Hostname: page-component-857557d7f7-wf4rb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-11-30T05:18:57.421Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Searching for an alliance: Habsburgs, Rurikids, and the Third Ottoman-Safavid War (1578–1590)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 October 2025

Lukas Rybar Open the ORCID record for Lukas Rybar [Opens in a new window]
Lukas Rybar*
Affiliation:
Department of General History, Faculty of Arts, Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia
*
Email: lukas.rybar@uniba.sk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study explores diplomatic negotiations that took place between the Safavids, Rurikids, and Habsburgs during the last years of the Ottoman-Safavid War (1578–1590). The primary objective of these negotiations was to establish an anti-Ottoman alliance, with each participating party pursuing its own foreign policy interests. Drawing on various documents, it can be argued that the initiative for this new round of Safavid-Rurikids-Habsburg diplomacy originated from Shāh Muḥammad Khudābanda. In 1586, the shah dispatched envoy Hādī Beg to Moscow, seeking Russia’s assistance in countering the Ottomans. Subsequently, diplomatic negotiations between the three parties ensued. Through a comprehensive analysis of both archival and published documents, this article aims to uncover and examine the goals and attitudes of all negotiating parties around the formation of an anti-Ottoman alliance by the late 1580s.

Keywords

anti-Ottoman alliancediplomacyHabsburgsRurikidsSafavidssixteenth century

Information

Type
Article
Information
Iranian Studies , First View , pp. 1 - 18
Check for updates
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Association for Iranian Studies.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Barāzish, Amīr Hussain. Ravābaṭ-i sīyāsī-dīplomatīk-i Īrān va jahān dar ʿahd-i ṣafavīya. Tehran: Amīr-i Kabīr, 1392/2013.Google Scholar
Belokurov, S.A. Snoshenia Rossii s Kavkazom, Vypusk 1. 1578–1613. Materialy, izvlechennye iz Moskovskogo glavnogo arkhiva Ministerstva inostrannych del. Moscow: Universitetskaia tipografiia, 1889.Google Scholar
Bushev, P.P. Istoriia posolʹstv i diplomaticheskikh otnosheniĭ Russkogo i iranskogo gosudarstv v 1588–1612 gg. Moscow: Nauka, 1976.Google Scholar
Casale, Sinen Arcak. Gifts in the Age of Empire: Ottoman-Safavid Cultural Exchange, 1500–1639. Chicago, London: The University of Chicago Press, 2023.10.7208/chicago/9780226823553.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elementa ad Fontium Editiones XVI. Documenta Polonica ex Archivo Generali Hispaniae in Simancas. V Pars, edited by Meysztowicz, Walerian. Roma: Institutum Historicum Polonicum Romae, 1966.Google Scholar
Filiushkin, A. Tituly russkikh gosudareĭ. Moscow, St. Petersburg: Arkheo, 2006.Google Scholar
Floria, B.N. Russko-polʹskie otnosheniia i politicheskoe razvitie Vostochnoĭ Evropy vo vtoroĭ polovine XVI – nachale XVII vekov. Moscow: Nauka, 1978.Google Scholar
García Hernán, Enrique. “The Holy See, the Spanish Monarchy and Safavid Persia in the Sixteenth Century: Some Aspects of the Involvement of the Society of Jesus.” In Iran and the World in the Safavid Age, edited by Floor, Willem and Herzig, Edmund, 181–203. London, New York: I.B. Tauris, 2012.Google Scholar
Güngörürler, Selim. The Ottoman Empire and Safavid Iran, 1639–1683. Diplomacy and Borderlands in the Early Modern Middle East. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2024.Google Scholar
Guseĭn, F.A. “K voprosu ob obeshchanii shakha Abbasa I ustupit Moskovskomu gosudarstvu Derbent, Baku I Shemakhu.” Voprosy istorii 9 (2010): 113–124.Google Scholar
Jamālzāda, Muḥammad ʿAlī. Tārīkh-i ravābaṭ-i Rūs va Īrān. Tehran: Sokhan, 1358/1979.Google Scholar
Karamzin, N.M. Istoriia gosudarstva Rossiĭskogo, book 3, vol. 10. St. Petersburg: I. Ėĭnerling, v tip. Ė. Pratsa, 1843.Google Scholar
Kortepeter, Carl Max. “Complex goals of the Ottomans, Persians, and Muscovites in the Caucasus, 1578–1640.” In New Perspectives on Safavid Iran, edited by Mitchell, Colin P., 59–83. London: Routledge, 2011.Google Scholar
Lapteva, Liudmila. “Donesenie avstriĭskogo posla o poezdke v Moskvu v 1589 godu.” Voprosy istorii 6 (1978): 95–112.Google Scholar
Leitsch, Walter. “Rudolph und Sudosteuropa, 1593–1606.” East European Quarterly 6, no. 3 (1972): 301–320.Google Scholar
Magilina, I.V. “Antituretskaia koalitsiia kak instrument vostochnoĭ politiki Moskovskogo gosudarstva.” Vestnik Volgogradskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta 4, no. 1/15 (2009): 69–77.Google Scholar
Magilina, I.V. Rossiia i proekt antiosmanskoĭ ligi v kontse XVI – nachale XVII vv. Volgograd: MIRIA, 2012.Google Scholar
Matthee, Rudi. “Anti-Ottoman Concerns and Caucasian Interests. Diplomatic Relations Between Iran and Russia, 1587–1639.” In Safavid Iran and Her Neighbors, edited by Mazzaoui, Michel, 101–128. Salt Lake City: The University of Utah Press, 2003.Google Scholar
Matthee, Rudi. “Anti-Ottoman politics and transit rights: The seventeenth-century trade in silk between Safavid Iran and Muscovy.” Cahiers du Monde Russe 35, no. 4 (1994): 739–761.10.3406/cmr.1994.2405CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matthee, Rudi. “The Ottoman–Safavid War of 986–998/1578–90: Motives and Causes.” International Journal of Turkish Studies 20, no. 1–2 (2014): 1–20.Google Scholar
Matthee, Rudi. “Safavid Iran and the ‘Turkish Question’ or How to Avoid a War on Multiple Fronts.” Iranian Studies 52, no. 3–4 (2019): 513–542.10.1080/00210862.2019.1648228CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mika, Nobert. “Tatarská otázka v politických misích císařskych kuryrů a poslů k moskevskému dvoru v letech 1587–1589.” In Rus’ and the World of the Nomads (The second half of 9th–16th century), Colloquia Russica, series I, vol. 7, edited by Nagirnyy, Vitaliy, 423–438. Krakow: Jagiellonian University, 2017.Google Scholar
Muʿizī, Najafqulī-yi Ḥisām. Tārīkh-i ravābaṭ-i sīyāsī-yi Īrān bā dunīyā, Vol. 1. Tehran: Chāpkhāna-yi ʿilmī Publ., 1324/1945.Google Scholar
Niederkorn, Jan Paul. Die europaischen Machte und der “Lange Turkenkrieg” Kaiser Rudolfs II. (1593–1606). Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1993.Google Scholar
Niederkorn, Jan Paul. “Zweifrontenkrieg gegen die Osmanen. Iranisch-christliche Bundnisplane in der Zeit des ‘Langen Turkenkriegs’ 1593–1606.” Mitteilungen des Instituts fur osterreichische Geschichtsforschung 104, no. 3–4 (1996): 310–323.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pamiatniki diplomaticheskikh snosheniĭ drevneĭ Rossii s derzhavami inostrannymi. Snosheniia s gosudarstvami evropeĭskimi. Chastʹ pervaia. Pamiatniki diplomaticheskikh snosheniĭ s imperieiu Rimskoiu (s 1488 po 1594). Vol. 1. St. Petersburg: Tip. II Otdeleniia Sobstvennoĭ E.I.V. Kantseliarii, 1851.Google Scholar
Panov, Vladimir. “Tři moskevske mise Mikulaše Varkoče 1589–1594 ve světle diplomatickeho ritualu Ruska.” Opera historica: časopis pro dějiny raneho novověku 20, no. 1 (2019): 7–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Polišenský, Josef. Poselství z Prahy do Moskvy v roku 1589. Prague: Universita Karlova, 1974.Google Scholar
Posch, Walter. Osmanisch-safavidische Beziehungen 1545-1550: Der Fall Alḳâs Mîrzâ. (Sitzungsberichte der philosophisch-historischen Klasse, Band 841), Part 1. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2013.10.2307/j.ctt1vw0pgdCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Procházka, Jiří. “Cesta slezskeho šlechtice do Ruska v roce 1589.” Slezsky sbornik/Acta Silesiaca 95, no. 4 (1997): 255–262.Google Scholar
Roemer, H.R. “The Safavid Period.” In The Cambridge History of Iran. Vol. 6, edited by Jackson, Peter and Lockhart, Laurence, 189–350. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.10.1017/CHOL9780521200943.006CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rossiia i Italiia. Sbornik istoricheskikh materialov i issledovaniĭ, kasaiuschikhsia snosheniĭ Rossii s Italieĭ. Vol. 3, part 2, edited by Schmurlo, E.F.. St. Petersburg: Akademiia Nauk, 1915.Google Scholar
Rota, Giorgio. “Safavid Envoys in Venice.” In Diplomatisches Zeremoniell in Europa und im mittleren Osten in der frühen Neuzeit, edited by Kauz, Ralph, Rota, Giorgio, and Niederkorn, Jan Paul, 213–249. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2009.Google Scholar
Rybar, Lukas. “Habsburg-Safavid Diplomacy: Nicholas von Warkotsch and Haji Khosrow in Moscow.” Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. History 66, no. 4 (2021): 1132–1148.10.21638/11701/spbu02.2021.406CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rybár, Lukáš. “Misia Mikuláša Varkoča a Lukáša Pauliho do Moskvy v roku 1589 a otázka spojenectva Habsburgovcov s Perziou proti Osmanom.” In Byzantinoslovaca VII, edited by Hurbanič, M., Rybár, L. and Zervan, V., 214–229. Bratislava: Comenius University, 2020.Google Scholar
Rybar, Lukas. “Shirvān and its Role in the Russo-Safavid Trade and Diplomacy in the 16th Century.” Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. History 65, no. 2 (2020): 605–617.10.21638/11701/spbu02.2020.216CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skovajsa, Miloslav. Habsbursko-osmanské mierové zmluvy 1498–1616. PhD diss, Comenius University, 2012.Google Scholar
Skrynnikov, R.G. Rossiia posle oprichniny. Ocherki politicheskoĭ i sotsialʹnoĭ istorii. Leningrad: Izdatelʹstvo Leningradskogo universiteta, 1975.Google Scholar
Sreznevskiĭ, I.I. Materialy dlia slovaria drevne-russkogo iazyka. Vols. 1 and 3. Moscow: Tipografiia Imperatorskoĭ akademii nauk, 1893, 1912.Google Scholar
Stokes, David R. A Failed Alliance and Expanding Horizons: Relations between the Austrian Habsburgs and the Safavid Persians in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. PhD diss, St Andrews University, 2014.Google Scholar
Stoyanova, Aneliya. “Habsburg Intelligence and Ottoman-Safavid Diplomacy, 1570s-1590s.” CAS Sofia Working Paper Series 12 (2022): 1–38.Google Scholar
Uebersberger, Hans. Österreich und Russland seit dem Ende des 15. Jahrhunderts. Vienna, Leipzig: Wilhelm Braumüller, 1906.Google Scholar
Veselovskiĭ, N.I. Pamiatniki diplomaticheskikh i torgovikh snosheniĭ Moskovskoĭ Rusi s Persieĭ. Vol. 1. St. Petersburg: Tovarishchestvo parovoĭ skoropechatni Iablonskiĭ i Perott, 1890.Google Scholar
Yaşar, Murat. The North Caucasus Borderland Between Muscovy and the Ottoman Empire, 1555–1605. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2022.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Žontar, Josip. Obveščevalna služba in diplomacija austrijskih Habsburžanov v boju proti Turkom v 16 stoletju, Vol 18. Ljubljana: Slovenska Akademija Znanosti im Umetnosti, Razred za zgodovinske in družbene vede, 1973.Google Scholar