Representing Caucasian Boys at the Safavid Court in European Travelogues: A Weberian Critical Reading with Emphasis on Georgians

Studies in the history of sexuality have largely focused on the representation of erotic narratives in travel accounts of premodern societies. Some scholars, particularly those examining the Qajar period, have retrospectively traced the roots of male eroticism to the Safavid era, reconstructing this pattern primarily through accounts written by European travelers. Reliance on such sources without critically examining the contexts in which they were produced can lead to superficial interpretations. This critical study examines the representation of Caucasian boys, particularly Georgians, who appeared in courts, social gatherings, and coffeehouses in service roles and as performers. These boys frequently became the focal point of what travel writers portrayed as an “erotic cultural pattern.” Drawing on Max Weber’s interpretive sociology, this study investigates how European travel writers represented specific cultural features, such as long hair, ornate clothing, and boys’ dancing, within a framework of male same-sex desire.The findings indicate that these representations, particularly those dating to the reign of Shah Abbas I, largely fail to correspond with social realities. Rather, they were shaped by interpretive processes influenced by the cultural, religious, and political preconceptions of European observers and were often characterized by exaggeration, selective representation, and generalization. A diachronic analysis of travel accounts reveals a significant decline in references to such practices in the later Safavid period. In later travel narratives, male eroticism increasingly appears as a retrospective metaphor rather than as evidence of an enduring social pattern.This study argues that the concept of “institutionalized homosexuality” in Safavid Iran is not grounded in a coherent body of historical evidence but is instead largely a product of travel writers’ interpretations.By highlighting the epistemological limitations of these sources and employing a Weberian analytical framework, this research calls for a critical reassessment of dominant narratives in the historiography of sexuality in the early modern period.