Staging Islam in England: Drama and Culture, 1640-1685 (Studies in Renaissance Literature) (Studies in Renaissance Literature)

`This stimulating book will be welcomed by historians, literary scholars, and anyone interested in the history of the English fascination with Islam and the cultural exoticism associated with the East.' PROFESSOR GERALD MACLEAN Transmitted via the mechanisms of trade and diplomacy and reflected through stage and press, England's cultural encounters with Islam - its peoples, its history, its territories - were fundamental to the ways in which the nation constructed itself through all the tribulations of the seventeenth century; a preoccupation with Islam permeated religious, political, diplomatic and commercial discourses to a degree that has not been recognised by standard accounts of the period. This book traces engagement with Islam in English political and dramatic life from the inauguration of the Long Parliament until the death of Charles II. It explores the reception and representation of Islam in a wide range of English writings of the period, employing close textual and historical research to trace the development of the 'Turk' from the archetype of cruelty and treachery to the complex and often contradictory figure of mid-century discourse. Throughout, it argues that Islam provided a repository of meanings ripe for transposition to Revolutionary and Restoration England, a process that transfigured the 'East' through the lens of English politics and vice-versa. Table of Contents Introduction Cultural Encounters between England and Islam in the Seventeenth A Topography Framing `an English Alchoran': The Famous Tragedie of Charles I and the first English translation of the Qur'an Orienting the Tyranny and Tragedy in Robert Baron's Mirza and John Denham's The Sophy Turning to the Collaboration and Conversion in William Davenant's The Siege of Rhodes Toleration, Trade and English Mahometanism in the Aftermath of Restoration Plotting the Exclusion, Oates and the News from Vienna `If we ourselves, would from our selves exam'ne us' Bibliography Index Exploration of the ways in which Islam manifested itself in the writings of the seventeenth century.`This stimulating book will be welcomed by historians, literary scholars, and anyone interested in the history of the English fascination with Islam and the cultural exoticism associated with the East.'PROFESSOR GERALD MACLEANTransmitted via the mechanisms of trade and diplomacy and reflected through stage and press, England's cultural encounters with Islam - its peoples, its history, its territories - were fundamental to the ways in which the nationconstructed itself through all the tribulations of the seventeenth century; a preoccupation with Islam permeated religious, political, diplomatic and commercial discourses to a degree that has not been recognised by standard accounts of the period. This book traces engagement with Islam in English political and dramatic life from the inauguration of the Long Parliament until the death of Charles II. It explores the reception and representation ofIslam in a wide range of English writings of the period, employing close textual and historical research to trace the development of the'Turk'from the archetype of cruelty and treachery to the complex and often contradictory figure of mid-century discourse. Throughout, it argues that Islam provided a repository of meanings ripe for transposition to Revolutionary and Restoration England, a process that transfigured the'East'through the lens of English politics and vice-versa.

'This stimulating book will be welcomed by historians, literary scholars, and anyone interested in the history of the English fascination with Islam and the cultural exoticism associated with the East.' PROFESSOR GERALD MACLEAN Transmitted via the mechanisms of trade and diplomacy and reflected through stage and press, England's cultural encounters with Islam - its peoples, its history, its territories - were fundamental to the ways in which the nation constructed itself through all the tribulations of the seventeenth century; a preoccupation with Islam permeated religious, political, diplomatic and commercial discourses to a degree that has not been recognised by standard accounts of the period. This book traces engagement with Islam in English political and dramatic life from the inauguration of the Long Parliament until the death of Charles II. It explores the reception and representation of Islam in a wide range of English writings of the period, employing close textual and historical research to trace the development of the 'Turk' from the archetype of cruelty and treachery to the complex and often contradictory figure of mid-century discourse. Throughout, it argues that Islam provided a repository of meanings ripe for transposition to Revolutionary and Restoration England, a process that transfigured the 'East' through the lens of English politics and vice-versa.

CONTENTS ......Page 6 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ......Page 7 Introduction......Page 10 1. Cultural Encounters between England and Islam in the Seventeenth Century: A Topography......Page 30 2. Framing ‘an English Alchoran’: The Famous Tragedie of Charles I and the first English translation of the Qur’an......Page 61 3. Orienting the Monarch: Tyranny and Tragedy in Robert Baron’s Mirza and John Denham’s The Sophy......Page 78 4. Turning to the Turk: Collaboration and Conversion in William Davenant’s The Siege of Rhodes......Page 105 5. Toleration, Trade and English Mahometanism in the Aftermath of Restoration......Page 138 6. Plotting the Succession: Exclusion, Oates and the News from Vienna......Page 165 CONCLUSION : ‘If we our selves, would from our selves exam’ne us’......Page 191 BIBLIOGRAPHY ......Page 196 INDEX ......Page 206