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The Substrates for British Colonization to
Enter Iran in the Safavid Era
Dr. Masoud Moradi, Reza Vasegh Abbasi, Amir Shiranzaie Ghale-No
Abstract— Since the beginning of the sixteenth century AD and after the fall of Constantinople, the context was prov ided for dominating the countries like Spain, Portugal, France and England on seas and travelling to eastern countries. This dominatio n coincided with the reign of the Tudors in England. One hundred and fifty years after Klavikhou and the rise of Antony E nglish Jenkinson which was thought for making a trading relationship with Iran, many attempts have been made from the European communities to communicate with the Orient, including Iran which their incentive was first to make the movements of tourists easier and Christian missionaries and then to make the commercial routes more secure. Antony Jenkins was among the first who traveled to Iran in 1561 to establish commercial relations and then went to King Tahmasb. Thomas Alkak, Arthur Edwards and Shirley Brothers was among those who continued his way after him which Shirley Brothers was the most successful of them. This study aims to study, in a laboratory method, the beginning of Iran’s relation with England in the era of Tahmasb t he first and its continuity in the era of King Abbas The First and how English colonization to enter Iran are established.
Index Terms— Iran, England, Safavid, British tradesmen, commercial relations.
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NTONY Jenkinson, the Initiator of British Activities in Iran: After the collapse of the Byzantine State (1453), European initiated their activities to reach
Asia, especially the thriving market of India and exploit- ing its riches. The Portuguese were reached India from the south part of Atlantic Ocean and the Spanish people were reached Central America from the northwest Atlan- tic Ocean. British went towards northwest Atlantic Ocean and discovered the White Sea in the farthest northwest part of Russia.
King Edward VI of England allowed Sebastian Kabout by an ordinance in 1553 (963 AH) to establish the pioneer commercial company while discovering the unknown areas, realms and islands (Navaie, 1999: 101). Despite the terrible storms, captain Richard Chansler discovered the the White Sea and landed in Orkhansglek Port. Then he went to Moscow and attracted the attention of Ivan Mak- houf and established the Moscow Company by his allow- ance. After Chansler, Anthony Jenkins was elected to the head of the Moscow Company. He was chosen as the one responsible for maintaining the commercial relationship with Central Asia on by the company in 1555. Ivan, want- ing to expand his territory, provided the necessary facili- ties for Jenkins. Jenkins went to Bokhara and then re- turned to Moscow having obtained a plethora of informa- tion (Siks, 1990: 239).
After the success of his last mission, Jenkins was sent to Iran by the company in order to establish his commercial base in Iran. The Moscow Company had two objectives in
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Associate Professor of History Department, University of Sistan and Ba- louchestan
Graduate Student in History. E-mail: r.vacegh@ yahoo.com
Graduate Student in History
sending the mission to Iran represented by Jenkins: first to take aside the silk trade from the Portuguese being the most important commercial trade of Iran and then take over the exports by itself. Iranian silk was produced in three areas namely Shervan, Gilan and Mazandaran being placed in the Caspian Sea coast, and due to the fact that the Portuguese trading center was in Hormoz Island and Persian Gulf, they could only export the silk which was transported to the south part of Iran. If succeeded, the English mission could take over the silk market, first be- cause the path was more shorter and second, they could buy silk directly from the producer. Their second goal was to infiltrate into Indian from Iran.
Queen Elizabeth I of England sent Jenkins to the court of King Tahmasb with gifts and letters and as a legate to make progress the activities of mentioned company. Queen Elizabeth wrote in the letter to King Tahmasb that
: “ from Elizabeth, the queen of England by the mercy of God, to the powerful , victorious and great king of Ira- nians, Medes, Persians, Hirkans and Kermanians, and the king of people who are inhibited on the two sides of Siris river and also the king of nations and races who lived from Persian Gulf to Caspian Sea, much peace and salutes be upon him and his happiness ever increasing.
“ It has been destined by God’s mercy that people who are isolated from each other and vast deserts and great seas and high mountains make them separated from each other to be cooperated and united through corresponding and communicating with each other, not only for the one who exchange their friendly fantasies and compassionate words which is the reason for humanity, but besides this, transact the objects and commodities which is resulted from their intellect and intuition and provide their happi- ness.
Nevertheless, our true servant and kindly servitor, An-
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thony Jenkins, who is our missioner, is about to leave our community by our allowance and travel to Iranian areas by God’s hope and establish the friendly relationships, we hope that his good dreams be established and open the gates for business and dealings between the two countries by decent intention and benevolence. Therefore, it is incumbent upon us to write a letter to the king and it is requested that our mentioned servitor, Anthony Jen- kins and his companions , be allowed to travel freely in your community as far as it is not against your law and exchange business and merchandise and also be free in the countries and states that are under your decree and governance and grant him passport and written docu- ment to travel in your country in every time he intended for, let none disturb him and are involved him in encum- brance and inhabit in a place as much as he wants and then leave that place as mush the appropriate time as he wants. Written in 25 April, 5523 from the creation of the universe and in 1561 from the birth of Jesus Christ and in the third year of our reign in England in the cosmopoli- tan and capital of England, London (Parsadoust, 1999: 747
& 748)”.
In 1562, Anthony Jenkins headed to Moscow for travel-
ling to Iran as the missioner of Queen Elizabeth I with
credentials written into three Italian, Latin and Arabic
language with a ship named Parastoo (Haghigaht, 2003:
117).
After the death of Richard Chanselr, Anthony Jenkins
was appointed to the head of all the ships of Moscow
Company moving to Russia (Saiks, 1990: 239).
Jenkins entered Iran by the way of Caspian Sea in accom-
panying with Edward Clark and was landed in Darband
as quoted from Lord Kerzen and then went to Shamakhi
and established a friendly relationship with Abdollah
Khan Ostojalou, the nephew of the king. Siks wrote that
he mentioned the king about Jenkins by a letter.
Jenkins departed to Qazvin from there and went to King
Tahmasb and he himself wrote that: “ I granted the gifts
and letter the Queen sent for the king with the courtesy
and politeness appropriated from a missioner and the
king. The king accepted the gifts and asked me that which
British country you are from and what is your dealing here?” “ I replied that I am from the well-known country England and I am destined from Queen Elizabeth to make the friendship relations and permission for pass without
any disturbance for businessmen and English people to travel in Iran’s territory and are allowed for exchanging goods and commodities between the two countries and hereby increase the reputation of both kings and the wealth of their subjects. In other words, I told you some- thing that is not now remember” ( Siks: 241). Then the king asked him about his religion and Jenkins replied that he is a Christian and King Tahmasb said immediately that: “ we do not need the friendships of the infidels.” (Houshang Mahdavi, 2535: 41). He then interrupted the dialogue and ordered to exit Jenkins from the court. It has been mentioned in the resources that if not for Abdollah-
Khan’s order to King Tahmasb, Jenkins’s killing was not far-fetched. Of the reasons mentioned for misbehavior of King Tahmasb with Jenkins’s mission is gaining the friendship of Ottomans after stipulating the peace with Amasieh.
It has been found out, from Jenkins’s writings that he dealt with economical issues than any other ones and a letter he sent for company’s executives, he assessed the power of King Tahmasb.
Jenkins lived in Moscow in 970 and provided the prepara- tions for deploying a new mission composed of Richard Cheney and Thomas Alkak , but the second mission also gained no success in Iran.
The Moscow Company sent six missions to Iran from
1561 to 1581. The third delegation went for King Tahmasb
in 1566 headed by Edwards and Wills. The king warmly
accepted the English mission this time and among its
causes, it can be mentioned the better understanding and more familiarity of the King with English efficiencies and resolving the challenges between Iran and Ottoman.
The Moscow Company gained some privileges from King Tahmasb in this journey. According to this contract, Iran attract the attention of the English against the Portuguese in the southern Iran. Although the mission gained some privileges, Iran could not take much advantage of it con- sidering the market situation at that time. The next three missions failure to had an influence in Iranian market. this is because of the competition among the Ottomans, Armenians and Venetians which had a long business records in Iran. In addition, the merchandise made the Moscow’s businessmen in Iran difficult through the fro- zen lands of Russia and the insecurities made by Kazakhs (Parsadoust, 1999: 755).
Sir Anthony Shirley was born in 1568 in Winston. He completed his preliminary education at Oxford Universi- ty and then went to the military service and participated in the wars between Spain and Netherlands and then was delegated for attacking the island owned to Spain in America supported by Earl of Essex who was an English tradesman.
Almost two years later, he was delegated to serve the Duke of Ferrara in Italy who was at war with Pope Kol- man the Eighth. However, Pope prevailed his opponent before reaching to Italy and hereby Anthony Shirley was not succeeded in his mission (Navaie, 1999: 118). It was n such a situation that Anthony was first faced with Iranian tradesmen and then with Anjelo, the well-known tourist and both of them highly appreciates the generosity, cou- rage and good traits of King Abbas and encouraged An- thony to travel to Iran. It was according to their remarks that Anthony Sherly decided to travel to Iran and then went to King Abbas.
It has been stated in the sources that King Abbas treated
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warmly with the guests and provided for them the means for welfare and comfort with an exceptional generosity. A position named hostess in his time who was responsible for the entertainment of king’s guest and also foreign am- bassadors to the king’s presence. The hostess entertained warmly the foreign ambassadors or special guests of the King in all Iranian cities and took the respectfully to the king. It is worth mentioning that special houses were provided for the guest’s welfare and comfort in all cities (Phalsafi, 1968: 29).
In May 24, 1598, they departed from Venetian to Iran and
then entered Iran after passing from Ottoman and tolerat-
ing much troubles from Baghdad and then went to the
capital city of King, Abbas, Qazvin and reached there in
December 1598 (Wright, 1986: 2). The journey and the
plight they faced with has been mentioned in detail in the
itinerary of Shirley Brothers which there is no space in
this research to be dealt with.
The king was at war with them when they reached Iran.
They went to Qazvin and there they waited for King’s
arriving and they were warmly entertained by the people
and elders of the city during this period. When the King
Abbas came to Qazvin, the English mission, along with
the people , went to greet him. George Manoring, reite-
rated the time of greeting with King Abbas in the Shirley
itinerary book : “ the king came and hugged Anthony and
his brother and kissed them each three times and took
Anthony’s hand and said that by God, he will be consi-
dered as his step-brother from then on and actually called
him by this name. The King was then departed and con-
sidered Anthony’s head as his right hand (Shirley, 2000:
53).
Sir Anthony Shirley introduced himself as the cousin of
James , King of Scotland and it was pointed out that all
Christian kings know him. Now the mentioned king give
him the authority to negotiate with Iran’s king as his am-
bassador and make an alliance against the Turks (Bayat,
2010: 266). King Abbas had a warm behavior to Shirley
Brothers and their companions all were under his mercy
and make them involved in all the celebrations hold be-
cause of his majestic victory over Uzbeks continued for
eight days and take them along with himself in his way to Isfahan for changing of the capital. In return of this hospi- tality of King Abbas, Anthony Shirley and his compa- nions decided to train Iran’s army, and one of the mem-
bers of group who knew how to cast the ball was initiat- ing to build the ball and train it to others, and as a result, Iran’s army was made more familiar with fiery weapons and consequently, Iran’s military force become more po- werful. According to English explorer Samuel Perches, Iran was owned for five hundred brass cannon and 60 thousand gunners over not too long (Navaie, 1999: 121). in addition, Karzan says that the Ottoman, which was the cause of fear for Christendom, now was trapped in the burning fever of Shirley and then added up that they had
500 cannons and 60 thousand fusiliers which infuriated the Turks while having a disciplined army and fiery wea-
pons (Richards, 1965: 99 & 100).
Considering this equipped and trained army and also the
force of Shahsavan, King Abbas was initiated to attack
Ottoman Turks in occupied parts of Iran.
This relationship was the initiator of Iran’s political al-
liance with strong European sultans against the Ottoman State. Before then, Iran was involved in war with Otto- man Turks by itself and was certainly failed due to the advanced weapons and multitude forces of Turks in the
systematic wars. If were succeeded in making unified the European sultans against Ottoman State, King Abbas would able to make the Ottoman State succumbed with a multi-dimensional attack from the southern and eastern parts. And it was towards this aim that Anthony Shirley was sent for European sultans as an ambassador to en- courage them to pledge military alliance against Ottoman Turks by conceding them the commercial rates.
Anthony take the headman Qazalbash Hussein along with himself in his travel to Europe. This was the cause of failure of Shirley’s embassy. It has been mentioned in dif- ferent sources that Hussein-Ali Beyk Bayat was nomi- nated for this travel. It is mentioned in the itinerary of Shirley Brothers that: “ Sir Anthony made request from the king while departing from Iran to a high-esteem per- son be taken along with him in this travel in order to the foreigners come to know how much Iran’s king have love and friendship to Christian kings. The king was made happy by this statement and chose a person who was under the service of the State over a long time and elected him to a new position and dispatched 16 servants along with him. Besides, the King promised Sir Anthony to send precious gifts to each Christian kings”. But Nasrol- lah Falsafi wrote : “ King Abbas initiated to be united with religious Christian Europe kings against the Otto- man State and in 15June, 1599 took an order to one of his commanders named Hussein-Ali Beyk Bayat to travel to Europe as an ambassador on behalf of him and requested Sir Anthony Shirley to guide him in this travel and ac- company him in his way to Europe. It was this case that ambiguity was raised and it was made clear who the real and main ambassador was to date. However, because Hussein-Ali Beyk Bayat was not acquired a foreign lan- guage and was not familiar with European traditions and customs and for King Abbas’s interst to Anthony Shirley, it can be concluded that the main ambassador of King Abbas was Anthony Shirley and Hussein Ali Beyk Byat was delegated as the consultant. This issue can be fig- ured out according to the credential given to Shirley by King Abbas. The content of the credential is as follow: “ O the kings who are the followers of Christian religion , you must come to know that the mediator of the friendship between ourselves is Shirley, though we wished for make a relationship with you before”. He showed the ways of friendships and took away the alienation. This man came to us by his own will and I send his consent onto you by one of our courtiers. He was endeared in Iran as our brother. We drank food with him in one dish and also
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drank water in one glass. So when this parson comes unto you, you must consider this as our delegate and provide him what he wants. When he passes on the sea and landed into the great emperor of Moscow, whom we are unified with and is considered as our brother, the gover- nors of that country should go along with him and take him back to Moscow ( Sahab, 1947: 290). Also, King Ab- bas introduced Shirley in his letters as his special envoy (Mahmid, 1983: 89).
King Abbas wrote in his letter to European Sultans that he was interested to Christian nations and considered the Turks as his enemy and demanded that European coun- tries make their economic and military contracts null and void with the Turks and united with each other and at- tack the Turks from Hungary. He also demanded the Eu- ropean nations to send their envoys to Iran and make friendly relationship and also make ready some forces for Iran and although the European sultans were involved in the war the Turks, Iran was also would attack the Otto- man State.
King Abbas gave Anthony Shirley and his companions and golden signet while leaving which explained in de- tail in Shirley Brother’s itinerary: “ he gave the golden signet to Sir Anthony and told him that O brother, every- one you signed, including the one which appreciates as my kingdom, will be taken as granted. Then the king kissed Sir Anthony many times and also he kissed all and told them that if they were returned again, all would be respected and glorified” (Navaie, 1999: 124).
The sent mission was departed to Germany after Russia and went to Rodolof The Second, King of Germany in Prague. Rodolof entertained them warmly, but accepted the proposal to be allied against the Ottomans. Then they were departed to Venice from Germany with so much gifts, but the Venice’s government did not accept the Shir- ley’s mission for significant political issues, therefore they went to Rome.
The mission was entered Rome in April 1601. As men- tioned, there was competition between Anthony Shirley and Hussein-Ali Beig Bayat and this competition was led to creating conflict between them and this issue caused The Eight Pope Clement accepted them separately.
Pope first received Anthony Shirley and then Hussein-Ali
Beig (Cambridge, 2010: 195). Anthony was in Rome until
Muharram 2010 AH. but separated from Hussein Ali
from then on escaped to Venice secretly along with his
two companions (Shirley, 1999: 142) and stayed there
about three years.
Separating the Anthony Shirley from Iran’s political mis-
sion was somewhat doubtful, he is accused of stealing by
some and some others maintained that his lives was on
the stake, because a number of letter written by King Ab-
bas sent for European sultans were stolen by one of his
English companions and was submitted to the Ottoman minister (Tajbakhsh, 1962: 105).
After this event, the embassy was completely assigned to
Hussein-Ali Beik. He headed for Spain after two months
and then went to Spanish court with a great magnitude and majesty and then thought of returning to Iran after a two-month stoppage and adjourned his journey to an another time and was escorted with many gifts for king Abbas to Iran. From then on, there is not exact informa- tion about Hussein Ali Beik and it is not known where he go and what happened to him.
After the long travelling of Anthony Shirley and being ignorant of King Abbas of them, the king sent a letter to Anthony Shirley. He stipulated in this letter that he was concerned of the long absence of Shirley and repri- manded him of not giving the king the required informa- tion of Europe. It seems that the king needed detailed information of the situation in Europe by Shirley.
However, when King Abbas was disappointed of re- turning Sir Anthony Shirley to Iran, he sent Shirley’s brother, Robert, to embassy to European courts. Robert was just eighteen years old at the time his brother went to embassy. He, educated at Oxford University, had a great interest to Catholicism.
Kng Abbas appointed him as his special lackey and grant him the title of son of Beig. Robert was responsible for a military force with the annual salary of 2 thousand Ashrafi. He chivalrously participated in the war against the Ottoman Turks for loving kindness of Iranian prince and was wounded three times.
He always wore Iranian clothing and wore a turban in Safavid style on his head. But put a crusade on the tip of the turban. He also puncture one of his ears and hang a ring on it and placed a big diamond onto the ring. It is known that ring is the symbol of convention and loyalty in Iranian culture. Due to his sincere sacrifice , he was allowed by King Abbas to wore Iranian clothes and put Qazalbash coronet onto his head and he was the first Christian who put proudly the Qazalbash coronet (Shir- ley, 2000: 138).
Iran’s embassy delegation headed by Robert Shirley on February 12, 1608 was headed to Europe from the way of Caspian Sea and Russia. King Abbas mentioned this point in the Robert Shirley’s credential that : “ there is no longer doubt that Iran will be bordered with Europe on the Ot- toman destroyed country (Lowie Blan, 1997: 208 & 209). In Cracovie, they were warmly accepted by Sigismound Vasa, king of Poland and Rodelf The Second , king of Germany (Navaie, 2008: 199). Then Robert went to Italy and presented by Pope Pople, The Fifth. Pope also ac- cepted him warmly and awarded him the title of Conte De Palatin in a magnificent ceremony (Sir. Dadour, 1974:
495).
Shirley went to Spain from there and presented by Philip
The Third and offered him the gifts of King Abbas. King
Spani accepted to some extent the suggestions made by
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Shirley concerning the trade between the two nations and also his provisions in sending out the Iranian silk from the Hormoz route and India to Europe.
Philip The Third wrote a letter to King Abbas and gave it to Robert Shirley and it was promised within that he would soon attack to Ottoman sultans by the help of Rome’s Pope and other European commanders and sent some ships to Ahmar Sea in order to block the India’s route from which it is sent to Ottoman State (Falsafi, 1968:
188). So it was programmed, from the promises of Philip The Third, that Robert Sherly be returned to Iran, howev- er because he did not receive any absolute result and an- swer, he went to England without the officers being no- ticed at to propose the commercial contracts to James The First (ibid: 183).
In October 1611, James The First received Robert Shirley in Hampton-Caurt Palace and Shirley granted him the
letters of King Abbas (HOushang Mahdavi, 2535: 79). A few days later, four English tradesmen were chosen to study the Shirley’s proposals from the colleagues of East India Company and it was conclude that King Ababs’s proposals should not be accepted. However, James signed a business-friendly treaty having the knowledge of the political benefits of relations with Iran and then wrote a letter to King Abbas. Also, Sherly was awarded Knight Courtier and Knight degree (Taheri, 2002: 62).
Not more than one year did Sherly stay in England and transformed useful information from Iran to James The First. After staying about 18 months in England, Sir Ro- bert Sherly headed back to Iran. And one of the English ships owned by Henry Thine and headed by Captain Newbert , were responsible to deliver Robert Sherly, along with his wife and the companion delegations, from the south African sea to Iran (Houshang Mahdavi, 2535:
80).
The first journey of Robert Sherly to Europe had some results that caused King Abbas sent him to Europran em- bassy for the second time. Sir Robert Sherly went to Rome from England was much respected by James The First as Iranian’s ambassador and was ready to sign a friendly and political treaty with Iran which was comprised of three parts:
1. British government should be committed to hand over all the ships in Persian Gulf to deal with the Spanish and Portuguese agents which occupied the Hormoz and Qeshm islands and gave Iran’s government and East In- dia Company into trouble , provided that all the expenses be paid from the treasury of Iranian government.
2. Iran’s government should be committed to provide 25
thousand regular armed soldiers to the British govern-
ment as required.
3. British government should permit that Iranian trades-
men carry their goods by paying usual fare of English
ships to England and do not pay the custom duties com-
plications more than other nation’s tradesmen. In addi- tion, Iranian tradesmen should be free in importing gold and silver to England or exporting from this country and should not pay the custom duties for this regard (Navaie,
1992: 225).
But this contract was never signed finally, because James The First died before signing the contract and his son, Charles The first, was acceded to the throne and signing the treaty remained stagnant. Another event was raised in
this time and that was arriving Naghd-Ali Beyk to Eng- land which exacerbated the situation. He claimed that his is the ambassador of King Abbas and said that Robert Sherly’s credentials are fabricated and tore them away (Siks, 1990: 256). Naghd-Ali Beyk was arrived in England in March 1626 to Charles The First. England’s king issued a decree regarding both Iranian’s , along with one of the English elders named Sir Dadmour Katoun, be headed to Iran in order for get to know which one is Iranian’s real ambassador and also responded the friendly campaigns of Iran’s king in sending the ambassador and negotiate with Iran’s government to sign a commercial contract (Wright, 1986: 6&7).
At the time when the ship carrying Iran and British am- bassadors in the coasts of northern Africa, Nagfhd-Ali Beik committed suicide, but Robert Shirley and Katoun was arrived to Iran and was landed in Gombron (Bandar Abbas) port and the bells was sounded ten times to the honor of arriving British ambassador. King Abbas was in the Ashraf (Behshahr) city of Mazandaran in those days, for this reason the ambassador went to Mazandaran along with Robert Shirley. They arrived to the presence of the king in May, 1628 (Navaie, 1999: 135 & 136) and was accepted warmly by King Abbas. The British ambassador mentioned his goals of travelling to Iran in a speech as firstly it was allowed by King Abbas England govern- ment’s merchandise be more than those of other nations and attracted the attention of the king to agree about sign- ing a contract for making war against Ottomans (Nashat, Bita: 110).
King Abbas replied him that he was ready to make a
commercial relationship with England and approved Ro-
bert Shirley and told him that he was his real ambassador
and Naghd Ali Beik was comitetd suicide because of feel-
ing guilt, for he was aware that what kind of punishment
awaiting him. He also hoped that European sultans be
unified with each other as soon as possible and take ac-
tion against a common enemy, and it was also noted that
if not for dissension and disagreement among European
sultans, Ottoman State would be ever humiliated and
destroyed.
No longer the British ambassador was succeeded to
meet King Abbas from then which some reasons can be
outlined for this:
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Firstly, British ambassador has no authority in assigning the contract and it was just his duty to express the con- tents of the contract to Sadavid’s king and then report Iranian king’s ideas to British king. Secondly, the Portu- guese was ousted from southern Iran by King Abbas and gained s full success at war against Ottoman in western Iran, and it was due to this fact there was no need to de- mand foreigners, particularly that he sent Shirley Broth- ers three times to the embassy of European courts which failed to achieve any result.
The English traders infiltrated into Iran through British
East India Company thwarted Robert Shirley to went to
Europe’s embassy, and when they were not succeeded in
electing Naghd Ali-Beyk as the ambassador to Safavid
court and caused degradation and humiliation to Shirley
not to be able to gain any success in signing the contract.
Robert Shirley was faced with the obstructions made by
Muhammad-Ali Beik from the courtiers and was there- fore utterly misbehaved by King Abbas to the extent that he ordered to oust Shirley from Iran and Shirley became sick of sorrow and regret due to disregard of Iran’s court and soon died in Qazvin. Katoun, British ambassador also died nine days after Shirley’s death and then was buried in Armenian cemetery of Qazvin and hid body was trans-
ferred out of Iran in 1039 AH and moved to Rome (Jafa- rian, 2005: 283&284).
Heretofore the first cycle of exchanging ambassadors between Iran and England was come to an end and each of the two countries were benefitted from the provided success according to their abilities. A few times later, by the advent of 17th century, English East India Company was able to expand its commercial infiltration range all over Iran and attracted the attention of Iranian’s kings, including King Abbas. Therefore, English traders was succeeded in expanding their commercial relations with Iran according to the power of Safavid king’s powers and public safety in Iran. This period was known as the time of gathering information from the east and England and other European countries had not much power to domi- nate over the east. However, according to the collapsing of Iran’s political system and the invasion of Afghan eth- nic groups in one hand and the empowerment of British East India Company and the decline of local and national states in that place on the other, the information compiled regarding the expansion of British colonialism in the re- gion be useful so that England dominated over most parts of Asia during the time of Safavid collapse and the rising of Qajars.
1. The decree of King Abbas the Great to Anthony Shirley
From King Abbas,
It is ordered to Anthony Shirley to go to England, but there is no news from him and no letter was sent to me about the realities in there to make clear that what kind of works were performed there and which one did not perform. Therefore, it is so strange that no one is sent for to you and no information is gained from. It has been three years that I moved to Tabriz and Azerbaijan was occupied by the government and it has been no news re- garding what happened for the foreign sultans there. His brother is under our service and is so kind towards us. It is incumbent upon you to make us informed about your real facts and the great foreign sultans and it must be that we become aware of the situations and conditions and also the contracts signed there.
Written in Muharram 1020 AH.
From the text book on Iran’s political relations with the
world by Najaf-Ali Hessam Moazi. P. 59.
Original Document is Public Records Office in London, England
2. The Letter of Sir Anthony Shirley to King Abbas
It is informed you that from the time I was departed here,
there was no time in which I forgot about the services you
made me and no obligation is occurred, and though I to-
lerated the suffering of this travelling and the pain of es-
trangement. I attracted the attention of the foreigner’s
attention and the Spanish king promised to be always at
war with Ottomans so that no peace be occurred between
them and he entitled me to do whatever is appropriate in
the sea and land and I would not forget about the services you made me and I would make you aware of the occur- rences here. It is not true that the Hungarian king made peace with and from this time on, their animosity was
made greater and gathered many ships and military forces and was unified with foreign kings to make a whole war at ottomans and due to the fact that the rela- tionship between the king the Spanish king is of utmost importance, some points is worthy of mentioning: firstly, it was decided about the silk trade that it be sold in Hor- moz, because foreign people took with them silvers and means of combating to Ottomans in each year and their merchandise are done and the animosity between the two sides would become exacerbated. The Spanish captain sent a decree to Hormoz’s captain and it was determined to take silk with them to Hormoz and give them much respect and do not cost them more than needed. When the silk are sold in Hormoz, it is expected to write down what is needed, for the Spanish king was so kind to us and the foreign sultans would gave you whatever things is demanded and I would provide what are needed to the poor”.
The document’s text is taken from the itinerary of Shirley
Brothers. PP. 143 and 144.
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