What did natives think of Europeans in the Age of Discovery?

But the Mughal have never been there. Their (pre)judices are based on smelly and sweaty sailors.
at best. some probably hearsay.
It was the same those days with the stories in europe about some faraway places, some hearsay, some fantasy, and with some luck - some facts.
 
Well not really. At least until the 19th century.

Dusty in the north, certainly, but the amount of squalor and dirt in Western European cities at that time was non-existent in the Orient. Agra was a poorer city with a poor district and such but cities like Delhi, Vijaynagar, Kochin and Fatehpur Sikri were described as being extremely clean and constantly aromatic.

The Orient? Which cities were extremely clean? Iranian, Afghani, Iraqi, Egyptian, etc cities all suffered from Cholera and general squalor.

We have firsthand accounts from the Abbasid period up till ww2 of the state of middle eastern cities in the world of Islam.

The concept that Islamic cities were bastions of cleanliness is somewhat of a false narrative. Where this came from eludes me, but my suspicion is that it comes from an anti western bias of secular scholars who projected these narratives to gain the so called edgey benefit in academia.

EDIT: Burji period Qahirah for instance was hit likely harder by the Black Plague and then by Cholera than Europe during the Middle Ages. This outbreak was likely due to the extreme overcrowding and ineffective cleaning standards.
 
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The Orient? Which cities were extremely clean? Iranian, Afghani, Iraqi, Egyptian, etc cities all suffered from Cholera and general squalor.

We have firsthand accounts from the Abbasid period up till ww2 of the state of middle eastern cities in the world of Islam.

The concept that Islamic cities were bastions of cleanliness is somewhat of a false narrative. Where this came from eludes me, but my suspicion is that it comes from an anti western bias of secular scholars who projected these narratives to gain the so called edgey benefit in academia.

EDIT: Burji period Qahirah for instance was hit likely harder by the Black Plague and then by Cholera than Europe during the Middle Ages. This outbreak was likely due to the extreme overcrowding and ineffective cleaning standards.

Your absolutely correct, the situation in Baghdad and Damas was especially bad, due to them being organic cities and all. But sources (I don't remember which one but I have a relative's thesis on historic urban planning) report that Shiraz due to good urban planning and lower density population was barely affected when most other cities were hit by the Black Death and outbreaks of cholera and various other illnesses (that is until the Pahlavis fucked it up).

Another city that comes to mind in the Middle-east is Khiva. When Russian forces took the city (admittedly long after it had seen its glory days and nearly four centuries since the last major plague along the Silk Road) the General Von Kauffmann reports "-while the city of the heathens has seen better days, I cannot regret my posting here and the feeling of cleanliness and vigour the people here have reflects onto my soldiers who reciprocate their practices."

I also remember visiting Kyoto not too long ago and reading about how the Ashikaga shoguns managed to stem the amount of disease coming from Korea and the mainland by enforcing that any who did not go to their locals shrines for ablutions and the springs to cleanse themselves would be forced out from the city and their possessions acquisitioned.
 
Your absolutely correct, the situation in Baghdad and Damas was especially bad, due to them being organic cities and all. But sources (I don't remember which one but I have a relative's thesis on historic urban planning) report that Shiraz due to good urban planning and lower density population was barely affected when most other cities were hit by the Black Death and outbreaks of cholera and various other illnesses (that is until the Pahlavis fucked it up).

Another city that comes to mind in the Middle-east is Khiva. When Russian forces took the city (admittedly long after it had seen its glory days and nearly four centuries since the last major plague along the Silk Road) the General Von Kauffmann reports "-while the city of the heathens has seen better days, I cannot regret my posting here and the feeling of cleanliness and vigour the people here have reflects onto my soldiers who reciprocate their practices."

I also remember visiting Kyoto not too long ago and reading about how the Ashikaga shoguns managed to stem the amount of disease coming from Korea and the mainland by enforcing that any who did not go to their locals shrines for ablutions and the springs to cleanse themselves would be forced out from the city and their possessions acquisitioned.


You're correct that there were clean cities. However, Khiva might've been clean in one regard, it wasn't in some others. Khiva like most cities in the Islamic world suffered from periodic smallpox outbreaks and cholera epidemics. It however due to its location and it's nomadic past was less dense than say Qahirah or closer Samarqand.
 
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