old French drugeman , from Medieval Latin as dragumannus , from Middle Greek δραγομάνος, dragoumanos . Later European variants include

312-523: Is speculated that she died in her forties not long after her release from prison. For centuries Marie Petit’s story was told but treated as a story for novels rather than historical analysis. Novels included: Petit wrote of her experiences in Persia and sent them to the novelist Alain-René Lesage . However, when Pontchartain heard of this he wrote to Lesage, asking him to reject Petit's request for him to rewrite and publish her memoir. Petit's original manuscript

351-534: The Anne de Beaujeu Museum , and The National Center of Costume and Scenography . Moulins is located on the banks of the river Allier. Moulins-sur-Allier station , in the centre of the town, has direct trains to Paris ( Gare de Bercy ), which take about 2 hours 25 minutes. The A79 motorway passes south of the town. Montbeugny Airport is a small airport located near Moulins. Before the French Revolution , Moulins

390-787: The Armenians , were recruited. In Arabic the word is ترجمان ( tarjumān ), in Turkish tercüman . Deriving from the Semitic quadriliteral root t-r-g-m , it appears in Akkadian as "targumannu," in Ge'ez (Classical Ethiopic) as ትርጓም ( t-r-gw-m ), and in Aramaic as targemana . Hebrew makes a distinction between מתרגם ( metargem )—referring to a translator of written texts—and מתורגמן ( meturgeman ) referring to an interpreter of spoken conversation or speeches. The latter

429-706: The Danubian Principalities ( Moldavia and Wallachia ) would previously have occupied this Ottoman office, a fact which did not prevent many of them from joining conspiracies that aimed to overthrow Turkish rule over the area. These men were instrumental in spreading a wide-ranging curiosity about Islamic culture throughout the Latin parts of Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries. The dragomans had scholarly language training in Persian, Arabic and Turkish since they were translators, interpreters, authors and were very open to

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468-683: The German trutzelmann , the French trucheman or truchement (in post- Tanzimat French, and in modern French it is drogman ), the Italian turcimanno , and the Spanish trujamán , trujimán and truchimán ; these variants point to a Turkish or Arabic word "turjuman", with different vocalization. Webster's Dictionary of 1828 lists dragoman as well as the variants drogman and truchman in English. Consequently,

507-675: The Porte 's relation with Christian countries —and some dragomans thus came to play crucial roles in Ottoman politics. The profession tended to be dominated by ethnic Greeks , including the first Ottoman Dragoman of the Sublime Porte , Panagiotis Nikousios , the official interpreter for the Divan ( Imperial Council ) of the Sultan, and his successor Alexander Mavrocordatos . But this dominance changed in 1821 with

546-581: The Christian missionaries in the area, Petit was also seen as abandoning her Catholic faith. Her two major opponents in the political realm were Charles de Ferriol , the ambassador to France in Constantinople, and his secretary Pierre Victor Michel. When they first heard of Fabre’s death, Ferriol sent Michel to Persia to become the ambassador there, though Louis XIV had not appointed him at that time. Ferriol claimed that he sent Michel to bring legitimacy back to

585-525: The French ambassador there, Charles de Ferriol . Fabre and Petit eventually traveled to Constantinople , where they stayed for more than a month. Finally, in June 1706, after traveling in disguise as merchants, they arrived in Yerevan in what was then Persia. Suddenly, on August 16, 1706, just a few months after their arrival, Fabre died, likely from poisoning while on a hunting trip. When Fabre died, Petit took over

624-486: The capital of the province from Bourbon-l'Archambault to Moulins. In February 1566 it became eponymous to the Edict of Moulins , an important royal ordinance dealing with many aspects of the administration of justice and feudal and ecclesiastical privilege , including limitations on the appanages held by French princes, abrogation of the levy of rights of tallage claimed by seigneurs over their dependants, and provisions for

663-559: The department. The position of mayor has existed in Moulins since 1518. The current mayor is Pierre-André Périssol , in office since 1995 and last re-elected at the 2020 elections . Moulins is twinned with: Dragoman A dragoman was an interpreter , translator, and official guide between Turkish -, Arabic -, and Persian -speaking countries and polities of the Middle East and European embassies , consulates , vice-consulates and trading posts . A dragoman had to have

702-576: The diplomatic mission. After meeting with the shah, she arrived at the court of Vakhtang VI , governor/king of Kartli in Safavid Georgia , in July 1707, and she was welcomed and stayed several months. The regent wrote to King Louis XIV , describing Petit positively and affirming her Catholic faith and diplomacy skills. According to contemporary critics, Persia and Georgia provided the environment for Petit to perform diplomatic actions while being respected by

741-694: The diplomatic mission. The two men accused Petit of creating scandal in Persia and committing illicit sexual crimes. They also accused Petit of assassinating Fabre. Ferriol described her as, "a roaring lion who ravaged, the middle of Asia, the Catholic religion and the honor of the nation." Some scholars have suggested that there may have already been previous tension between Fabre and Ferriol, due to their connection in Constantinople, which may have increased Ferriol’s dislike of Petit. Michel eventually found Petit after months of searching for her and she said that he tried to rape and kill her when he found her in Tabriz . Michel

780-474: The diplomatic tasks in the region. She met with the Khan of Yerevan , the provincial governor of the region, to negotiate for her funds from Fabre to be returned to her, since Fabre's possessions were under the control of the khan after his death Petit declared herself the French ambassadress as “a representative of the princesses of France.” Over the next three years she engaged in a variety of diplomatic endeavors and

819-414: The dragomans as ‘the tongue that speaks, the ear that hears, the eye that sees, the hand that gives, the spirit that acts, and on whom the life and success of every negotiation may depend. There was huge success from the published translation of Thousand And One Nights , by Antoine Galland (1646–1715). He was attached to the embassy of Charles Marie François Olier, marquis de Nointel , a Parisian who

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858-493: The first imperial dragoman recorded was Lutfi Pasha who was sent to Venice in 1479 to deliver a treaty. The position took particular prominence in the Ottoman Empire , where demand for the mediation provided by dragomans is said to have been created by the resistance on the part of the Muslim Ottomans to learn the languages of non-Muslim nations. The office incorporated diplomatic as well as linguistic duties—namely, in

897-671: The local governments. When other French diplomats and missionaries heard of Petit’s actions they were angry. They accused Petit of being a prostitute or Fabre’s concubine, and claimed that she was only welcomed by the Safavid government through seduction. Petit’s opponents accused her of many things and made unfounded claims. They labeled her as a prostitute, concubine, seductress, renegade, whore, murderer, thief, and traitor. Rumors spread about her diplomatic actions in Persia and Georgia, suggesting that she could only have had influence there through seduction. Many sources describe her experiences from

936-869: The material and fashionable intricacies of the Ottoman culture. The first French translation of the Quran was done by André du Ryer , in 1647. He was from the French consulate in Egypt. Another, Cosmo of Carbognano, from the Naples embassy, published in Latin: The Principles of Turkish Grammar for The Use of Apostolic Missionaries in Constantinople (Rome 1794). As a highly trained group of diplomatic professionals, they were employed by Europeans in embassies and consulates, not only translating and interpreting items but often meeting with Ottoman officials without their employer being present. An 18th-century Venetian ambassador described

975-434: The perspective of her opponents and portray her in a negative light. She was frequently accused of being not only the mistress of Fabre but also of Shah Soltan Hosayn , the khan of Yerevan, and Vakhtang VI . Christian missionaries in Persia openly disapproved of her and worried about the reputation of Catholics in Persia, accusing her of sexual misconduct. Due to her association with her dragoman Imām Qoli Beg, who opposed

1014-489: The plural, in English, is "dragomans" (not "dragomen"). The family name of Franjo Tudjman , the first post-Communist President of Croatia , indicates that one of his ancestors might have been a dragoman. In the Turkish tradition, the dragoman position is recorded in the pre-Ottoman Sultanate of Rum during the 13th-century reign of Keykubad I when two dragomans and two translator clerks were appointed. In Ottoman records,

1053-534: The religious establishment in the mid- and late-19th century. The dragomans were exempt from taxation. As many of them were Jewish, in virtue of their proficiency in foreign languages, Jewish Halakhic responsa dealt with the question whether or not these dragomans were exempt also from the internal taxes of the Jewish community. It became customary that most hospodars of the Phanariote rule (roughly 1711–1821) over

1092-602: The ship the Tridan in Toulon , France, on March 2, 1705. On their journey, they stopped in Alexandretta and Aleppo . In Aleppo, there were creditors that Fabre owed money to but he was unable to pay them. Petit loaned him another two thousand livres. They faced more troubles as they tried to leave Aleppo when officials would not allow them to leave. They contacted Fabre’s wife, Anne Cataro in Constantinople, to obtain transit permission from

1131-460: The start of the Greek War of Independence . In 1821 the chief dragoman Constantine Mourouzi was executed for suspected disloyalty, and his successor, Stavraki Aristarchi, was dismissed and exiled in 1822. With unanswered correspondence accumulating, the chief naval instructor, one Ishak Efendi , took over the position and became a pioneer in translation of Western scientific literature into Turkish,

1170-536: The witnesses used in the trial, since many, she argued, were in Michel's pay. Throughout her trial she asked for justice, rather than a pardon. Petit frequently wrote to Louis de Pontchartain , the French chancellor who had signed the warrant for her arrest, in an attempt to keep her case and situation fresh in his mind. She described herself as 'l'héroine de Perse' or the heroine of Persia, arguing wrongful imprisonment. Petit dealt with harsh conditions in prison. The Refuge

1209-625: Was a councilor to the Parlement of Paris , and a French ambassador to the Ottoman court , 1670 to 1679. One who created a large European interest in the history of Islam, with his published Geschichte des osmanischen Reiches was Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall of Austria, a student at the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna (the academy was initially established by Empress Maria Theresa in 1754 as "The Oriental Academy" to train young diplomats to represent

Marie Petit - Misplaced Pages Continue

1248-460: Was a frequent visitor at the gambling house. Fabre was thirty years her senior. Fabre needed funds for his journey and Petit lent him eight thousand livres in cash, around $ 450,000 in US dollars in 2020. Petit decided to travel with Fabre to Persia to make sure he followed through on the repayment. Scholars have also suggested that Petit may have also seen it as a business opportunity. Petit and Fabre boarded

1287-444: Was able to take Petit's place, claiming that he was saving the diplomatic mission from threats to Catholicism and recovering France's reputation in Persia, which he believed had been tainted by Petit. He argued that all of the disorders and scandals in the diplomatic mission were caused by her. However, while Petit was granted an audience with the shah after having only recently arrived in Persia, it took Michel another two years before he

1326-518: Was granted an audience. Michel sent Petit back to France. On her way home, Petit traveled to Constantinople, where she had to stay for several months with Ferriol while dealing with health issues such as kidney stones and tuberculosis before boarding a ship, L’Entreprenant , back to France. After returning to France, Petit was served with a royal arrest warrant and taken to the Maison de Refuge in Marseille,

1365-506: Was lost. On Ferriol see: Saint-Priest, A. Mémoire sur l'ambassade de France en Turquie, ed Charles Schefer (Paris: Leroux, 1877). Moulins, Allier Moulins ( French pronunciation: [mulɛ̃] ); is a commune in central France, capital of the Allier department . It is located on the river Allier . Among its many tourist attractions are the Maison Mantin ,

1404-400: Was overcrowded and food was in short supply. Petit experienced health problems such as kidney stones while imprisoned. She may have also started a prison riot in 1709 when she demanded that the gatekeeper hand over the keys to her, and the police were called. She jumped on one officer, saying that she did not recognize his authority. She encouraged her fellow prisoners to join her and it was soon

1443-470: Was qualified as an ambassadress. He argued that her attempts to save the Frenchman who was sentenced to death reflected her skills as a negotiator. Petit herself wrote to Louis XIV to defend her reputation. She launched a countersuit against Michel for the debt she was owed from Fabre. She also accused Michel of attempting to murder and rape her on multiple occasions while they were still in Persia. She questioned

1482-497: Was the capital of the province of Bourbonnais and the seat of the Dukes of Bourbon . It appears in documented records at least as far back as the year 990. In 1232, Archambaud VIII, Sire de Bourbon granted a franchise to the village's inhabitants. The town achieved greater prominence in 1327, when Charles IV elevated Louis I de Clermont to Duke of Bourbon. Either Louis or the later Peter II, Duke of Bourbon and of Auvergne moved

1521-677: Was welcomed warmly by Persian officials. While in Yerevan, Petit pleaded on behalf of a condemned Jesuit who was sentenced to death, even offering to die by his side, so the khan released him. When the Shah Soltan Hosayn , the ruler of all of Persia, heard of this he requested an audience with Petit and she went to Qazvin to meet with him in December 1706. According to Petit, the shah viewed Petit’s diplomatic actions in place of Fabre as legitimate, welcomed her warmly, and considered her instrumental to

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