Welcome to The Voyages and Travels of the Ambassadors, the epic story of a 17th century trade expedition from Germany to Persia that failed so completelyits leader was publicly executed upon his return. This is Episode 12: Gunpowder Empires.
It is still early February, 1637, and our voyagers are still in the city of Schamachie, Persia, just a few days by horseback from where they were shipwrecked on the Caspian Sea. They have been drinking their way across two continents, carrying barrels of the stuff by land, river, and sea, and 22 of them are in bed with “burning fevers” caused by the "abundant drinking of wine."
But this episode is mostly about gunpowder and trade, epitomized by two adventurous British brothers, Sir Anthony and Sir Robert Sherley, soldiers of fortune who traveled to Isfahan to persuade Shah Abbas to form a military alliance with the Christian kingdoms.
When they arrive in Persia in 1599, their first meeting with Shah Abbas occurs as he returns from an eastern campaign against the Uzbeks. According to Anthony, the Shah’s soldiers carry no less than 24,000 decapitated enemy heads on pikes.
