The Ottoman-Safavid conflict was viewed by the countries of Europe as being beneficial to their interests and there was therefore a subsequent hunger for up-to-date intelligence of events in that part of the world. As resident physician to the Venetian legation, Giovanni-Tommaso Minadoi he made use of his wide contacts within the community to gather this vital commercial and diplomatic intelligence. This book provides a detailed and lively account of the war between the Ottoman and Safavid dynasties in the late sixteenth century, when Ottoman sultan, Murad III, sought to extend his sphere of influence at the expense of the Safavids under Shah Mohammad Khodabandeh. There are very few western accounts of the conflict and Minadoi's is both highly informative and reliable and provides a valuable addition to non-western sources. Now rare, this edition is published with a new introduction from one of the foremost authorities on the history of Iran, Rudi Matthee.

Giovanni-Tommaso Minadoi (1548? -1618) was resident physician to the Venetian legation in Syria and was subsequently Professor of Medicine at the University of Padua. Physicians in Venetian service in the Middle East traditionally sought to gather diplomatic intelligence in addition to their medical activities, and Minadoi's appointment as medico condotto to the Venetian consuls in Aleppo provided him with important contacts and made him a valued source of political and commercial information.

The English translation was made from the second Italian edition by Abraham Hartwell (1553?-1607), which was a substantially revised version of much greater length than the first edition. Hartwell was member of the Society of Antiquaries, and secretary to Archbishop Whitgift, Archbishop of Canterbury, to whom he dedicated his translation.

Rudi Matthee is John and Dorothy Munroe Distinguished Professor of History, University of Delaware, USA. A leading international authority on the Safavid dynasty, his books include The Pursuit of Pleasure: Drugs and Stimulants in Iranian History (2005), Persia in Crisis: Safavid Decline and the Fall of Isfahan (I.B.Tauris 2012), The Monetary History of Iran: From the Safavids to the Qajars (with Willem Floor & Patrick Clawson, I.B.Tauris, 2013) and as co-editor (with Elena Andreeva) Russians in Iran: Diplomacy and Power in the Qajar Era and Beyond (I.B.Tauris, 2018).