ThePersian embassy to Europe (1599–1602) was dispatched by thePersianShahAbbas I in 1599 to obtain an alliance against theOttoman Empire.[1] The Persians had then been at war with the Ottoman Empire for more than a century, and so decided to try to obtain European help against the Ottomans.[2] Besides the territorial antagonism of the Ottoman and Persian realms, there was also strong religious antagonism, as the Persians proclaimedShiism against the Ottoman Empire'sSunnism.[1] The objective of the mission was to establish a European–Persian alliance against the Ottoman Turks.[3] These Persian efforts at rapprochement with Europe followed the Persian defeat against the Ottoman Empire in theOttoman–Safavid War (1578–1590).
The embassy was composed of one ambassador,Hossein Ali Beg, and four secretaries (First SecretaryUruch Beg, son ofSultan Ali Beg; the nephew of the ambassador 'Ali Quli Beg; and two others) and led by the English adventurer SirAnthony Shirley.[4][5] Shirley had sailed fromVenice on 24 May 1599 with 25 other Englishmen, bound forAleppo, and had found favour with King Abbas I.[6][4] Various contacts had already taken place between the Persians and Europe, as with the embassy ofAnthony Jenkinson from QueenElizabeth I in 1562.[5]
The plan was to visit eight European courts, with one additional Special Envoy who would stay as the Persian ambassador at the court of Russian EmperorBoris Godunov.[5] The embassy effectively met with three German potentates, and the Italian and Spanish courts, but initial plans to meet with the courts of France, England, Scotland and Poland were abandoned on the way.[7]
The embassy left in July 1599 forAstrakhan.[5] They reachedMoscow in November 1599.[8] Two members of the embassy,Nicolas de Melo andNicolás de San Agustín were arrested in Russia and deported to theSolovetsky Monastery.[9]
After a long voyage, rest of the embassy reachedPrague inBohemia in the autumn of 1600, where they met with emperorRudolf II and were sumptuously received over the winter. In Spring 1601 they set forMunich, where they met with William II, the formerDuke of Bavaria. They then went to Italy, where they were received byVincenzo Gonzaga inMantua. The embassy failed to meet theDoge of Venice, as he declined an interview on the ground that he was meeting an ambassador from theOttoman Empire.[10] The final portion of their mission took them to Spain, where they met with kingPhilip III, and obtained seaborne transportation from Portugal to theStrait of Hormuz andPersia.[11] In a final incident however, one of the members of the embassy, a religiousmullah, was stabbed to death by a Spaniard inMérida.[12] After discussions to obtain redress, the embassy set sail for Persia fromLisbon in early 1602.[13]
The embassy was immediately followed by a new conflict between Persia and the Ottoman Empire, theOttoman–Safavid War (1603–1618), in which the Persians succeeded partly through the major military reforms and modernizations organized by the EnglishmanRobert Shirley, brother of Anthony Sherley.
A secondPersian embassy to Europe (1609–1615) would be set up, this time led by Robert Sherley himself, which went toKraków,Prague,Florence, Rome,Madrid, London, and returned to Persia through theGreat Mogul's India.[3]
In 1616, a trade agreement was reached between Shah Abbas and theEast India Company and in 1622 "a joint Anglo-Persian force expelled the Portuguese and Spanish traders from thePersian Gulf".[14]
In 1624, Robert Sherley led another embassy to England in order to obtain trade agreements.[3]
APersian embassy to Louis XIV occurred in 1715.
