P.T. Barnum wrote in his 1866 book, "Humbugs of the World," of a trick
played on Louis XIV of France by a bogus Persian envoy named Reza Bey.
Claiming to represent the Shah of Persia, Reza Bey was loaded with
gifts from the king and then disappeared and was never heard from
again.  Court painter Antoine
Covoel apparently painted a picture of the meeting between Louis and
the fake envoy. My question is, Is there any truth to this story, and
what are the details. THANK YOU.

Dear royalsca,

Don't take P.T. Barnum's version of the story at face value. Though it
is inspired by the actual events, the facts are a bit different.

Mohammed Reza Beg (there are various spellings of his name; French
sources for example usually refer to him as Méhémet Riza Beg) was not
an imposter. He was a high-ranking official to the Persian governor of
the Erivan province (Armenia). Reza Beg's voyage to France was
absolutely official: He had been chosen by Persian Shah Hussein for
the mission and travelled with grand entourage, as suitable for the
diplomat of a mighty kingdom.

François Pidou de Saint-Olon (1646-1720), a nobleman who was the
French liaison officer to the Persian delegation, described the
ambassador's procession when he entered Paris on 7 February 1715:

"Ten Persians or Armenians on horseback carrying long ornate rifles.
Two Armenians in charge of the care of the presents of the Persian
king. Two pages of the ambassador, his master of ceremonies, his
secretary and the interpreter. The ambassador on a horse harnessed
with the shutter. Persan and Armenian lackeys of the ambassador around
his horse. The shield bearer of the ambassador carrying the standard
of the Persian king, marching immediately behind him with a page who
carried the sabre of the ambassador."

Not exactly what one would call an imposter's appearance.

Mohammed Reza Beg spent several months as ambassador to the court of
Versailles. During this time, he actually conducted negotiations on
trade treaties between Persia and France, as well as on specific
agreements on the installation of consulates. Also, he confered with
the French on possible joint military operations against the Turkish
Empire. So one can not say that Reza Beg came, received gifts, and
disappeared again. Negotiations were slowed down and made difficult,
however, by king Louis XIV's bad state of health.

It seems that the "bogus ambassador" myth has its roots in the lavish,
extravagant character of Reza Beg. He spent more money than he could
afford, and it seems that he was not too credible when it came to
paying back borrowed amounts. In addition, there may have been certain
amorous affairs that added to his bad reputation. But it is not easy
to determine how much of those insinuations is based on truth, and how
much simply derived from defamation and court gossip. After all, only
one year after Reza Beg had returned to Persia, French author
d'Hostelfort published a book called "Amanzolide, story of the life,
the amours and the secret adventures of Mehemed-Riza-Beg, Persian
ambassador to the court of Louis the Great in 1715." This shows that
his person was source and target for what we would call yellow press
today.

Anyway, Reza Beg travelled to Amsterdam in May 1715 to lend money from
Persian-Armenian merchants resident there and came back to Paris again
after they had granted the further financing of the mission. Again,
this is clearly not the behavior of an imposter or a bogus diplomat.

Mohammed Reza Beg returned to Persia in autumn 1715 after treaties on
commerce and friendship between France and Persia had been signed in
Versailles on 13 August. As another result of the diplomatic mission,
a permanent Persian consulate was established in Marseilles, main port
for the French trade with the Orient.

One can speculate that Reza Beg has left some unpaid debt, what later
became the origin of the story of the bogus ambassador who
appropriated gifts and then disappeared. But he surely was not an
imposter or a fraudster.


A brief summary of Reza Beg's diplomatic voyage can be found here,
unfortunately in French only:
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Palais/2230/hagopdjan.html
Source:
Armenian Genealogy: Hagopdjan de Deritchan, Consul de Perse en France



Sources:

Blackmask Online: Memoirs of Louis XIV. and the Regency, V4
http://www.blackmask.com/books35c/cm21b.htm

Encyclopædia Iranica: The French East India Company
http://www.iranica.com/articles/v7/v7f6/v7f658.html

Encyclopædia Iranica: Gaudereau, Martin
http://www.iranica.com/articles/v10f3/v10f3114.html

Jean Claude Damas: Le curé Claude Bougrain
http://membres.lycos.fr/jeanclaudedamas/variabougrain.htm

Manteau Publishing House: Amanzolide, nouvelle historique et galante
http://www.1675-1725.historicum.net/library/f-1716-0001.html


Search terms used:
"louis xiv" reza 1715
://www.google.de/search?q=%22louis+xiv%22+reza+1715&hl=de&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&start=20&sa=N
persian ambassador "louis xiv"
://www.google.de/search?hl=de&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&q=persian+ambassador+%22louis+xiv%22&btnG=Google-Suche
"Persian Ambassador." "louis xiv"
://www.google.de/search?q=%22Persian+Ambassador.%22+%22louis+xiv%22&hl=de&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&start=10&sa=N
ambassadeur "louis xiv" perse 1715
://www.google.de/search?q=ambassadeur+%22louis+xiv%22+perse+1715&hl=de&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&start=20&sa=N
ambassadeur  perse faux
://www.google.de/search?hl=de&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&q=ambassadeur++perse+faux&btnG=Google-Suche
"riza beg" 1715
://www.google.de/search?hl=de&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&q=%22riza+beg%22+1715&btnG=Google-Suche


Best regards,
Scriptor

---

Clarification of Answer by scriptor-ga on 07 Apr 2004 11:33 PDT

This might be interesting in addition to the facts on Reza Beg's mission:

A portrait of Mohammed Reza Beg, drawn by famous French painter Antoine Watteau:
http://www.missouri.edu/~iversonj/fr353/watteau.persan.jpeg

Source:
University of Missouri: La littérature épistolaire au dix-huitième siècle
http://www.missouri.edu/~iversonj/fr353/

Regards,
Scriptor

Please excuse these few lines that I have to add to Scriptor-ga's
excellent research.

A further attribution of Mohommed Reza Beg as an "impostor", in
addition to the description given by Elizabeth-Charlotte, Duchesse
d'Orleans (under Sources cited by Scriptor-ga above) of the Ambassador
making off with a woman hidden in a box under pretense of it
containing Moslem scriptures, is this:

[Memoirs of Louis XIV and His Court and of the Regency 
  - by the Duke of Saint-Simon (Project Gutenberg etext)]
http://www.gutenberg.net/etext03/cm32b10.txt

"On Tuesday, the 13th of August, he made a violent effort, and gave a
farewell audience to a sham Persian ambassador, whom Pontchartrain had
imposed upon him; this was the last public action of his life...  On
the morrow he sent some precious stones to the Persian ambassador just
alluded to."

The action here coincides with last days of Louis XIV, and though it
mentions no name, leaves little room for doubt that it is the same
person.

This account was apparently a source for a false Persian Ambassador
who appears in Sylvandire, a romance novel by Alexandre Dumas (Count
of Monte Cristo, Three Musketeers) set in the time of Louis XIV:

[Sylvandire (Beau Tancrède; The Marriage Verdict)]
http://www.cadytech.com/dumas/work.php?key=328

Perhaps the Dumas novel, published in 1843, may then have contributed
to P.T. Barnum's writing.

Also, I located an image what might be the painting here (see first thumbnail): 

http://www.americanphoto.co.jp/pages/celeb/L/Louis_XIV/Plans-2.html

There's no attribution there of the painter, but Antoine Coypel was a
court painter during this transitional period from Louis XIV to Louis
XV, though not elevated to "Premier Peintre du Roi" in 1716 under the
latter.

regards, mathtalk-ga

Sorry, I meant to say "not elevated... until 1716".  Here's a link
with a short biographical note on Antoine Coypel:

http://www.oberlin.edu/allenart/collection/coypel_antoine.html

-- mathtalk-ga