Dimitrie Cantemir: 300 years on
On my recent visit to Iasi, I came across the grave of Dimitrie Cantemir (1673-1723) at the Three Hierarchs Monastery, and noted that this year marks the three hundredth anniversary of his death. He was a remarkable man, one of the great humanist polymaths, whose work spans the realms of language, philosophy, literature, history and music.
He was Prince of Moldavia for two short periods: for April-March 1693 and from 1710-1711. He was born in Moldavia, but spent a large part of his life in Istanbul, firstly as a ‘pledge’ to guarantee the loyalty of his princely father the the Sultan, and then as the diplomatic envoy of his brother, who also reigned as Prince. This long association with Ottoman culture shaped his interests and writings - producing a history of the Ottoman Empire and also a work (written in Turkish) on Ottoman music. (You can here some of his music here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBS_CbHFGk0)
His famous literary work is the Istoria ieroglifica, the first original composition in Romanian that was neither religious nor a chronicle: it is part-novel, part-political treatise, part-philosophical meditation on the nature of man. His work reflects the new intellectual horizons of the eighteenth century.
As a historian, writing both about the Ottoman Empire (which interestingly was translated into English shortly after his death) and about the Romanian people, he had a strong sense of the existing order as established by divine reason and of history directed by God’s providence.
Despite his wide-ranging, humanist interests, Cantemir was an Orthodox Christian. Much of his philosophical writing discusses the nature of the intellect and the role of reason, originating in God. And for a man who had such a broad education, he was clear that fundamental for children’s education was to ‘settle them on the rock of knowledge of the Holy Scriptures.’
One of the last works he wrote, left unfinished with his death, was a catechism in Russian and Turkish. These questions and answers are designed to show the fundamentals of the Christian faith, and Cantemir’s catechism asks, “Q: Who are you? A: By the grace of God, I am a man. Q: Who is man? A: Man is the most perfect creation of the almighty God made in his image and likeness and among all the remaining living beings only man is adorned with reason and speech...’
This shows Dimitrie Cantemir’s profound trust in the goodness and providence of God, and his conviction that human reason is a great gift that, in all our endeavours, should be put to the service of God.
In this three hundredth anniversary of Cantemir’s death, let us follow his good example of learning and discern the signs of God at work in the world.