Shahs and Grand Dukes: Medici-Safavid Diplomatic Relations in the Early Modern Mediterranean (The Mediterranean Historical Review Book Series)

The Early Modern period was not only an age of artistic and cultural flourishing but also one of intense diplomatic encounters across religious and cultural boundaries.Above all, it was a time that witnessed the very making of modern diplomacy.European powers increasingly engaged with distant empires such as Safavid Persia, which played a crucial role in shaping the geopolitical balance of the wider Mediterranean world.The Safavids in particular emerged as a key interlocutor for several European states in their long-standing confrontation with the Ottoman Empire.Within this framework, the Grand Duchy of Tuscany under the Medici initiated and maintained a continuous relationship with the Safavid dynasty from the late sixteenth and the early seventeenth century until its collapse in the eighteenth century. Although the existence of Medici-Safavid relations has been acknowledged, these contacts have remained marginal in historiography.This book offers the first comprehensive study of thes