Desert Life

The first account we have of Strachan in his new role was written a year after he entered the emir's service and was given by Pietro Della Valle. The Roman nobleman and his party had joined a caravan of merchants in Aleppo to cross the desert to Baghdad. The caravan had stopped at Āna, the chief city of the Anazzah Bedouins, where Strachan had the opportunity to learn about Bedouin life. In a letter home written a month later, he explained that he had been in the realm of Emir Feyyād and went on to write:

Della Valle and Strachan were to become good friends, and his later comments may be coloured by this relationship but, when he wrote his letter in December 1616, he had never met the Scot. It is clear that after being in the desert for a year, Strachan's material circumstances had improved greatly. The post of ‘Master of the Rod’ can best be explained as an honorary role in the emir's entourage, and underlines Della Valle's comments on the respect in which he was held among the Arabs. The emir valued his services as a doctor but this cannot explain the high regard that Della Valle describes. Feyyād would also have been impressed by the ease with which the Scot conducted himself in his presence. Strachan was born of a noble family and, as well as his childhood instruction in the manners of a gentleman, he had learned how to behave in the presence of royalty and nobility during his life at European courts. The emir enjoyed his company, which must have contrasted markedly with the way that he dealt with male members of his own family.