Long before European empires came to dominate the Middle East; Britain was brought face to face with Islam through the activities of the Barbary corsairs. For three centuries after 1500; Muslim ships based in North African ports terrorized European shipping; capturing thousands of vessels and enslaving hundreds of thousands of Christians. Encountering Islam is the fascinating story of one Englishman's experience of life within a Muslim society; as both Christian slave and Muslim soldier. Born in Exeter around 1662; Joseph Pitts was captured by Algerian pirates on his first voyage in 1678. Sold as a slave in Algiers; he underwent forced conversion to Islam. Sold again; he accompanied his kindly third master on pilgrimage to Mecca; so becoming the first Englishman known to have visited the Muslim Holy Places. Granted his freedom; Pitts became a soldier; going on campaign against the Moroccans and Spanish before venturing on a daring escape while serving with the Algiers fleet. Crossing much of Italy and Germany on foot; he finally reached Exeter seventeen years after he had left. Joseph Pitts's A Faithful Account of the Religion and Manners of the Mahometans; first published in 1704; is a unique combination of captivity narrative; travel account and description of Islam. It describes his time in Algiers; his life as a slave; his conversion; his pilgrimage to Mecca (the first such detailed description in English); Muslim ritual and practice; and his audacious escape. A Christian for most of his life; Pitts also had the advantage of living as a Muslim within a Muslim society. Nowhere in the literature of the period is there a more intimate and poignant account of identity conflict. Encountering Islam contains a faithful rendering of the definitive 1731 edition of Pitts's book; together with critical historical; religious and linguistic notes. The introduction tells what is known of Pitts's life; and places his work against its historical background; and in the context of current scholarship on captivity narratives and Anglo-Muslim relations of the period. Paul Auchterlonie; an Arabist; worked for forty years as a librarian specializing in Middle Eastern and Islamic studies; and from 1981 to 2011 was librarian in charge of the Middle East collections at the University of Exeter. He is the author and editor of numerous works on Middle Eastern bibliography and library science; and has recently published articles on historical and cultural relations between Britain and the Middle East. He is currently an Honorary Research Fellow at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter.
#2505631 in Books Rowman n Littlefield Publishers 1990-12-01Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.22 x .87 x 6.30l; 1.14 #File Name: 0945612117224 pages
Review
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful. An Important Perspective on whether or not the new U.S. Nation Would Allow SlaveryBy Roger D. LauniusDespite other comments about him on-line; Gary B. Nash is an exceptional historian who has made path-breaking contributions to the understanding of the American Revolution. "Race and Revolution" is one such contribution among many others. This is a book based on three lectures names for Merrill Jensen at the University of Wisconsin in 1988. It makes the case that at no time between the establishment of slavery in the British colonies in North America the U.S. Civil War was the time more opportune for Americans to abolish slavery than the revolutionary era during the 1770s and 1780s. It represented a unique occasion to end the "peculiar institution" but for five related reasons; according to Nash; the revolutionary leaders of the nation failed to seize this possibility.For Nash the five reasons are: "First; it was the era when the sentiment for ridding American society of the peculiar institution was the strongest. Second; it was the moment when the most resistant part of the new nation; the lower South; was most precariously situated and thus manifestly ill-prepared to break away from the rest of the states. Third; it was a period when the system of thought called environmentalism was in full sway; suggesting that the degraded condition of slaves was a matter of social conditioning; not innate inferiority. Fourth; it was a time when the opening of the vast trans-Appalachian West provided the wherewithal for a compensated emancipation. Lastly; it was the era when the use of this western domain as an instrument for binding the nation together had moved to the forefront of the public mind and when the existence of this vast unsettled territory as part of a national domain provided an area where free slaves could be colonized if they were not to be permitted to remain in the settled parts of the country" (pp. 6-7).This was a heady time with possibilities abounding. Nash relates this story in three core chapters on (1) the embrace of abolitionism; (2) the failure of abolitionism; and (3) the role of blacks in the new nation. He follows this with a collection of key documents that illuminate and extend his central argument. This is a complex and important book.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Read the Revolution!By Robert W. HoweExcellent little book that deserves to be read by anyone interested in understanding the American Revolution and making its promises real.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. seems interesting to me..By Judy A. Sheaas expected....my 16 year old had to read it for school. it said it was okay...
