Europe Through Arab Eyes, 1578-1727

Traveling to archives in Tunisia Morocco France and England with visitsto Egypt Jordan Lebanon and Spain Nabil Matar assembles a rare history ofEuropes rise to ... » 

Traveling to archives in Tunisia Morocco France and England with visitsto Egypt Jordan Lebanon and Spain Nabil Matar assembles a rare history ofEuropes rise to power as seen through the eyes of those who were latersubjugated by it. Many historians of the Middle East believe Arabs and Muslimshad no interest in Europeans during this period of Western discovery andempire but in fact they were intensely preoccupied with the naval andindustrial development politics and trade of European Christendom. Beginningin 1578 with a major Moroccan victory over a Portuguese invading army Matarsurveys this early modern period in which Europeans and Muslims shared commoncultural commercial and military goals. He concludes with a detailed historyof the decline of ArabIslamic power and the rise of Britain and France. Matar focuses on how Spain France Britain Holland Italy and Maltatransmitted knowledge of EuroChristians to the nonprint cultures of NorthAfricans. With a translation of twenty primary texts he presents theexperiences of Muslim captives in Europe who were the first to provide theircompatriots with information regarding Christendom and he recounts complexcultural encounters in which Muslim delegates met with Christian men and womenand visited regions of high social infrastructural and artistic development.Matar reveals that the Arabs of the Maghreb and the Mashriq were eager toengage Christendom despite wars and piracies and hoped to establish routes oftrade and alliances through royal marriages. With the rise of an intolerant andexclusionary Christianity and the explosion of European military technologyhowever these links were destroyed and Muslims fell under the hegemonicexpansion of Western power. «