Turning Turk in Othello: The Conversion and Damnation of the Moor

The Uxoricide Legend of the Sultan and his European Wife in Elizabethan Drama

“…Irene Winter remarks that 'the image of the king 'in his office of kingship' is a semiotic, rather than a mimetic, representation' [42]. Orhan Burian argues that the Turks plays are evidences of the kaleidoscopic picture that existed in the Elizabethan mind with regard to the East and especially to Turkey, their significance is undeniable, and does compensate considerably for what they lack as creative works [43][44][45]. The Senecan story overstates moral insights, human soul, and human manners under ethical stress.…”

“…He is enthused by the example of Alexander's refutation of physical enticements: "Know sir our eyes shall have that abstinence/ That will not looke on them, on boyes, or women" (1.5. [42][43]. By relating the love of Mahomet II with the martial conquests of Amurath I, a combination not found in other sources or analogues, Goffe establishes a protagonist whose potential for social action is well-defined by the contrasting anxieties of love and war, and both love and war turn out to be spoiled as Amurath crosses his way through their inconsistent obligations.…”

Reiteration of Prophet Muhammad’s Myths in Biddulph and Cartwright’s Travelogues

“…The disease in question was wrongly attributed to the prophet in Renaissance. Similarly Vitkus (1997) notes that "Othello's epilepsy recalls that of ur[sic]-Moor, Mohammad. Christian polemics against Islam printed in Shakespeare's time frequently maintained that Mohammad was an epileptic who falsely claimed that his seizures were ecstasies brought on by divine possession" (p.155).…”

“…However, their animosity towards him and Islam came to an end when the prophet's army peacefully conquered them, and his bitter foes converted to Islam. Nonetheless, it was not the end of opposition to the prophet because even after his death another type of antagonism towards him was gathering momentum beyond the borders of Islam among Christians in the West due to the challenges the Ottoman Turks posed for them in the Middle Ages and Renaissance (Vitkus, 1997(Vitkus, , p.1460. Invading and defeating Turks for the European Christians was not feasible, and thus they began to tarnish Islam and in particular the image of the prophet Muhammad both in their fiction and anti-prophet polemic writings to prevent European subjects from turning to Islam or 'turning Turk' to borrow Shakespeare.…”

Analyzing Iago's Speech in Shakespeare's Othello

“…Rodrigo, as well, describes Othello as "a lascivious Moor" (1.1.125). Vitkus (1997) remarks that there are "alleged sexual excesses linked to Muslims, Moors and black African" (p. 159). Iago's bestial images of interracial love-making between Othello and Desdemona enkindles Brabantio's wrath against them.…”