Conclusion

This chapter concludes the analysis and narrative of the mission to Syria. It reinforces the central argument of the work, demonstrating how the form or mode of writing influenced the level of detachment or objectivity in how the Jesuits described the people and places of Syria. Where available, each Jesuit who wrote in both modes, revealed differences in how events and experiences were presented: they projected their mistakes onto the local population and officials, cast themselves as heroes, demonized Muslims, which directly contributed to the “orientalization” of Southwest Asia in the minds of European readers. In addition, the conclusion summarizes some of the important reflections of the Jesuits (direct or not) on class structures and heterogeneity of Ottoman society in Syria, reinforcing recent historiographical interpretations of Ottoman administrative flexibility and accommodation of a multiplicity of indigenous peoples and visitors. It asserts the “clash of civilizations” model is not valid for the seventeenth century as revealed by the extensive Jesuit sources.