Elizabethan Muslims

[Brian G Turner]

A feature piece on the BBC website about Muslims in Elizabethan England:
The first Muslims in England - BBC News

Sixteenth-century Elizabethan England has always had a special place in the nation's understanding of itself. But few realise that it was also the first time that Muslims began openly living, working and practising their faith in England, writes Jerry Brotton.

From as far away as North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia, Muslims from various walks of life found themselves in London in the 16th Century working as diplomats, merchants, translators, musicians, servants and even prostitutes.

The reason for the Muslim presence in England stemmed from Queen Elizabeth's isolation from Catholic Europe. Her official excommunication by Pope Pius V in 1570 allowed her to act outside the papal edicts forbidding Christian trade with Muslims and create commercial and political alliances with various Islamic states, including the Moroccan Sa'adian dynasty, the Ottoman Empire and the Shi'a Persian Empire.

She sent her diplomats and merchants into the Muslim world to exploit this theological loophole, and in return Muslims began arriving in London, variously described as "Moors", "Indians", "Negroes" and "Turks".

I'm reminded of A Midsummer Night's Dream, where Oberon and Titania are fighting after she took in an Indian boy who became a favourite. Possibly also applicable to Othello, though I've not read/seen that play.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Yes, curious though there were no Jewish people in Elizabethan England. While Shakespeare had visitors to London to peruse for his Moors and "Turks" he can't have met anyone like Shylock in Merchant of Venice?

Not long after the Elizabethan time, 28 years after EIR's death.
Sack of Baltimore - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It's not clear why the British authorities did nothing. My Wife is currently reading a book on it.

 

[HoopyFrood]

Definitely applicable to Othello. Orientalism was my favourite subject during my English degree and the growing links between England and the Ottoman Empire my especially favourite niche. There's also quite a few texts regarding people journeying the other way, from England to the empire, including a fascinating diary from a guy who was travelling with the organ that was sent as a gift from Elizabeth I. Though there's some debate as to how real it is...some of the exploits seem a little too outlandish at times! Still an awesome read and it's interesting to read the two cultures meeting each other, and the way an English person's sense of self and nationality forms due to it.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Yes, curious though there were no Jewish people in Elizabethan England.

I recently read that all Jews had been forcibly expelled from England by the end of the 1200's, after a century of oppression and murder. I can't recall when they began to return, so I'm assuming it wasn't before 1650 - which is the cutting off point for my general research.

EDIT: Here you go - they began to drift in after Cromwell:
British Jews - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Foxbat]

I'm reminded of A Midsummer Night's Dream, where Oberon and Titania are fighting after she took in an Indian boy who became a favourite. Possibly also applicable to Othello, though I've not read/seen that play.

Also Aaron The Moor from Titus Andronicus (in my opinion, Shakespeare's bloodiest and finest play). Interestingly, Othello is a victim of Iago's constant whisperings whereas Aaron is the most diaboilical of all villains. It seems that old Shakeybaby was an equal opportunities villain maker with scant regard to religious background. Perhaps we of the modern world can learn something here?

 

[Ray McCarthy]

read that all Jews had been forcibly expelled from England by the end of the 1200's, after a century of oppression and murder. I can't recall when they began to return, so I'm assuming it wasn't before 1650

I knew it was a little after Cromwell, never quite understood why it was so long.
The Expulsion from Spain and settlement then in Amsterdam was interesting.