The Discovery of the West besed on the Persian Resources of India

It has been long assumed that Iranians’ first encounter with the western civilization in modern times was during their battles with Russia (early 19th century) when their defeats from Russia led them to realize that their country was an undeveloped one. It is further assumed that later in history they started to acquaint themselves with modern sciences of the west. In this article, however, it is shown that already in the mid-18th century Iranians had became familiar with the modern civilization of the west through India long before the Iran-o-Russian battles and that they had been exposed to modern sciences of the west through Persian-speaking writers of India.