Britain and Barbary, 1589-1689
by Nabil Matar
Buy on AmazonMatar examines the influence of Mediterranean piracy and diplomacy on early modern British history and identity. Drawing on published and unpublished literary, commercial, and epistolary sources, he situates British maritime activity and national politics, especially in relation to the Civil War, within the international context of Anglo-Magharibi encounters. Before there was the British encounter with America, there was the much more complex and destabilizing encounter with Islam in North Africa.…
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"Nabil Matar is a brilliant author. He’s cornered the market in revisionist history. He looks at how Britain related to Barbary. He goes back to English sources in the 17th century that described “The Turk”, that sort of catch-all term for Muslims at the time. These sources are like a Daily Mail editorial, just as filled with bigotry and prejudice as responses to Islam today. And Matar holds a mirror up to western culture and shows how prejudiced we are about an entire civilisation."
Pirates · fivebooks.com