OELSCHLAGER [OLEARIUS], ADAM (1600 – 1671), German traveller
and Orientalist, was born at Aschersleben, near Magde-burg, in 1599 or
1600. After studying at Leipzig he became librarian and court mathematician
to Duke Frederick III. of Holstein-Gottorp, and in 1633 he was appointed
secretary to the ambassadors Philip Crusius, jurisconsult, and Otto Brügge-mann
or Brugman, merchant, sent by the duke to Muscovy and Persia in the hope
of making arrangements by which his newly-founded city of Friedrichstadt
should become the terminus of an overland silk-trade. This embassy started
from Gottorp on the 22nd of October 1633, and travelled by Hamburg, Lübeck,
Riga, Dorpat (five months' stay), Revel, Narva, Ladoga and Novgorod to
Moscow (August, 14, 1634). Here they concluded an advantageous
treaty with Michael Romanov, and returned forthwith to Gottorp (December
14, 1634 – April 7, 1635) to procure the ratification of this arrangement
from the duke, before proceeding. to Persia. This accomplished, they started
afresh from Hamburg on the 22nd of October 1635, arrived at Moscow on the
29th of March 1636; and left Moscow on the 30th of June for Nizhniy
Novgorod, whither they had already sent agents (in 1634-1635) to prepare
a vessel, for their descent of the Volga. Their voyage down the great river
and over the Caspian was slow and hindered by accidents, especially by
grounding, as near Derbent on the 14th of November 1636; but at last, by
way of Shemakha (three months' delay here), Ardebil, Sultanieh and Kasvin,
they reached the Persian court at Isfahan .(August 3, 1637), and were received
by the shah (August 16). Negotiations here were not as successful as at
Moscow, and the embassy left Isfahan on the 21st of December 1637; and
returned home by Resht, Lenkoran, Astrakhan, Kazan, Moscow, &c.
At Revel Oelschlager parted from his colleagues (April 15, 1639) and
embarked direct for Lübeck. On his way,he had made a chart of the
Volga, and partly for this, reason the tsar Michael wished to persuade,
or compel, him, to enter his service. Once back at Gottorp, Oelschlager
became librarian to the duke; who also made him keeper of his Cabinet of
Curiosities, and induced the tsar to excuse his (promised) return
to Moscow. Under his care the Gottorp, library and cabinet were greatly
enriched in MSS., books, and oriental and other works of art: in 1651 he
purchased, for this purpose, the collection of the Dutch scholar and physician,
Bernard ten Broecke (" Paludanus” ). He died at Gottorp on the 22nd.of
February 1671.
It is by his admirable narrative of the Russian and the Persian legation
(Beschreibung der muscovitischen und persischen Reise, Schleswig,
1647, and, afterwards in several enlarged editions, 1656,It is by his admirable
narrative of the Russian and the Persian legation (Beschreibung der
muscowitischen und persischen Reise, Schleswig, 1647, and afterwards
in several enlarged editions, 1656, hac.) that Oelschläger is best
known, though he also published a history of Holstein (Kurtzer Begriff
einer holsteinischen Chronic, Schleswig, 1663), a famous catalogue
of the Holstein-Gottorp cabinet (1666), and a translation of the Gulistan
(Persianisches Rosenthal, Schleswig, 1654), to which was appended
a translation of the fables of Lokman. A French version of the Beschreibung
was published by Abraham de Wicquefort (Voyages en Moscovie, Tartarie
et Perse, par Adam Olearius, Paris, 1656), an English version was made
by John Davies of Kidwelly (Travels of the Ambassadors sent by Frederic,
Duke of Holstein, to the Great Duke of, Muscovy and the King of Persia,
London, 1662; 2nd ed., 1669), and a Dutch translation by Dieterius
van Wageningen (Beschrijvingh van de nieuwe Parciaensche ofte Orientaelsche
Reyse, Utrecht, 1651); an Italian translation of the Russian sections
also appeared (Viaggi di Moscovia, Viterbo and Rome, 1658). Paul
Flemming the poet and J. A. de Mandelslo, whose travels to the East Indies
are usually published with those of Oelschläger, accompanied the embassy.
Under Oelschläger's direction the celebrated globe of Gottorp (11ft.
in diameter) and armillary sphere were executed in 1654 – 1664; the globe
was given to Peter the Great of Russia in 1713 by Duke Frederick's grandson,
Christian Augustus. Oelschläger's unpublished works include a Lexicon
Persicum and several other Persian studies.
(C. R. B.)
Eleventh Edition
Contributor
Charles Raymond Beazley, M.A. D.Litt., F.R.G.S., F.R.Hist.S.