,
surprising story.
During the Great Northern War (1700-1721), following his disastrous
defeat by the Russians at the Battle of Poltava, the warrior King Charles XII
and 543 Swedes sought refuge in Moldavia from Ahmed III, the Sultan of the
Islamic Ottoman Empire. The Swedes and the Muslim Ottomans were allies
against their mutual arch enemy, Czarist Russia.
Given that they were military allies, it seems likely there would have been
military men, government officials, religious scholars, merchants, etc., with
personal or accurate information on Muslims and/or Islam.
Diplomatic contacts between Sweden and the Ottoman Empire had been
initiated 100 years before Swedenborg was born. The first official Swedish
envoy was sent to the Ottoman Empire in 1631. Are we to believe there was no
reliable information on Islam in 18th-century Sweden? Would any first-hand
information have been available to Swedenborg?
Charles XII and his men remained under the protection of Ahmed III for
five years.
Charles ran up enormous debts to local merchants and the Ottoman
government. When he finally left for Sweden, many Jewish and Muslim
creditors followed him. In 1718, he issued a royal edict allowing them to
practice their religions in Lutheran Sweden.
Beginning in 1727, the Ottoman government, also seeking repayment of
debts, sent two emissaries to Stockholm. Mustapha Aga arrived in 1727 with a
retinue of 23 and stayed for 15 months. Mehmed Said Effendi, with a retinue of
43, arrived in May of 1733 and stayed into 1734. College of Mines attendance
records show that Swedenborg was in Stockholm during Mustapha Aga’s visit.
It is unclear if he would have had access to the second emissary.
Records indicate that the two Ottoman emissaries were enormous
celebrities. Mehmed Said Effendi wrote of his reception in Stockholm: “They
filled up all the spaces in the houses, shops, rooftops . . . and even the ropes
tying the ships to the port, where they looked like bunches of grapes. . . . The
people waved their hats in the air and cried out, ‘Long live the Padishah of the
Ottomans!’”
Swedenborg, as a well-connected, influential nobleman, presumably
could have had access to them if he so desired, an d to the many private Muslim
creditors in Sweden.
The assertion that Swedenborg could not have had any knowledge about
Islam appears based on assumption, not historical fact.
2. Could Swedenborg have had access to the Quran?
The author says the Quran wasn’t widely available in 18th-century Europe. The
historical record indicates otherwise.
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