A voyage born from a profound thirst for knowledge, but also from the desire to pursue everlasting fame and, "in ricompensa di tanto amore e di tante fatiche", return to his homeland with honor and glory. Della Valle's first significant stay was in Safavid Persia, during the Cultural Renaissance and the proclamation of Twelver Shīʿa as the kingdom's official religion. In his Letters, Della Valle reports on his encounter with the Shāh ʿAbbās I (r. 1587-1629), his ambitious and utopian plans as a Christian missionary, his ardent love for a Georgian woman, and his longing to learn the language, history, and traditions of that vaunted lineage. He also documents in detail the circumstances of a religious discussion that took place in the spring of 1621 in Isfahan with several theologians, which led to a debate with the high Shīʿī clergy and in particular with a distinguished commentator on Avicenna's works, Aḥmad ʿAlawī (d. between 1054H/1644 and 1060H/1650), son-in-law and disciple of the distinguished philosopher and theologian Mīr Dāmād (d. 1041H/1631). At the end of his long travel, Della Valle had acquired an enormous wealth of knowledge and a substantial collection of manuscripts, now preserved in the Vatican Library.