Persian embassy to Europe (1599–1602)
The Persian embassy to Europe (1599–1602) was dispatched by the Persian Shah Abbas I in 1599 to obtain an alliance against the Ottoman Empire. 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. Besides the territorial antagonism of the Ottoman and Persian realms, there was also strong religious antagonism, as the Persians proclaimed Shiism against the Ottoman Empire's Sunnism. The objective of the mission was to establish a European–Persian alliance against the Ottoman Turks. These Persian efforts at rapprochement with Europe followed the Persian defeat against the Ottoman Empire in the Ottoman–Safavid War (1578–1590).
The ambassador Hossein Ali Beg
Anthony Shirley convinced the Persian ruler Abbas I to send an embassy to Europe, and accompanied it in its journey.
Robert Shirley modernized the Persian army leading to the Persian victory in the Ottoman–Safavid War (1603–1618), and led a second Persian embassy to Europe.
Abbas I, commonly known as Abbas the Great, was the fifth shah of Safavid Iran from 1588 to 1629. The third son of Shah Mohammad Khodabanda, he is generally considered one of the greatest rulers of Iranian history and the Safavid dynasty.
Shah Abbas I in a 16th or 17th century portrait
Ismail II, the third Shah of Iran and Abbas' uncle.
Prince ʽAbbās proclaimed Shah in Khorasan in 1581. Page from Ahmad Monshi Ghomi's Kholāsat al-tavārikh
Accession of Shah Abbas to the throne in Qazvin. Page from Ahmad Monshi Ghomi's Kholāsat al-tavārikh