Facing persecution for leaving Islam, he later arrived in Mantua via Venice with Giovanni Battista Ruffini, a member of the Franciscan order and chief confessor of Vincenzo I Gonzaga in 1597.
According to Corai's later report to the Venetian signoria, he had already befriended a merchant named Antonio Padovan in Aleppo in 1590 and he was staying at his house whenever he was in Venice.
In Antioch, Corai, leveraging his extensive spy network, persuaded two Hungarian janissaries whom he personally knew to offer them shelter for the night.
[5] Corai later left on 17 May 1599 via Tabriz-Erzurum-Trebizond route to Venice to wait for Asad bey Tabrizi,[6] who was a secret diplomat of Safavids in merchant disguise.
As a result, Asad bey was compelled to return to Shah Abbas as the Venetian ambassador and inform him that Shirley's embassy had not achieved his goal.
Shirley, having fallen out with Huseyn Ali bey in Rome, asked Clement VIII for a passport to return to Iran via Naples-Messina-Crete-Alexandretta-Tripoli-Damascus-Ormus route, financial means and diplomatic credentials for his interpreter, Corai.
Giovanni Altoni, a military engineer who led an earlier reconnaissance mission in Syria, criticized the Grand Duke for sending Corai as an ambassador, citing his Syrian origins and alleged loyalty to Venice.
Corai, denying all allegations, attributed the accusations to the "envy and malignity" of his Jewish adversaries, whom he portrayed as the originators of the false charges.
In a mix of cipher and plain text in his report to Tuscan court, Corai recounted being taken to a house where four soldiers attempted to extract his secrets through torture.
Corai claimed to have withstood the torment, and when the soldiers failed to obtain the desired information, they shifted their demands, asking for 500 piasters.
Corai, claiming he lacked the funds, sought the assistance of a French merchant, Timoteo Moyen, whom he praised as an honorable and well-respected man.
From there, after a few days' rest, he resumed his journey heading north, arriving on the 8 April in the province of Mazandaran, on the shores of the Caspian Sea, where Shah was holding court.
After three days, the shah granted him an audience, during which he inquired about Corai's activities, the status of the task assigned to him eight years earlier, and the circumstances of his return to court.
[10] Corai explained that, although he had been unable to deliver the shah's letters to all the intended rulers, he had met with Pope Clement VIII and the Grand Duke of Tuscany.
Corai then advocated for a Safavid military campaign in Syria, arguing that such a conquest would weaken the Ottoman Empire and significantly benefit Iran.
While some scholars, such as José Cutillas Ferrer, suggest that Abbas had broader Mediterranean ambitions,[16] there is little documentation to support this, as the shah never extended his campaigns beyond Iraq.
Shah granted Michelangelo Corai all the wealth and properties of Dengiz Beg Rumlu,[19] his ambassador to Spain, who had left for his mission in 1609 with Antonio de Gouvea.
However, Curzio Picchena, Secretary of State of Tuscany denied his request to be granted additional funds and called his travel to Iran unsanctioned in his letter dated 9 July 1612.
[10] Following this communication, it remains uncertain whether Corai ever received the letter, but the correspondence between him and the Tuscan court ended permanently, and his situation took a dramatic turn.
According to reports from the Discalced Carmelites, the shah, despite valuing Corai's services, demanded that he renounce his Catholic faith and convert to Islam.
His attempt to complete the journey to Hormuz resulted in his arrest, but Corai, using his cunning, managed to escape by drugging his captors during a dinner party and fleeing, evading musket fire from Safavid border guards, he reached the fortress of Comorão (modern Bandar Abbas).
[10] Last letter addressed to Corai was written on 29 January 1616 by his former secretary Giorgio Criger, who by that time was working as an adviser for Ibrahim Adil Shah II.