Robert Shirley
English soldier, diplomat and adventurer (c.1581-1628) · Politicians · Died at 47
Robert Shirley was an English traveller and adventurer, younger brother of Anthony Shirley and Thomas Shirley. He is notable for his role in modernizing and improving the Military of Safavid Iran in accordance with the English model at the request of Emperor Abbas the Great.
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Double portrait of Robert Shirley and his Circassian wife Teresia, c.1624-1627. He wears the exotic Persian clothes which so impressed his European hosts upon his return to Europe from Persia; she wears her native style of dress but also holds a flintlock pistol and a pocket watch, symbols of the technologies Europe was introducing to Persia.
Painting of Robert Shirley visiting Pope Paul V in 1611, Sala dei Corazzieri, Palazzo del Quirinale, Rome. Painted in 1615-1616
Sir Robert Shirley, by Anthony van Dyck, painted in Rome in 1622About this person
This proved to be highly successful, as from then on the Safavids proved to be an equal force to their archrival, the Ottoman Empire.
