Robert Shirley

Robert Shirley (c. 1581–1628) was an English traveller and adventurer. In 1598 he accompanied his brother Anthony to Safavid Persia, where he trained Shah Abbas I's army and reformed its artillery on English lines, helping Persia hold its own in the Ottoman war of 1603–1612. In 1607 he married the Circassian Sampsonia, later Lady Teresa.

From 1608 Abbas sent him to European courts seeking an alliance against the Ottomans; in Poland and Rome the emperor and pope made him a count. In 1627 his third journey to Persia with the English ambassador ended in his death at Qazvin in 1628.