George Strachan

Christian-Muslim Relations A Bibliographical History Volume 10. Ottoman and Safavid Empires (1600-1700) Edited by David Thomas and John Chesworth with Lejla Demiri, Emma Gaze Loghin, Claire Norton, Radu Păun, Reza Pourjavady, Umar Ryad, Carsten Walbiner LEIDEN • BOSTON 2017 For use by the Author only | © 2017 Koninklijke Brill NV CONTENTS Foreword ....................................................................................................... vii List of Illustrations ...................................................................................... xi List of Maps ................................................................................................... xiii Abbreviations ............................................................................................... xiv Claire Norton and Reza Pourjavady, Introduction: The Ottoman and Safavid Empires in the 17th century ............................................. 1 Dariusz Kołodziejczyk, Christians in the Safavid Empire .................. 21 Eugenia Kermeli, Christian communities under the Ottomans in the 17th century ......................................................................................... 35 A. Yunus Gencer, Ottoman influences on European music ............... 43 Works on Christian-Muslim relations 1600-1700 ................................ 53 The Ottoman Empire ................................................................................. 55 The Safavid Empire ..................................................................................... 493 Index of Names ............................................................................................ 693 Index of Titles ............................................................................................... 703 For use by the Author only | © 2017 Koninklijke Brill NV George Strachan Date of Birth About 1572 Place of Birth Mearns, Scotland Date of Death After 1634 Place of Death Unknown; possibly on his way back to Europe Biography A Scottish traveller and Orientalist, George Strachan was a Roman Catholic from Mearns, to the south of Aberdeen. He was born around 1572. In his early youth, his family sent him to study in France. There, he appears to have been based mainly in Paris, although he travelled around to attend lectures by the best teachers. He also spent some time in various cities in Italy, including Rome and Venice. He then taught humanities for a while at the Collège Le Mans in Paris. Around 1613, Strachan embarked on a long journey to the east. He travelled from Constantinople via Aleppo and Baghdad to Isfahan and continued on to India. While he was in Ottoman territory, he pretended to be a convert, calling himself ‘Muḥammad Chelebī’. In late 1618 or early 1619, he reached Isfahan, where he stayed for a few years. He met Pietro della Valle (d. 1652) and the two became close friends; there are several references to Strachan in della Valle’s travelogue and letters, where he describes Strachan as an exceptionally gifted person with advanced knowledge of Latin, Greek and Hebrew literature, as well as philosophy, theology and mathematics. Shortly after his arrival in Isfahan, Strachan started working at the newly opened agency of the British East India Company. Strachan learned Arabic and Persian, and he may have been the most fluent European of his time in those languages. He collected valuable manuscripts, including some old codices, and he appears to have employed at least three copyists to copy works that he wanted. Over 50 of his codices are known to be extant, mainly in the Vatican and Naples libraries. While in Isfahan, Strachan seems to have been acquainted with the leading philosopher of the city, Mīr Dāmād (d. 1631-2) and his circle, which may have led to his interest in Islamic philosophy and theology. The last evidence we have about Strachan’s life is a note he wrote at the beginning of his interlinear translation of Mīr Ḥusayn Maybudī’s For use by the Author only | © 2017 Koninklijke Brill NV george strachan 566 Jām-i gītī-numā, dated 1634, but his location at the time is unknown, as are the date and place of his death. MAIN SOURCES OF INFORMATION Primary T. Dempster, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Scotorum. Sive, De scriptoribus Scotis, Edinburgh: Excudebat Andreas Balfour cum Sociis, 1627 Pietro della Valle, Il Pellegrino. Descritti da lui medesimo in lettere familiari all’erudito suo amico Mario Schipano, ed. G. Gancia, Brighton, 1843 H. Chick (ed. and trans.), A chronicle of the Carmelites in Persia and the papal mission of the XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries, London, 1939 Secondary C.E. Bosworth, ‘George Strachan of the Mearns. Middle East traveller and pioneer collector of Arabic and Persian manuscripts’, in C.E. Bosworth, Eastward ho! Diplomats, travellers and interpreters of the Middle East and beyond, 1600-1940, London, 2012, ch. 2 D.F. Wright, art. ‘Strachan, George ( fl. 1592-1634), traveller and orientalist’, DNB H.V.F. Winstone, ‘George Strachan, 17th century orientalist. Plea for a biographical study’, Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 14 (1984) 103-9 G.L. della Vida, George Strachan. Memorials of a wandering Scottish scholar of the seventeenth century, Aberdeen: Third Spalding Club, 1956 D. McRoberts, ‘George Strachan of the Mearns. An early Scottish orientalist’, Innes Review 3 (1952) 110-28 J.F.K. Johnstone, The alba amicorum of George Strachan, George Craig, Thomas Cumming, Aberdeen, 1924 W. Yule, ‘Concerning some little-known travellers in the East’, Asiatic Quarterly 5 (1888) 312-35 Works on Christian-Muslim Relations Universum, Inter-linear translation and gloss on Mīr Ḥusayn Maybudī’s Jām-i gītī-numa Date 1634 Original Language Latin Description MS British Library add. 7720 contains a copy of Mīr Ḥusayn Maybudī’s (d. 1504) Jām-i gītī-numā (fols 63r-106v), apparently copied for Strachan’s personal use. Strachan entitled it Universum, adding as clarification that a more literal translation would be poculum mundi. The text is written For use by the Author only | © 2017 Koninklijke Brill NV george strachan 567 in large script, leaving generous spaces between the lines, and difficult words have been vocalised throughout. With a few exceptions (such as the eulogy for the Prophet), Strachan gives a word-for-word interlinear Latin translation of the text. In places, above the literal translations of some words he provides further explanations of their meanings and adds more notes in the margins, some explanatory and others critical comments. In some instances, he also transliterates into Roman characters Persian words that may have been obscure to him. It is evident from this copy that Strachan was familiar with Ibn Sīnā. He renders Shaykh al-ra⁠ʾīs as ‘first doctor’ and offers the further explanation ‘i.e. Avicenna’ (fol. 69r), although he appears unaware of the identity of ‘Abū ʿAlī’, an alternative way of referring to Avicenna in the text (fol. 74v). He translates ishrāqiyyān as ‘illuminati’ (fol. 72r) and mutakallimān (the Persian plural of the Arabic mutakallim) as ‘discussenti’, further identifying them as philosophi mahomatani (‘Muḥammadan philosophers’) (fol. 105r). He first transliterates the word Sufis as sophi, and later on introduces them as lanam vestientes philosophi (‘philosophers wearing wool’) (fol. 72r), suggesting some speculation based on the root of the word ṣūf (wool). In some of his marginal notes, Strachan reveals his disagreement with the argument, and betrays his religious disquiet with the contents of the work. For instance, Maybudī concedes the existence of some evil in the world, explaining that the purpose of its existence is to provide ultimate good. Strachan notes that this understanding is not in accordance with Christian thought, and quotes from Genesis 1:31, ‘And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good’ (fol. 71r). Elsewhere, in response to Maybudī’s discussion of the concept of the throne of God, he comments: ‘Mohammadan scholars tend to believe that God is inside the space of the world. They locate his throne in a celestial sphere that is included by the prime mover. They assume that the Creator is contained in the creation. O ignorance, o obscurity, o pitiful blindness! They include in heaven one whom heaven cannot contain (1 Kings 8:27: The heavens, even the highest heaven cannot contain you)’ (fol. 72r). Significance Strachan’s critical study of this treatise on Islamic philosophy in its original Persian language represents the first example of such an endeavour in the early modern period. His comments sometimes reveal his religious differences with his Persian author. For use by the Author only | © 2017 Koninklijke Brill NV 568 george strachan Publications MS London, BL – add. 7720, fols 63r-106v (1634) Studies R. Pourjavady, ‘“The world-revealing cup” by Mīr Ḥusayn al-Maybudī and its Latin translations’, Oriens 46 (2017) forthcoming C. Rieu, Catalogue of the Persian manuscripts in the British Museum, London, 1879 Reza Pourjavady For use by the Author only | © 2017 Koninklijke Brill NV