Habsburg-Safavid Diplomacy: Nicholas von Warkotsch and Haji Khosrow in Moscow

Abstract

During the 16th century, several European states were regularly engaged in forming an anti- Ottoman alliance. The goal was to cooperate in the elimination of the Ottoman power and expansion in Europe. In addition, traditional European members of the anti-Ottoman league (the Papal State, the Spanish and Austrian Habsburgs, the Venetian Republic) were counting on the help of the Eastern empires such as the Tsardom of Muscovy (Russia) and the Safavid Persia. In connection with this policy, Habsburg-Safavid diplomatic relations continued to develop. In the second half of the 1580s and 1590s, the Tsardom of Muscovy began to play an important mediating role in the context of Habsburg-Persian relations. An illustrative case is the presented study, which deals with the missions of Habsburg envoy Nicholas von Warkostch and the Safavid (Persian) envoy Haji Khosrow to the court of the Russian Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich in 1593. This issue is examined against the background of a broader international politics and diplomacy in the second half of the 1580s and the beginning of 1590s. Regarding their missions to the Russian tsar, both envoys took advantage of their mutual presence at the Muscovite court and through the mediation of Boris Godunov managed to arrange a meeting where they negotiated the possibility of the formation of an anti-Ottoman alliance. The analysis of the preserved archival and published documents concerning the above-mentioned missions reveals the goals and attitudes of all negotiating parties (Habsburgs, Persia, and Muscovy) in relation to the creation of an anti-Ottoman alliance.