Britain and the Islamic World, 1558-1713

This is a book centred on the enterprise of five generations of British seamen and merchant-venturers exploring the Islamic East. It is a well-known story of British achievement but, instead of staying within the stately mansion of this progression towards glory and empire, the two authors keep throwing open the windows to offer us fresh insights, new horizons of inquiry, as well as skipping out through a back door to give us a witheringly close examination of the fabric. This is an uplifting, intriguing and inquiring survey, which leaves the reader grateful for the breadth and depth of their scrutiny. * Barnaby Rogerson, The Independent *
Through masterful use of a variety of original sources, including plays, books, pamphlets, archival records, and illustrations, MacLean and Matar make an innovative and persuasive argument. They demonstrate the diversity and complexity of English perceptions of both Muslims and Islam during this vital period in the development of English culture and its early relations with the peoples and religions of the Islamic world. A variety of scholars, students, and general readers will learn much from this accessible and well-informed volume. * Michael Fisher, American Historical Review *
The constant drawing upon, and in many cases the relentless misinterpretation of, history makes the need for rigorous, scholarly assessments of relations between the western and Islamic worlds all the more vital. In their work Britain and the Islamic World 1558-1713, Gerald Maclean and Nabil Matar provide a timely reminder of the complexities of these relationships and demonstrate how some attitudes have remained with us since the early modern period ... It was an era of cooperation and conflict. Extensive end-notes provide a wealth of additional information and sources for the interested reader, vital in a book whose only significant flaw is its brevity. Gerald Maclean and Nabil Matar's work is vital for understanding not only Islam during the period 1558-1713, but for deepening understandings of western relations with the Islamic world today. * Dr. Andrew Broertjes, Limina: Journal of Historical and Cultural Studies *
Nineteenth century observers would say that the British Empire was an Islamic one; be that as it may, before Empire there was trade- and lots of it. Nabil Matar and Gerald MacLean's book, Britain and the Islamic World, 1558-1713 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), though, goes beyond trade- there was also lots of curiosity, in Britain and abroad, about the strange new peoples and products beginning to move more freely across the world than ever before. It is this aspect of British-Muslim interaction – (or more accurately interactions; the Islamic world was vast and encompassed a dizzying diversity of peoples and cultures) that Matar and MacLean emphasise- the wondering, bemused, gleeful, fascinated, at times despairing accounts of travellers, diplomats, traders – and pirates and their captives- as they sought to convey their impressions of the new worlds they encountered. * Dhara Anjaria, New Books in South Asian Studies *