Catholic Religious Orders in Persia

George Strachan had left Baghdad in the spring of 1619 to travel to Isfahan with the intention of capitalising on the goodwill of the East India Company, which he felt he had earned by his actions in rescuing William Nellson from execution at the hands of the aga of Baghdad (Chapter 9). If he had failed to gain a positive reception from the merchants in Persia, his plan was to continue eastwards to India. As he explained in his letter to Sir Thomas Smyth, he was travelling to the court of the Great Moghul ‘with good recommendations and fayre expectations’ (Yule 1888: 324). He did not explain from whom he had been given recommendations or who had led him to believe that he would be well treated in India. It is possible that some of his Arab merchant friends had offered introductions to their trading contacts on the sub-continent, but it is more likely that members of Catholic religious orders were the source of his confidence in receiving a welcome at the Moghul court.

He had been reliant on the Franciscans while in Ottoman lands. During his stay in Aleppo, he spent time with them in the Convento di Terra Sancta. There were many Catholic missionary stations throughout the Middle East, India and the Far East. Prominent among the missionary orders was the Society of Jesus which was the most extensive in its reach, but when Strachan arrived in Isfahan there were no Jesuits in Persia. Jesuits and Augustinians had set up missions on the island of Hormuz in the late sixteenth century but suffered from health problems caused by its adverse climate. They had very limited success in making conversions, in part due to the fact that much of the population was non-resident. Merchants made brief stops during which they traded and amused themselves. Hormuz and Kishm were notorious for the abundant opportunities for drinking, gambling and fornication. As well as providing additional income for the residents, these facilities made the islands the trading station of choice for merchants (Coleridge 1997: 104–5). The missionaries attended to the Portuguese garrisons but after a few years both the Jesuits and Augustinians withdrew to Goa. In 1602 Portuguese Augustinians arrived in Isfahan and received permission from Shah Abbas to establish a mission.