Europe Through Arab Eyes, 1578–1727

Description

Traveling to archives in Tunisia, Morocco, France, and England, with visits to Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Spain, Nabil Matar assembles a rare history of Europe's rise to power as seen through the eyes of those who were later subjugated by it. Many historians of the Middle East believe Arabs and Muslims had no interest in Europe during this period of Western discovery and empire, but in fact these groups were very much engaged with the naval and industrial development, politics, and trade of European Christendom. Beginning in 1578 with a major Moroccan victory over a Portuguese invading army, Matar surveys this early modern period, in which Europeans and Arabs often shared common political, commercial, and military goals. Matar concentrates on how Muslim captives, ransomers, traders, envoys, travelers, and rulers pursued those goals while transmitting to the nonprint cultures of North Africa their knowledge of the peoples and societies of Spain, France, Britain, Holland, Italy, and Malta. From the first non-European description of Queen Elizabeth I to early accounts of Florence and Pisa in Arabic, from Tunisian descriptions of the Morisco expulsion in 1609 to the letters of a Moroccan Armenian ambassador in London, the translations of the book's second half draw on the popular and elite sources that were available to Arabs in the early modern period. Letters from male and female captives in Europe, chronicles of European naval attacks and the taqayid (newspaper) reports on Muslim resistance, and descriptions of opera and quinine appear here in English for the first time. Matar notes that the Arabs of the Maghrib and the Mashriq were eager to engage Christendom, despite wars and rivalries, and hoped to establish routes of trade and alliances through treaties and royal marriages. However, the rise of an intolerant and exclusionary Christianity and the explosion of European military technology brought these advances to an end. In conclusion, Matar details the decline of Arab-Islamic power and the rise of Britain and France. CONTENTS......Page 8 Acknowledgments xi......Page 12 A Note on Transliteration xvii......Page 18 Chronology xix......Page 20 List of Rulers xxiii......Page 24 PART ONE......Page 30 Introduction 3......Page 32 I. Popular Sources: Accounts of Muslim Captivity in Christendom 29......Page 58 The Captives “Speak”—and Write 41......Page 70 Captivity and the Other 51......Page 80 Captivity and Karamat 55......Page 84 Captivity of Women 60......Page 89 European Captives and New Muslims 65......Page 94 II. Elite Sources: Muslim Ambassadors in Christendom 72......Page 101 Al- Nafhah al- Miskiyah 77......Page 106 Ahmad ibn Qasim and Fakhr al- DIn al- Maʿni II 80......Page 109 The Widening Exposure 93......Page 122 Ambassadors and European Women 106......Page 135 Non-Muslim Ambassadors 114......Page 143 Conclusion: Encountering the Dunya of the Christians 118......Page 147 Nasr 122......Page 151 Sinaʿ a/Technology 125......Page 154 PART TWO......Page 166 Translations 139......Page 168 1. 1578: Letters of Radwan al- Janawy on Muslim Captives, in Tuhfatal- Ikhwan, Rabat National Library, MS Kaf 154, fols. 423–424, 427–428. 141......Page 170 2. After 1588: Description of the Defeat of the Armada, by Abu Faris ’Abd al-ʿAziz al- Fishtali, in Rasa’il Saʿdiyah, ed. ʿAbdallah Gannun, 152–157. 144......Page 173 3. ca. 1589–1591: A Journey from Morocco to Istanbul andBack, in Abu Hasan ʿAli ibn Muhammad ibn ʿAliMuhammad al- Tamjruti:11 Al- Nafhah al- Miskiyah fi¯al- Safarah al- Turkiyah, ed. ʿAbd al- LatIf al- Shadhili,28–29, 41–42, 65, 74–76, 84–86, 90–94, 128–132, 140–141. 147......Page 176 4. After June 1596: Description of the En glish Attack onCadiz, in Abu Faris ʿAbd al-ʿAzI z al- Fishtali, Manahilal- Safa’, ed. ʿAbd al- KarIm KarIm, 193–196. 159......Page 188 5. 1613–1618: Description of Pisa and Florence, in Lunbanfi¯ ʿAhd al- Ami¯r Fakhr al- Di¯n al- Maʿni al- Thani, ed.Asad Rustum and Fu’ad Afram al- Bustani, 208–224.32 163......Page 192 6. 1623: Expulsion of the Moriscos and the MiraculousRansoming of Muslim Captives, in Al- Muntasir ibn AbiLihya al- Qafsi, Nu¯ r al- Armash fi¯ Manaqib al- Qashash,ed. Lutfi ʿIsa and Husayn Bujarrah, 138–141, 151–154. 178......Page 207 7. 1633–1635: Letters from Tunis by Osman/Thomas d’Arcos,a Convert to Islam, Les Correspondants de Peiresc:Lettres inédites publiées et annotées, ed. PhilippeTamizey de Larroque, 2:23–28, 36–39. French original.46 186......Page 215 8. 1635: Letter About Muslim Captives Converted toChristianity, Rabat National Library, MS Ji¯m 223,101–103. 192......Page 221 9. 1635: Expulsion of the Moriscos, Muhammad ibnʿAbd al- RafI ʿ ibn Muhammad al- Andalusi, Al- Anwaral- Nabawiyah fi¯ Aba’ Khair al- Bariyah, in A. Turki,“Watha’iq al- hijra al- Andalusiyah al- Akhirah,”Hawliyat al- Jamiʿah al- Tunisiyah 4 (1967): 27–39.56 194......Page 223 10. 1642: Description of the World, in Ahmad ibn Qasim,Nasir al- Di¯n ʿala al- Qawm al- Kafiri¯n, ed. MuhammadRazzUq, 95–99.62 200......Page 229 11a. Before 1688: Christian Attack on Jarbah (Tunisia) in1510, in Sulayman ibn Ahmad al- Hilati, ‘Ulama’ Jarbah,ed. Muhammad Qawjah, 32–39. 205......Page 234 11b. 1685: Bombardment of Tripoli, Libya, by the French Fleet, in Ahmad ibn Khaled al- Nasiri,Talʿat al- Mushtari, 2:28–30. 210......Page 239 12. 1681–1691: Battle Accounts, in Taqayi¯d Tarikhiyah,Rabat Royal Library, MS 12352. 213......Page 242 13. 1590–1654: Euro- Tunisian Piracy, in Ibn Abi Dinar, Kitabal- Mu’nis fi¯ Akhbar Ifri¯qiyah wa- Tu¯ nis, 190–202. 216......Page 245 14. Before September 2, 1706: Letter of Mulay Ismaʿil to the English Parliament, Les Sources . . . Filalienne, ed.Brissac, 6:349–354. 227......Page 256 15. November 1, 1707: Letter from a Captive in France, ed.Jamal Vannan, Nusu¯ s wa Watha’iq fi¯ Tari¯kh al- Jaza’iral- Hadi¯th, 1500–1830, 144–145. 230......Page 259 16a. 1713: Letters of Bentura de Zari, MoroccanAmbassador Under House Arrest in London, NationalKew Archives, SP 71/16/63–65, 70–71. En glish original. 232......Page 261 16b. January 12, 1717: Letter of Mulay Ismaʿil to Philip V, inMuhammad al- SaghI r al- IfranI , Rawdat al- Taʿri¯f, ed.ʿAbd al- Wahab Benmansour, 133–134. 236......Page 265 17. 1726–1727: On Quinine, in Husayn KhUjah, Al- Asraral- Kami¯nah, ed. al- Karray al- QusantIni, 31–43. 237......Page 266 18. Mid- eighteenth century: Captivity in Malta, in Abual- Qasim Al- Zayani, Al- Tarjumanah al- Kubra, ed. ʿAbdal- KarIm al- Filali, 192–193. 241......Page 270 19. 1782: Muhammad ibn ʿUthman al- Miknasi. Falling inLove in Naples, in Al- Badr al- Safir li Hidayat al-Musafir ila Fikak al- Asara min Yad al-ʿAduww al-Kafir. Rabat National Library, MS Ha 52, fols. 145–150. 242......Page 271 20. 1798: Letter from a Female Captive in Malta, MuhammadRazzUq, Dirasat fi¯ Tari¯kh al- Maghrib, 178–181. 245......Page 274 Notes 249......Page 278 Bibliography 277......Page 306 Index 301......Page 330