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MontesquieuPersian Letters
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1721A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Letters 1-23Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Letters 1-23 Summary
Usbek writes to his friend Rustan in their home city of Ispahan, Persia, that his young friend Rica and he have decided to travel in search of new knowledge and wisdom, believing they should learn more about the world than the ways of the Orient. He asks for word on what others think of this voyage. In a letter to the black eunuch who guards his harem, Usbek reminds him of his duties to “both command and obey” (5) the women living in Usbek’s seraglio. He urges the eunuch never to forget the great service that Usbek did for him when he chose him to be his head eunuch. Zachi, one of Usbek’s wives, writes a passionate letter declaring her sorrow at Usbek’s departure. She talks of a famous quarrel between his wives about which one was the prettiest and most seductive, reminding him that “victory was for me alone” (6). She expresses bitter dissatisfaction that he has abandoned her to travel “through savage lands” (7). Another wife, Zephis, claims that the black eunuch wants to take away her slave Zelide, and that she is under constant attack from “that black fiend” (7).
In his reply, Rustan informs Usbek that his departure has caused much commentary, mostly negative. Rica’s mother blames Usbek for taking her son away, and even Rustan himself resents having his friend so far away. In his letter to another Ispahan friend, Nessir, Usbek writes that they have finally exited Persia and entered the land of the “perfidious Ottomans” (8). Entering the country of infidels has awoken his patriotism, and his mind is troubled. He worries over his wives and states that although he has “forestalled love” (8), he is still very jealous and fears that they will not behave appropriately.
Another one of Usbek’s five wives, Fatmé, writes of the two months since he left. She too is saddened, her love unsatisfied, a woman of noble birth yet “a slave to the violence of her passion” (9). She contrasts the beauty of his face with the disgusting appearance of the eunuchs, who are the only men she is allowed to see. She calls all men cruel, for they seem to enjoy waking in women “desires we cannot satisfy” (10).
In his reply to Rustan from the city of Erzeron, Usbek reveals that he left Persia because “sincerity had made me enemies” (11). His deep interest in sciences was at first feigned to give credence to his design to depart Persia. Meanwhile, the chief eunuch writes to slave Ibbi, who is accompanying Usbek on his travels. He writes from his “dreadful prison” (12)—the seraglio—of the tragedy of becoming a eunuch, as the passions have not abated even though his flesh is destroyed. He recounts how his passions once got the better of him, and the woman exacted a great price of his total subordination. As he grew older, he started hating the women that so excited him and now enjoys ruling over them. It has all become a complex power play—he rules the women, they rule him, and the master rules all, and his alliances change.
Usbek and Rica’s friend Mirza writes that he misses them, and that in Ispahan they still debate various philosophical and ethical issues. They recently debated whether a man is happiest when he serves the senses or his virtue. Usbek replies with an allegory about a savage Arabian nation of Troglodytes who murder their king and decide to live “guided solely by their natural savagery” (16)—they plunder, kidnap women, and succumb to every primitive urge. This inevitably leads to chaos and ruin. In a second letter Usbek turns the tale on its head, depicting from the ruins of the first the beginning of a new race of Troglodytes who place virtue first: They learn to care for each other and place the community ahead of individual satisfaction, which brings peace and happiness. Once they discover religion, they believe gods look favorably upon them; religion proves to be another uniting thread in their community. In the next letter Usbek tells how the united Troglodytes cause envy of strangers who wish to pillage their lands and steal their goods. The Troglodytes offer them all if they just come in peace, but jealousy guides “those barbarous people” (21), and they go to war, which they lose because Troglodytes fight not as individuals but for each other. In the final letter Usbek tells how the Troglodytes chose an old and wise man as king; he sadly concludes that their prosperity in virtue has reached an end, as they now want a ruler to impose virtue on them so they “will have no need of virtue” (22) in themselves.
At the same time, the head eunuch in Usbek’s seraglio writes to the black eunuch Jaron in Usbek’s escort, wishing for his safe voyage and return.
Usbek next writes to Mullah Mehemet Ali at Qum in search of spiritual guidance as he travels far from his native country. Feeling his faith shaken, Usbek asks the holy interpreter about sacred Muslim practices (e.g., not eating pork, not touching corpses, washing regularly). If the reason for these taboos lies in the information of the senses, one cannot make an all-encompassing rule from them, for such information is not the same for everyone. Usbek wishes to know if his musings are an affront to religion. Mullah’s answer is that earthly reason and philosophy are worthless next to the teachings of religious thought. He relates a tale of the Prophet explaining the uncleanliness of pig’s flesh: On Noah’s Ark the excrement from all the animals started to tip the ark to one side. On God’s orders to balance the ark, an elephant produced a prodigious pile of excrement from which a pig was born. Its origin renders the animal unclean.
Upon arrival in Smyrna, Usbek writes to Rustan about the weakness and primitivism of the Ottoman Empire. Their rule is unyielding, lands unfarmed, and commerce unskilled. Only Smyrna is worthy, due to Europeans trading there. He predicts that in less than two centuries the Ottoman Empire will be destroyed.
Later Usbek writes to Zachi, who was found with the white eunuch Nadir in her rooms—a most grievous offense for which the eunuch will be executed. Usbek sends her a severe warning, mistrusting her virtue, although he professes love both for her and his new wife Roxane. He then writes a very threatening letter to the head white eunuch to remind him of his duties and the fact that he lives and dies by Usbek’s will. Simultaneously, Jaron writes to the head eunuch that he and all the black slaves are to return from their travels to help guard Usbek’s women, who are “haughty” (215), as are all women.
Usbek writes to his friend Ibben, relating his arrival in Italy (Livorno) after 40 days of sea travel. He’s fascinated by European women’s freedom to be seen by men and even go for walks chaperoned by elderly females, but the city’s architecture and atmosphere are alien. Usbek and Rica plan to travel shortly to Marseille and from there immediately to Paris.
Letters 1-23 Analysis
Montesquieu’s Persian Letters was, at the time, a novelistic experiment. The epistolary form (building the narrative exclusively through letters) represents the bridge between letter-writing as a literary convention of the late Renaissance and essay as a form closest to the expression of the humanist and philosophical interests in the early and late Enlightenment (consider the works of Montaigne, Descartes, Diderot, and Rousseau).
Framing and facilitating Montesquieu’s exploration of a wide range of topics, from religion to politics to culture, is a narrative of two Persian noblemen who travel through Turkey and Italy to Paris, in a quest to understand Western values and customs. Usbek is older and more experienced, with a harem of wives left in the care of eunuchs, and his letters detailing his and Rica’s travels form the first part of the novel.
It is obvious from the start, however, that he has not based his decision to travel solely on his thirst for knowledge: His position in the sultanate has been severely compromised by his refusal to bend under various political pressures and allow himself to become corrupted and therefore more malleable and susceptible to further influences. Having incurred anger from many sides, Usbek to a certain extent escapes Persia until things settle, and he makes his name as an explorer and traveler. Evidence of this lies in the very first question he poses to his friend Rustan in Ispahan, concerning reactions to his leaving the country (Letter 1). It’s clear from Rustan’s reply that not only has Usbek’s departure caused negative commentary, but his departure also constitutes a betrayal of friends and family as a man and husband (Letter 5). This will become a major plot consideration throughout the novel, especially when it comes to Usbek’s harem.
Usbek has five wives: Fatmé, Zachi, Zelis, Zephis, and Roxane, who is the youngest and most recently arrived. As three of them write letters to Usbek in this section, we learn precious details about the functioning of the harem in a seraglio, which to 18th-century European readers was naturally quite an exotic and unusual setting (very rarely were men able to travel to the East and report on it). Even though they all live together, each of the women is encouraged to think of herself as the most cherished by her husband, and this at times fosters a competitive atmosphere in the women’s quarters. The fact that each wife writes a separate letter gives us valuable additional insight into how seraglios functioned: Wives were encouraged to lead fairly separate lives from one another with their own escort of female virginal slaves, though they were also expected to get along and behave appropriately and without jealousy. Stylistically, Montesquieu structures the women’s letters as guided more by feeling than reason, and the linguistic register clearly differs, as the wives speak mostly of their intimate and sensual frustrations.
The author pays special attention to another set of personages in the first 23 letters: Usbek’s eunuch slaves. Usbek sends his second letter to the head black slave, which shows that his first concern after his reputation is ensuring his wives behave as they should and that his slaves perform their job adequately. This is as a matter of great import for Usbek’s honor as a man and husband. Traditionally in Persia, black eunuchs were the head slaves, while white eunuchs oversaw less significant activities and usually kept well away from the women. This is reflected in the fact that white slaves had only their testicles removed, while black slaves were forced to endure complete removal of their sex organs to ensure they would never be tempted to seduce one of their masters’ wives or slaves.
However, the head eunuch’s letter to fellow slave Ibbi, who is part of Usbek’s escort, shows quite poignantly that even though his flesh is destroyed, his passion still survives, rendering him incapable of both acting upon his desire and feeling the urge to do so (Letter 9). This latter paints a painful portrait of a practice largely unknown in Europe that severely humiliates men while delineating a very physical boundary of difference between master and slave. Montesquieu also explores the effects of such profound psychic and physical mutilation and frustration by depicting the eunuchs developing deeply rooted hatred toward women and a desire to be cruel to them. However, Letter 15, which the head eunuch writes to the slave Jaron, shows that there is also profound friendship, respect, and emotion between slaves (Letter 15).
The seraglio as a setting is thus vividly portrayed through two essentially opposing “forces”: the wives and their female slaves, and the eunuchs and their entourage. The position of both these groups in such a setting is ambiguous at best. The eunuchs are slaves to their masters, but their main task is to guard the women and keep the peace among them. This puts them in a potentially awkward and ultimately precarious position: To satisfy their master, they must become the de facto masters of the women in his absence. However, their lowly position as slaves puts them below women in the palace hierarchy, so the women undermine their equivocal position of power at every opportunity, seeking some additional freedom for themselves. It is essential to note that as described in the novel, the Persian women have had substantial practice in the arts of subtle manipulation, and their position toward the eunuchs will prove to be that of superiority and desire to ruin their reputation with the master. In essence, the women use the eunuchs as a potent surrogate for the master, but one they can conquer.
Replying to a letter from Mirza, who is interested in debating social and philosophical issues, Usbek addresses the major concern of Persian Letters: the exploration, discussion, and in-depth examination of various humanistic themes. This is what makes the novel one of the first significant works of the Enlightenment. In shaping the allegory of the nation of Troglodytes (Letters 11-14), Montesquieu was influenced by the writings of Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury, who explored the influences of human self-regard on the governing of states, as well as Roman geographer Pomponius Mela’s De situ orbis and his examination of the influence of climate on the disposition of people. (This will become a significant point in Montesquieu’s work.)
Additionally, as Usbek travels further from Persia, he develops questions and doubts about the practices of his own religion. By voicing some of his own concerns and questions through Usbek, the author creates a Muslim character who often comes dangerously close to blasphemy, and yet Persian Letters’s experimental novelistic form allows for this without the need for strict historical verisimilitude. This will prove to be one of the work’s lasting influences on the development of the novel, especially within the Enlightenment period, when writers were still establishing the genre’s basic elements.
This section ends with letters concerning Usbek and Rica’s travels through the Ottoman Empire and arrival in Italy. It’s important to note the division between the Sunni and Shiite factions of Islam, both having chosen different sides after the death of Prophet Muhammad in AD 632. Since Turks are Sunnis and Iranians (Persians) are Shiites, it is logical that Usbek sees the Ottoman Empire as a nation of infidels, which contributes to his negative opinion of them (Letter 19). As for Italy, Montesquieu emphasizes the culture shock a Muslim faced with Christian tradition for the first time is bound to experience (Letter 23).
