Muslims in Seventeenth-Century England

Anglo‐Muslim relations in 18th‐century literature and culture

“…Ansari (2004) begins his historical survey of the presence of Muslims in Britain only in 1800 (with a cursory overview of the pre‐1800 context). Matar's (1997) article, now over 20 years old, is perhaps the fullest treatment of Muslims in Britain before 1800, but it focuses on the 17th century. Important work has been done by Fisher (2004; on migrants, not necessarily Muslim, from South Asia), Garcia (2014; on “lascars,” sailors from the Middle East, South Asia, and Southeast Asia—again, possibly but not necessarily Muslim), and Andrea (2017; on elite and subaltern women from the Islamic world), but the work of these leading scholars suggests the extent of the lacuna.…”

“…Talbot further points out that the suspension of the Navigation Act in 1797 greatly facilitated Ottoman merchants traveling to England to live and trade. So it was only in the 1790s that Ottoman presence in England became official diplomatically, though, as Matar (1997) has shown, Muslims certainly populated London and English port towns earlier and even though other Muslim powers had already sent ambassadors to England (Morocco's Abd el‐Ouahed ben Messaoud in 1600, for instance; Morocco was also one of the first nations to recognize the independence of the United States of America, establishing formal diplomatic relations in 1787). In contrast, between the resumption of diplomatic relations in 1661 and the commencement of the Anglo‐Ottoman War in 1807 the English sent 22 ambassadors to Constantinople (Istanbul).…”

The archaeology of Islam in Britain: recognition and potential

“…Recently, however, a number of historians have begun to challenge this concept of a sharply divided world with little or no contact between the Islamic Mediterranean and Britain before the twentieth century. Important new studies include Scarfe Beckett's work on the relationship between Anglo Saxon England and Islam (Scarfe Beckett 2003) and Nabil Matar's work on England's relationship with Turkey and North Africa in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (Matar 1998). However, there has been little attempt to examine the archaeological record for traces of contact with the Muslim world or even for evidence of Muslims in Britain.…”

“…However, there has been little attempt to examine the archaeological record for traces of contact with the Muslim world or even for evidence of Muslims in Britain. There are, for example, intriguing references to Muslims working in a variety of occupations in seventeenth-century London which may suggest some form of Islamic infrastructure (Matar 1997).…”