Europe Through Arab Eyes, 1578-1727

Erscheinungsjahr 2008
ISBN: 978-0-231-14194-9
Verlag: Columbia University Press

Buch, Englisch, 344 Seiten, Format (B × H): 163 mm x 236 mm, Gewicht: 589 g

Traveling to archives in Tunisia, Morocco, France, and England, with visits to Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Spain, Nabil Matar assembles a rare history of Europe's rise to power as seen through the eyes of those who were later subjugated by it. Many historians of the Middle East believe Arabs and Muslims had no interest in Europe during this period of Western discovery and empire, but in fact these groups were very much engaged with the naval and industrial development, politics, and trade of European Christendom.

Beginning in 1578 with a major Moroccan victory over a Portuguese invading army, Matar surveys this early modern period, in which Europeans and Arabs often shared common political, commercial, and military goals. Matar concentrates on how Muslim captives, ransomers, traders, envoys, travelers, and rulers pursued those goals while transmitting to the nonprint cultures of North Africa their knowledge of the peoples and societies of Spain, France, Britain, Holland, Italy, and Malta. From the first non-European description of Queen Elizabeth I to early accounts of Florence and Pisa in Arabic, from Tunisian descriptions of the Morisco expulsion in 1609 to the letters of a Moroccan Armenian ambassador in London, the translations of the book's second half draw on the popular and elite sources that were available to Arabs in the early modern period. Letters from male and female captives in Europe, chronicles of European naval attacks and the taqayid (newspaper) reports on Muslim resistance, and descriptions of opera and quinine appear here in English for the first time.

Matar notes that the Arabs of the Maghrib and the Mashriq were eager to engage Christendom, despite wars and rivalries, and hoped to establish routes of trade and alliances through treaties and royal marriages. However, the rise of an intolerant and exclusionary Christianity and the explosion of European military technology brought these advances to an end. In conclusion, Matar details the decline of Arab-Islamic power and the rise of Britain and France.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Matar, Nabil

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Europäische Länder
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Asiatische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

AcknowledgmentsA Note on TransliterationChronologyList of RulersPart IIntroduction1. Popular Sources: Accounts of Muslim Captivity in Christendom2. Elite Sources: Muslim Ambassadors in ChristendomConclusion: Encountering the Dunya of the ChristiansPart II. Translations1. 1578: Letters of Radwan al- Janawy on Muslim Captives2. After 1588: Description of the Defeat of the Armada3. ca. 1589;1591: A Journey from Morocco to Istanbul and Back4. After June 1596: Description of the En glish Attack on Cadiz5. 1613;1618: Description of Pisa and Florence6. 1623: Expulsion of the Moriscos and the Miraculous Ransoming of Muslim Captives7. 1633;1635: Letters from Tunis by Osman/Thomas d'Arcos, a Convert to Islam8. 1635: Letter About Muslim Captives Converted to Christianity9. 1635: Expulsion of the Moriscos10. 1642: Description of the World11a. Before 1688: Christian Attack on Jarbah (Tunisia) in 151011b. 1685: Bombardment of Tripoli, Libya, by the French Fleet,12. 1681;1691: Battle Accounts13. 1590;1654: Euro-Tunisian Piracy14. Before September 2, 1706: Letter of Mulay Isma'il to the English Parliament15. November 1, 1707: Letter from a Captive in France16a. 1713: Letters of Bentura de Zari, Moroccan Ambassador Under House Arrest in London16b. January 12, 1717: Letter of Mulay Isma'il to Philip V17. 1726;1727: On Quinine18. Mid-eighteenth century: Captivity in Malta19. 1782: Muhammad ibn 'Uthman al- Miknasi. Falling in Love in Naples20. 1798: Letter from a Female Captive in MaltaNotesBibliographyIndex

Über Autor(innen)

Nabil Matar is professor of English at the University of Minnesota. He is the author of a trilogy on Britain and the Islamic Mediterranean: Islam in Britain, 1578-1685; Turks, Moors, and Englishmen in the Age of Discovery; and Britain and Barbary, 1589-1689. He is also author and translator of In the Lands of the Christians.