Promotional Information

A richly detailed account of the little-known cultural and political relationship between Elizabethan England and the Islamic world.

About the Author

Jerry Brotton is Professor of Renaissance Studies at Queen Mary University of London. He is a regular broadcaster and critic as well the author of Renaissance Bazaar- From the Silk Road to Michelangelo, The Sale of the Late King's Goods- Charles I and his Art Collection (shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction and the Hessell-Tiltman History Prize) and the bestselling and award-winning A History of the World in Twelve Maps, which has been translated into twelve languages.

Reviews

I adored this book, it resonated deeply with me.
*Radio 3 (Free Thinking)*

A little-known story that Brotton chronicles with scholarship, assurance, and not a little charm.
*Independent*

Jerry Brotton's sparkling new book sets out just how extensive and complex England's relationship with the Arab and Muslim world once was, and tentatively connects the threads of that engagement to our own times.
*Guardian*

A vivid, significant work of scholarship.
*The Times*

There is much in these pages to delight and provoke... This Orient Isle is a richly resonant work which not only recasts our understanding of the Elizabethan era but also reveals Islam, crucially, as "part of the national story of England".
*Telegraph*

Jerry Brotton's fabulous new book [reveals] just how deep and entangled the roots of the Islamic and Christian faiths were in the early modern period. ... a timely intervention and a marvellous achievement.
*Spectator*