ABSTRACT

Although significant knowledge of the Islamic world came to Christendom through the transmission and translation of written works, the first-hand experiences of European travellers served as another major source of information about contemporary Muslim societies. The transmission and reception of such knowledge was notoriously problematic, however, as travellers were routinely dismissed as exaggerators or simple “travel liars.” Some experiential knowledge was valued and some derided, depending largely on the source of the account and his or her standing in the home community. This paper will explore the credit given to one of the most organized and experienced set of travellers from early modern England to the Persian and Mughal Empires and other points around the Indian Ocean: the English merchants of the nascent East India Company. Despite the growing wealth and influence of these merchants in English society, their status as commoners and their devotion to business served to diminish the epistemological value of their knowledge claims. These same traits thus ironically served to enhance their knowledge base, and degrade its reception as truth in England. By focusing on an offer made by the Persian ambassador Robert Sherley to King James in 1622 for a direct trade in silks with Shah Abbas I, this paper will display the paradoxical role that the experiential knowledge of merchants played in the development of English familiarity with Islamic lands and peoples.

Keywords: East India Company, travel, trade, Persia, Sherley, credibility, witnessing

ALTHOUGH SIGNIFICANT KNOWLEDGE of the Islamic world came to Christendom through the transmission and translation of written works, the first-hand experiences of European travellers served as another major source of information about contemporary Muslim societies. The transmission and reception of such knowledge was notoriously problematic, however, as travellers were routinely dismissed as exaggerators or simple “travel liars.” Some experiential knowledge was valued and some derided, depending largely on the source of the account and his or her standing in the home community. This paper will explore the credit given to one of the most organized and experienced set of travellers from early modern England: the members of the nascent East India Company. Despite the growing wealth and influence of these merchants in English society, their status as commoners and their devotion to business served to diminish the epistemological value of their knowledge claims.