Mediterranean captivity through arab eyes 1517-1798 is the first book that examines the arabic captivity narratives in the early modern period. Based on arabic sources in archives stretching from amman to fez to london and rome matar presents the story of captivity from the perspective of the arabic-speaking captives who have not been examined in the growing field of captivity studies. The post-lepanto mediterranean was the scene of small wars to use fernand braudel s phrase which resulted in acts of piracy and captivity. Thousands upon thousands of europeans arabs and turks were seized into bagnios stretching from cadiz to valletta and from salé to tripoli. After returning to their homelands dozens from england and france germany and spain malta and italy wrote about their captivities. Their accounts were printed distributed translated and plagiarized making captivity a key subject in europe s mediterranean history. While europeans wrote extensively about their ordeals the arabs wrote little because their religious culture militated against such writings which would be construed as expressing disaffection with the will of god. Nor were there detailed records and registers of captives
Their names places of origin and ransom prices
Similar to what was kept in the european archives. Contrary however to what some historians have claimed there was a distinct arabic narrative of captivity that survives in anecdotes recollections reports miracles letters fatawa exempla and sh...
Size: []
