The embassy of Don Garcia de Silva y Figueroa, sent in 1614 by Philip III of Castile and II of Portugal to negotiate an alliance with Shah Abbas against the Ottomans, was a fiasco. Not only did it fail to secure a deal, but within three years of the ambassador’s departure from Ispahan, in 1622, Persian troops, with the help of English ships, conquered the strategic island and fortress of Hormuz at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, marking a turning point in the decline of Portuguese power in Asia. For many historians the embassy was doomed from the start, notwithstanding the lavish gift offered to the Safavid ruler, because the Spanish ambassador could never offer Shah Abbas what he wanted. This analysis however assumes that the two sides understood each other perfectly well, and that the cultural distance between the ambassador and Shah Abbas was no obstacle to perfectly accurate political calculations. Taking advantage of the plurality of agendas and perspectives that can be documented during these exchanges, including English adventurers and commercial agents, various Carmelite and Augustinian friars, and the independent observer Pietro della Valle, this article seeks to test the degree of cultural commensurability in inter-cultural diplomacy, proposing a model that takes account of cultural distance without falling into a facile version of cultural relativism.

中文翻译：

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欧洲大使馆对沙阿阿巴斯的政治理性和文化距离

Don Garcia de Silva y Figueroa 大使馆于 1614 年由卡斯蒂利亚的菲利普三世和葡萄牙的二世派遣，与沙阿阿巴斯谈判结盟以对抗奥斯曼帝国，这是一场惨败。它不仅未能达成协议，而且在大使离开伊斯帕罕的三年内，1622 年，波斯军队在英国船只的帮助下，征服了波斯湾口的战略岛屿和要塞霍尔木兹，标志着葡萄牙在亚洲实力下降的转折点。对于许多历史学家来说，尽管向萨法维统治者提供了大量礼物，但大使馆从一开始就注定要失败，因为西班牙大使永远无法向沙阿·阿巴斯提供他想要的东西。然而，这种分析假设双方完全了解对方，大使和沙阿阿巴斯之间的文化距离并没有妨碍完全准确的政治计算。利用这些交流中可以记录的多元化议程和观点，包括英国冒险家和商业代理人、各种加尔默罗会和奥古斯丁修士，以及独立观察员 Pietro della Valle，本文试图测试相互之间的文化可通性程度。 - 文化外交，提出了一个模型，该模型考虑了文化距离，而不会陷入文化相对主义的轻率版本。