This book is a biographical and illustrated account of the life of Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, a French national who traveled extensively for almost forty years of his life—travels that took him to most of the European countries, to the Ottoman Empire, to Persia, to Southeast Asia, and to India. This writer cannot think of any other personality, at any time in history, who wandered around for so long and for so far. Tavernier has a number of achievements to his credit—achievements of having written extensively on the areas he traveled, the people he met, and the diverse activities he pursued. His memoirs became a blockbuster in the seventeenth century, outshining any other publication of the time—even of those who were known to be heavy with ideas.