Islam in Britain, 1558-1685 by Nabil Matar

Review by: Albert J. Loomie

Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies, Vol. 32, No. 1 (Spring, 2000), pp.
105-106
Published by: The North American Conference on British Studies
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4054001 .
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 Reviews of Books 105

Nabil Matar.Islam in Britain,1558-1685. New York:CambridgeUniversity Press. 1998.

Pp. xi, 226. $59.95. ISBN 0-521-62233-6.

Coveringthe period from the opening of the reign of ElizabethI to the deathof CharlesH,
Mataroffers a carefullyannotatednew assessmentof the steady impactof Islam on British
thoughtandits ultimateinfluenceon Britain'searlymodem culture.Historiansusuallyhave
some familiaritywith this topic in the narratives,selected for the collections of Richard
Hakluytor Samuel Purchas,which describethe fate of Englishmenin the Islamic world as
traders,diplomats,prisoners,or slaves. However,this monographhas a more sophisticated
purposeand far richeranecdotalsources,which are analyzedin five topical chapters.In the
first, the authorevaluates the relatively large numberof conversions that contemporaries
labeled as "turningTurk."Then follows a study of the varied characterizationsof these
"renegades"on the contemporarystage, or in the printedsermonsof influentialclergy. His
thirdand longest chapteris focused exclusively on Arabicinfluencesin Britain,such as the
study of the Qur'an(Matar'sspelling), or the new interestin Arabicin the universities.His
final two chapterstake up two unfamiliarreligious topics: the Christianbaptismof Turks
(far more frequent on the stage than in the real world) and the prospective role of the
"Saracens"in the eschatology of severallate seventeenth-centurytheologians.
Contemporariesbelieved there were a variety of reasons behind the conversion, or
"apostacy,"to Islam. A large number were capturedtravelers and sailors, who gained
freedom from slavery and then frequently prospered upon entering the service of an
influentialofficial. On the London stage, however, playwrightssuch as Kyd, Heywood, or
Dryden stressedtheir spiritualremorsein conscience. Some "renegades"who escaped and
returnedto Britainclaimedto be still Christianat heart,but sceptics, such as Laud,decided
to preparea new rite of reconciliationbefore theirfull acceptancein the church.The study
of the Qur'an had a weak start in England, since Alexander Ross, an Anglican cleric
responsible for the first English version in 1649, knew little Arabic and relied upon a
defective Frenchtranslation.For eighty-five years, in the absence of any reliable text, his
misleading lines led to many later misunderstandingsof Islamic religion. His book also
irritatedthe commonwealth'sleadership,who bannedRoss's "Alcoran,"since the preface
praisedthe "high"moralsof Islam, in comparisonto the "low"moralsof the Independent
regime.Latersome less controversialaspectsof Ottomanculturebecamepopularduringthe
Restorationperiod,such as coffee, or alchemy,or exotic novelties fromthe Levant.The elite
sought "priscasapientia" [ancientwisdom] said to have roots in the primitivetexts in the
care of Arabic sages.
While there were rareinstancesof a Muslim's conversionto English Protestantismover
this period,dramatistspreferredstill to createfictionalconversionson the stage. An Islamic
visitor found competing viewpoints, as Anglicans, Presbyterians,Quakers,and Puritans
promotedtheircreeds.Matarnotedthatthe news of a Turkishconvertto the Anglicanchurch
in November 1657 provokeda rivalryamongCromwell'sfollowersto gain a convertto their
views, which they reportedin January1659. Inpassing,the authornotesthe mistakennotions
among various denominationsabout Islam, for example that, since it did not share the
scriptureswith Jews andChristians,only argumentsfromreasonwould succeed.Even more
out of touch with reality was a "Restorationist"school, which held thata restorationof the
Jews to Palestine would lead to their victory in a battle with the Muslims and, after their
conversionto Christianity,they would declarethe region an English protestantkingdomof
Christ!It is quite clear in Matar'sconclusion that over this periodthe Islamic militaryand

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106 Albion

religiouspower easily withstoodChristianimperialismand evangelizationand could

threaten"theshoresof Albion."Thepublicwasattimesfascinated andthenrepelledby the
Turksandonly afterthe treatyof Carlowitz(1699)didtheTurkishempirebecomemore
vulnerableto Europeanimperialism.Matarhaswrittena valuablemonograph ona complex
andrarelyresearched history,providinganimpressivebibliog-
areaof Englishintellectual
raphyfor the reader.His graspof Islamicculture,whichenableshim to pointout the
misunderstandingsof severalfamousseventeenth-century writers,also gives a modem
studentthe propercontextof a culturewhichin that earlierperiodwas not properly
discovered.
Fordham University ALBERT J. LOOMIE

RobertTittler.TheReformationand the Townsin England: Politics and Political Culture,

c. 1540-1640. New York: Oxford University Press. 1998. pp. xi, 395. $95.00. ISBN
0-19-820718-2.

Those expecting this importantstudy to offer an analysis of the religious history of towns
in the period, or indeed of the role of urbancommunitiesin religious change, should pay
close attentionto the wordingof its title and look elsewhere. This is a study of politics and
in particularthe transformationsin urbanpolitics wroughtby the effects of the Reformation,
which arenot seen primarilyin termsof religiouschanges (althoughthe eventualemergence
of Puritanor godly magistraciesis discussed),but of institutionalchangeandchangesin the
political culturethat had been associatedwith pre-Reformationreligious forms and which
were subsequently,in Tittler'sview, very largely secularized.These processes aretracedby
piecing together the histories of numerous middling and substantialprovincial towns:
London is discussed only infrequentlyand small towns are largely excluded.The subjectis
seen from the perspectiveof those seeking to govern such towns:this is neitherhistoryfrom
above based on the views and aims of centralgovernment(though it uses many central
records),nor historyfrom below, as it is little interestedin the experienceof ordinarytown
dwellers. However, both the state and the common people of the towns are important
referencepoints, since the core argumentof the book is thatthe Reformationforged a new
alliance between the state and the ruling groups in towns, of mutualbenefit, and that this
both requiredand enabled those rulersto establish a greaterdistance between themselves
andthe commonpeople thanhadbeen the normbeforethe Reformation.This book therefore
offers the most sustaineddefence for two decades of the notion of the growthof oligarchy
in early moderntowns, associatedwith the work of Clarkand Slack in the 1970s: indeed,in
many respects the book offers a detailed underwritingof many of the themes in their
provocative overview, English Towns in Transition (1976). Whereas Clark and Slack
stressed the socio-economic pressures towards oligarchy, Tittler is more inclined to a
political and culturalexplanationand his illustrationsof the trend are drawn from those
fields. Those acquaintedwith his many excellent essays andhis previousbook,Architecture
and Power (1991), will not be surprisedto learnthat the strongestmaterialdeployed here
relates to the mid-Tudorperiod and to such subjectsas the incorporationof towns and the
developmentof town halls and the otherappurtenancesof urbangovernment.While some
of this brings togetherhis earlierwork, other sections cover new ground,in particularthe
detailedreconstructionof how towns respondedto the threatsand opportunitiesbroughtby
the dissolutionof monasteriesandchantriesthroughenfeoffments,incorporations,andother

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