Jerry Brotton is a professor of Renaissance studies at Queen Mary University of London. A renowned broadcaster and critic, he is the author of Global Interests: Renaissance Art Between East and West (with Lisa Jardine), The Renaissance Bazaar, The Sale of the Late King's Goods, a finalist for the Samuel Johnson Prize and the Hessell-Tiltman Prize, Great Maps, and The New York Times bestselling, award-winning A History of the World in Twelve Maps, which has been translated into eleven languages. The Sultan and the Queen published as This Orient Isle in the UK, was a Financial Times Book of the Year.
"Jenkinson is just one of the fascinating characters who forged
England's first sustained interaction with the Muslim world, a
neglected aspect of Elizabethan history that Jerry Brotton brings
vividly to life in this elegant and entertaining book... Out there,
for all the talk of idolatry and infidels, discussions could be
brisk and purposeful, boundaries porous, identities fluid. Even in
that religiously charged era, the so-called clash of civilizations
could sound very faint indeed."
- Jason Goodwin, The New York Times Book Review "We are accustomed
to seeing Elizabeth as a dazzling but essentially limited monarch,
obsessed with defending her small corner of northwest Europe. . .
But as Brotton shows, for the last quarter of her reign, England
was also deeply engaged with the three great powers of the Islamic
world. The Sultan and the Queen is both a colorful narrative of
that extraordinary time and a reminder that our own fortunes and
those of the wider Islamic world have been intertwined for much
longer than we might think."
--Dan Jones, The Times
"Queen Elizabeth I had bad teeth. The snaggle-toothed sovereign
owed her decay to copious amounts of sugar that began flowing into
England from Morocco in the 16th century. Candied fruits were her
absolute favorite. The story of Elizabeth's unfortunate smile is
but one facet of a much larger and far more important history of
economic, cultural and political relations between the queen's
rather negligible island, the sultan of Morocco and the fabulously
wealthy Muslim world that dominated half of the Mediterranean and
controlled Europe's access to the east. Jerry Brotton's wonderful
book reveals this instructive history of Protestant England's
intense interactions with Islam, showing how Muslims shaped English
culture, consumerism and literature during the half-millennium
between the Crusades and the rise of the British Empire in the
Middle East."
-- The Wall Street Journal "Impressive and highly readable. . .
Brotton emphasizes the extent to which Elizabethan England was shot
through with influences, stories, individuals and products drawn
from the Islamic world. The orient is not elsewhere but already
here, both thrillingly and uncomfortably close to home. . .
Brotton's book crackles with an energy that illuminates and
vivifies its larger claims."
--Financial Times "The Sultan and the Queen evokes an England
struggling to find a place for itself in a world that it had not
yet learned to dominate, and often making colossal diplomatic
blunders in the process. Brotton is a gifted writer who is able to
present this history as an exciting series of critical and
suspense-filled encounters."
--The Washington Post "Jerry Brotton's sparkling new book sets out
just how extensive and complex England's relationship with the Arab
and Muslim world once was. . . It seems extraordinary that, in a
time before mass travel, when most people died a stone's throw from
where they were born, there were nevertheless those whose
adventures led them to the edges of the known world - and to
cultures so different from their own as to seem dreamlike. But
Brotton's book is full of them. . . At a time when many see Islam
as a recent and strange intruder, Brotton's excellent history is a
reminder that a careful study of England's 'island story' shows
just how wrong they are."
--The Guardian "I adore this book. It resonated deeply with
me."
- Elif Shafak, author of The Bastard of Istanbul "Fascinating and
timely. . . An illuminating account of a neglected aspect of
Elizabethan England: its rich, complex, and ambivalent relations
with the Muslim world."
--Stephen Greenblatt, author of The Swerve "A lively, smart,
exhaustively researched book... Traders, using the new-fangled
concept of joint-stock companies to spread the commercial risk,
shipped home everything from Oriental carpets and luxurious silks
to sugar and saltpetre, essential in making gunpowder... Brotton
delves into diaries, letters and archives to uncover a long-ignored
part of English history. Trade was anything but smooth or orderly.
English adventurers struggled to understand the cultures, rivalries
and religious differences. (The term Muslim would not be used in
England until 1614.) Pirates and shipwrecks were constant dangers,
as was capture."
--Macleans "An exceptionally rich and brilliant book. In bringing
to life Elizabethan England's ambivalent engagement with Islam,
Jerry Brotton shows how profoundly that encounter shaped English
trade, diplomacy, and the Islam-obsessed drama of Shakespeare and
his contemporaries. The story he tells could not be more
timely."
--James Shapiro, author The Year of Lear: 1606 "This fascinating
account uncovers the lively exchange between Elizabeth's England,
the Ottoman Empire, and Morocco. Christianity and Islam were still
at odds, but Elizabeth gladly sought alliance with Muslim lands
against the shared threat of Catholic Europe."
--Natalie Zemon Davis, author of The Return of Martin Guerre
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