Islam in Britain, 1558–1685

by Nabil Matar

• ISBN13: 9780521622332
• ISBN10: 0521622336
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-10-13
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This book examines the impact of Islam on Britain between 1558 and 1685. Professor Matar provides a perspective on the transformation of British thought and society by demonstrating how influential Islam was in the formation of early modern British culture. Christian-Muslim interaction was not, as is often thought, primarily adversarial; rather, there was extensive cultural, intellectual and missionary engagement with Islam in Britain. The author documents conversion both to and from Islam, and surveys reactions to these conversions. He examines the impact of the Qur'an and Sufism, not to mention coffee, on British culture, and cites extensive interaction of Britons with Islam through travel, in London coffee houses, in church, among converts to and from Islam, in sermons and in plays. Finally, he focuses on the theological portrait of Muslims in conversionist and eschatological writings.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix	(2)
Transcription	xi
Introduction: Islam in early modern Britain	1	(20)
1 "Turning Turke": conversion to Islam in English writings	21	(29)
2 The renegade on stage and in church	50	(23)
3 "Arabia Britannica": "Alcoran" and the legacy of Arabic Islam	73	(47)
4 "Baptizing the Turk": conversion to Christianity in English writings	120	(33)
5 Eschatology and the Saracens	153	(31)
Conclusion: Islam and Britain: centripetal to centrifugal	184	(8)
Bibliography	192	(26)
Index	218