George Strachan of the Mearns

Abstract

An up-to-date study of one of early modern Scotland’s most remarkable travellers Examines the life of George Strachan (1572 – 1635), Scottish Humanist scholar, Orientalist and traveller Draws on a wealth of newly discovered archival material to offer new insights into Strachan’s life and work Explores Strachan’s key role in advancing European scholarly understanding of Islam and Arabic culture The book explains the voyages that the Catholic exile took to many of the Catholic courts of Europe as a scholar and spy before turning eastwards to embark upon a 22 year journey around the Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal empires. By becoming fully literate in Arabic and Farsi he was able to gain a unique knowledge of Eastern societies. Strachan’s collection of Arabic and Farsi texts on Islam, philosophy and humanities, which he translated and sent to Europe for the advancement of European knowledge of Islam and Islamic societies, became Strachan’s real intellectual legacy. Tom McInally provides further insight into King James VI’s dealing with the papacy in the years immediately before his accession to the English throne. He explains European traders’ involvement in the Silk Road and provides an insight into the early ventures of the East India Company in Iran and India<. He outlines Catholic missionary involvement and progress in the Middle East and India in the early 17th century and lists the surviving Arabic and Persian manuscripts that Strachan donated to scholars in Rome. He shows, through the example of Strachan’s own family, the pressures on some of Scotland’s aristocracy and gentry to convert to Calvinism from ‘the Old Faith’