Episode 26: Eclipse, Insurrection, and Murder

The date is December 21, 1637, and we have made our way to Book 7 of the travel journal of Adam Olearius, the last of the series. Our trade ambassadors have survived the dangerous journey from Germany to the capital city of Persia, but, as we will see, Ambassador Otto Bruggeman’s actions have made the return trip even more dangerous.On New Year’s Day they fire their cannons three times in celebration, listen to a sermon, make what Olearius calls “the ordinary prayers,” and then travel another five leagues to the village of Sensen.As they leave Kom early on the morning of January 5, Olearius reports a near-total solar eclipse. The sun was “not quite three degrees above the horizon when the moon deprived us almost of all sight of it,” he writes, “and so overshadowed it, that, to my judgement, in the greatest obscurity, the eclipse was three parts of four.”Sometime on January 6, Adam Olearius’ horse falls down dead in the harsh winter weather of the Persian plateau, and they slog through six inches of snow for the next 150 miles until they pass through the coastal mountains on the southern shore of the Caspian Sea.Ambassador Bruggeman’s horse falls down under him, too, and not only is his right arm put out of joint, but he hits his head on the ground and his brains are so disordered that they fear he might never recover. They reach Saba that night, some 180 miles from Isfahan, and stay there all the next day in the hope that Bruggeman will recover his senses.They reach the city of Caswin on January 11, and stay more than a week waiting for fresh horses and mules. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit semipropilgrim.substack.com