ABSTRACT
The first phase of Russian expansion into its southern “Orient” in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century coincided with a rise in European interest in the East beginning in the 1770s—a so-called “Oriental Renaissance” triggered both by linguistic breakthroughs in Sanskrit and efforts to historicize key sites, personalities, and events related to the Bible. French and British travel accounts of the Caucasus drew a substantial amount of European curiosity because this mountainous territory had mythological and biblical significance, as well as contemporary political and geostrategic interests. The Russian presence however, overshadowed European forays into the region.
