Saving William Nellson

Strachan left the Bedouin camp for the last time in 1618 fleeing from Emir Feyyād, impending circumcision and his new wife. It had been five years since he had taken his impulsive decision in Aix-en-Provence to travel east and in the intervening period he had visited many of the Orient's great cities, had learned the Turkish and Persian languages, and mastered Arabic, both demotic and classical. He had studied under eminent scholars who introduced him to a range of important works and helped him under-stand the subtleties of their texts. In the process he had absorbed a great deal on the culture and lifestyle of the Arab and Islamic worlds. In material terms, he had accumulated significant savings as well as having gathered an impressive collection of books which were to be of great intellectual value in the West. To a large extent he had accomplished what he had set out to do, and in his letter of 26 February 1615 to Dupuy he had written that it was his intention to return to Europe in two years’ time. From Baghdad, to return by the way he had come, involved crossing the Great Syrian Desert, the territory controlled by Emir Feyyād. While he remained in Baghdad, Strachan was fully aware that the emir and the wife he had abandoned had not despaired of his return and were looking for an opportunity to reunite him with his Bedouin family. Merchants arriving from Aleppo and Damascus would have told him of the emir's continued vigilance. By June when the scribe al-Ḥasan had completed his second commission, Strachan had been in the city for about four months and had spent a significant sum on books as well as living expenses. It would have been clear to him that the longer it took Feyyād to lose interest the more depleted his savings would become. It made little sense for him to remain in Baghdad.

Given that the way westward was barred to him, he decided to travel east. He let it be known that he intended to visit the court of the Great Moghul emperor in Agra. From India it would be possible to return to Europe travelling on one of the merchant ships that the Portuguese, French, Dutch and English were sending on regular voyages to buy spices in the west coast ports of India.