The Spanish Monarchy and Safavid Persia In the Early Modern Period

Argumento de The Spanish Monarchy and Safavid Persia In the Early Modern Period

This book is the first to break out of that mould. It addresses the various ways in which the Spanish crown sought and maintained contact with Persia, either independently or, after the creation of the Iberian Union in 1580, in consort with the Portuguese, in the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries. We learn about the motley crew of men who sailed the Mediterranean or rounded the Cape on their way to the Safavid state, the diplomats who sought to lure the shah into a joint anti-Ottoman front, the missionaries who hoped to convert him and his subjects to the True Faith, the adventurers and spies who dreamed of strategic advantage and commercial control. The essays assembled here also examine the various initiatives launched by Persias rulers towards the Spanish court, their proposals for military cooperation or the sale of silk. Originating as a conference held in 2013 at the Instituto de Historia del Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas in Madrid, this volume thus sheds light on many little known aspects of the complex and multifaceted relationship between these two empires in the Early Modern Period.0