Jean Althen

Jean-Baptiste Joannis Althen, better simply known as Jean Althen (Hovhannès Althounian; 1709–1774), was an Armenian agronomist from Safavid Iran who developed the cultivation of madder in France.

Although the plant had been present in the region before his arrival, it was Jean-Baptiste Althen who developed its cultivation, turning it into an industry.

Biography

Jean-Baptiste was born to a certain "Althen and Catherine Madrecha" in the Safavid Empire, in a village he called "Chaouch". Jean-Baptiste grew up in a time of much turmoil, as the Safavid Empire, then ruled by King (Shah) Sultan Husayn (1694–1722), was in a state of heavy decline. During the Afghan invasion, Jean-Baptiste's parents were killed while he was enslaved and brought to Kayseri in the Ottoman Empire. According to Sibylla Schuster-Walser / Encyclopædia Iranica, in Kayseri, "he learned cotton cultivation and dyeing". In ca. 1736, Jean-Baptiste managed to escape and moved to France.

In France, he received authorization by incumbent King Louis XV (1715–1774) "to start state-aided cotton fields". When it became apparent that his efforts to grow cotton had been in vain, Jean-Baptiste started cultivating "Oriental madder" in Avignon in 1754, with great success. Associated with a local landlord, Clauseau Aïné, he produced a crop of 2500 kg (5500 lbs) in 1769. Sibylla Schuster-Walser notes that madder "soon became a main crop of the region". Jean-Baptiste died in poverty in 1774.

In 1846, about 70 years after his death, Jean-Baptiste was honored for his efforts as the French erected a statue of him in Avignon. A French commune, Althen-des-Paluds, is named after him, as well as statues and streets in several cities of the south of France. The plant genus Althenia is also named after him.