Quiz: Persian Letters

10 questions drawn at random. Score 80% for a silver medal.

1. 1. Which wars does Usbek consider just?

   Wars to win a disputed succession for the prince or his heirs Wars fought to spread the true religion among unbelieving peoples Wars to avenge an insult offered to an ambassador or to the prince’s person Wars to repel an attacking enemy or to aid an attacked ally
2. 2. What are the three privileged classes Usbek names in France?

   The church, the sword and the gown The army, the navy and the Academy The king, the nobles and the merchants The clergy, the peasants and the bourgeois
3. 3. Why does Usbek say the Guinea coast must be depopulated?

   Its chiefs have sold their subjects to Europeans for two centuries Its people emigrated to Barbary Plague, carried by ships from the Levant, has ravaged it The Turks conquered it and enslaved the coast
4. 4. What does Roxana tell Usbek in her last letter?

   That she is innocent of everything and begs him to return to Ispahan at once That she always kept her freedom, deceived him, and is dying by poison That she will become a Christian and join him in Paris as his only wife That Solim forced her to write this letter under threat of death in the seraglio
5. 5. What dilemma does the point of honour create for a French gentleman who is insulted?

   If he fights he dies on the scaffold; if not, he is shunned He must either pay a heavy fine to the marshals of France or resign his commission in the army He must either marry the offender’s sister or enter a monastery He must appeal either to the king or to the Pope
6. 6. Which Christian rule does Usbek blame for fewer births among Christians?

   The prohibition of polygamy alone The ban on marriage between cousins The custom of late baptism The prohibition of divorce
7. 7. What does the old dervish say a casuist’s art consists in?

   Distinguishing mortal from venial sins so people reach heaven cheaply Hearing the confessions of the dying and granting them absolution Translating the Scriptures Collecting alms for the convent from the rich families of Paris
8. 8. In Rica’s coffee-house during Law’s System, what does one man call “abominable treachery”?

   A refused loan A friend selling shares A friend leaving Paris A friend repaying a loan
9. 9. How did the regent free himself from the limits set by Louis XIV’s will?

   He went to the parliament and had it set the will aside He obtained a bull from the Pope annulling the will He called the Estates-General He had the will burned in public by the hangman
10. 10. In the “Fragment of an Ancient Mythologist”, what does the son of Aeolus sell?

    Winds enclosed in skins Gold from the mines of Betica Oak leaves from the grove of Dodona Precious stones from the Indies