The Rise of Oriental Travel: English Visitors to the Ottoman Empire, 1580-1720

by Jason Ryll

Overview

The Rise of Oriental Travel follows four seventeenth-century Englishmen on their jourbaneys around the Ottoman Empire while it was still expanding westward and the British were, for the first time in history, becoming important players in the Mediterranean. Contrary to the hostile declamations of Protestant preachers, they all found much to admire, from the multi-culturalism of the Ottoman system to the food, weather and styles of life. This book shows that hostility between East and West is neither historical or inevitable, but rather the result of selective memory.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780333973646
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	05/14/2004
Edition description:	2004
Pages:	291
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.03(d)

About the Author

Gerald MacLean is Professor of English, Wayne State University and Visiting Professor, Bosphorus University, Istanbul, and the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter.

Table of Contents

Contents
• Dedication
• Prologue
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• List of Illustrations
• Part I: Dallam's Organ: By Sea to Constantinople, 1599
• Thomas Dallam
• On First Setting Out
• Mediterranean Encounters
• Istanbul
• Part II: Biddulp's Ministry: Travels Around Aleppo, 1600-12
• William Biddulph's Anxiety of Authorship
• Preacher Among the Diplomats
• Troublesome Travelling Churchmen
• Jourbaney to Aleppo
• Biddulph's Lessons from Aleppo
• Jourbaney to Jerusalem
• Part III: Blount's Voyage: The Ottoman Levant, 1634-36
• Sir Henry Blount, 1602-1682
• On Becoming a Passenger
• The Sinews of Empire: Venice to Istanbul
• Ottoman Egypt: African Empire in Ruins
• Part IV: "T.S." in Captivity: North African Slavery, 1648-70
• T.S.'s Adventures and Restoration England
• Captive Agency
• For the Vainglory of Being a "Traveller"
• Slavery in Algiers
• On Tour With the Ottoman Army
• Tlemcen: Life in a Desert City
• Epilogue: What About the Women, Then?
• The Strange Case of Anne, Lady Glover
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index

Editorial Reviews

"This is a fascinating and stimulating book, written with enthusiasm, skill, and an appealing sense of human sympathy." —Noel Malcolm, Sunday Telegraph

"By giving us a more complicated picture of England's encounters with the Islamic Mediterranean, MacLean challenges and questions a monolithic picture of the Eurocentricism of Renaissance culture. This stimulating book will be welcomed by historians, literary scholars, and anyone interested in the history of travel writing."—David Loewenstein, Marjorie and Lorin Tiefenthaler Professor of English, University of Wisconsin, Madison

"Eight decades, four travellers, and two cultures in one book: Gerald MacLean tells the compelling story of fascinating encounters between English travellers and the Ottoman empire from the 1580's to the 1720's. A panoply of characters, attitudes, and experiences parades before our eyes...MacLean's scintillating interpretation of these travel narratives is the next best thing to time travel."—Srinivas Aravamudan, Duke University

"A stunning achievement. MacLean has captured the experience of English travellers discovering for themselves that Islam was not ungodly, that Turks were not terrible, and that Christians and Muslims had no need for conflict. The best sort of travel book: History, politics, travel's pleasures and pains come vividly alive."—Professor Ali Tablit, University of Algiers

"Elegantly written, and supported by Gerald MacLean's extensive archival research and travels in the Middle East and North Africa, The Rise of Oriental Travel shows the appeal which early modern Ottoman Islam held for English society. MacLean combines historical evidence with careful reading, and demonstrates how much the Mediterranean Islamic world was open to European Christians at a time when religious and racial prejudices in Christendom militated against Muslims realizing the self-knowledge, adventure and wealth of the four Englishmen in this book."—Nabil I. Matar, Professor of English, Florida Institute of Technology

"The Rise of Oriental Travel is a beautifully written monograph on the attitudes which sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Westerners revealed as they explored the Ottoman Empire. Its strength lies in its ability to evoke with deft touches and telling anecdotes the social climate in which the four texts arose. "—Antoine Laurent, author of TheYear of the Dog

From the Publisher