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"'A most impressive book, which vividly and humanely depicts a period when encounters between Christians and Muslims took a very different form from the so-called 'clash of civilizations' which so distorts and disfigures our perspective on these relationships today. The result is a major historical work, which also conveys a brave, powerful and hopeful contemporary message.' (David Cannadine) 'James Mather's wonderful book is the first full-length study since 1935... the importance of this excellent and balanced study cannot be underestimated.' (William Dalrymple, The Observer) 'Mather has written an impressively researched, imposing yet affectionate history.' (Barnaby Rogerson, Independent) 'Vivid and well-written.' (Linda Colley, Times Literary Supplement) 'James Mather has brilliantly stepped into the breach... Mather whisks the reader into the souks and khans of the Ottoman empire, evoking at once a sense of place and a real feel for the pleasures and profits that characterised the pashas' careers... Mather makes a forceful case, and an appealing well-written one at that.' (Maya Jasanoff, The Guardian) 'James Mather's intricate and entertaining study of English merchants in the Empire... is hugely helpful in making that tradition intelligible and explaining what later became of it... He is excellent on everything he covers, and equally good and commendably pithy on economics, the technicalities of commerce (especially shipping), and the diplomatic and intellectual dimensions of the story. He paints a vivid picture... an elegant, learned and illuminating book.' (Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, Literary Review)"
Product Description
Long before they came as occupiers, the British were drawn to the Middle East by the fabled riches of its trade and the enlightened tolerance of its people. The Pashas, merchants and travellers from Europe, discovered an Islamic world that was alluring, dynamic, and diverse. Ranging across two and a half centuries and through the great cities of Istanbul, Aleppo, and Alexandria, James Mather tells the forgotten story of the men of the Levant Company who sought their fortunes in the Ottoman Empire. Their trade brought to the region not only merchants but also ambassadors and envoys, pilgrims and chaplains, families and servants, aristocratic tourists and roving antiquarians. Unlike the nabobs who gathered their fortunes in Bengal, they both respected and learned from the culture they encountered, and their lives provide a fascinating insight into the meeting of East and West before the age of European imperialism. Intriguing, intimate, and original, "Pashas" brings to life an extraordinary tale of faraway visitors beguiled by a mysterious world of Islam.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Mather's debut Pashas examines the British men who submerged themselves within the cities of the Ottoman Empire namely Aleppo, Constantinople and Alexandria to indulge in the wealth that trading offered to them. Providing a comprehensive insight into the early beginnings of Britain's trade history, Pashas focuses particularly on the history of the Levant Company which operated for over a two and a half centuries. Looking into the political, religious and cultural hurdles between the Anglo-Christian and Islamic worlds Mather's dispels the common misconception that the two differing societies were unsympathetic to one another. Pashas is fantastic account of an arguably neglected part of history.
Format:Paperback
This is an entertaining,thoughtful and elegantly written narrative charting the rise and decline of the fortunes of the Levant Company.The multilayered chronicle provides sustained interest in a subject which would be otherwise dry.We are treated to more than just a history of the Company's commercial activities or the political and economic vagaries which assailed it.We are invited to share the lifestyle of these first English expat merchants in the 17th & 18th C. and experience the immensely alluring and variegated cosmopolitan milieu, they were exposed to , in the great Ottoman commercial centres.
While enriching themselves, they adapted to the Muslim host culture in a convivial and reverent manner.The Levant trade stimulated a healthy curiosity about Islam, resulting in the shipment of a large number of Arabic manuscripts to English scholars when Arabic study was in it's infancy.This helped to create the right intellectual climate for a sympathetic reappraisal of Islam at least during the early part of the Enlightenment.
James Mather has produced an important work examining trade as well as cultural intercourse between Europe and Islam.During this happy interlude, it was conducted on equal terms , before the Western Imperial forays of the 19th & 20th C.The history lesson to draw is that parity in commercial relationships, untainted by Power inequalities,not only delivers mutual benefits,but fosters in the long run tolerant attitudes and harmonious cultural integration.A lesson unfortunately lost in our own polarised world.
While enriching themselves, they adapted to the Muslim host culture in a convivial and reverent manner.The Levant trade stimulated a healthy curiosity about Islam, resulting in the shipment of a large number of Arabic manuscripts to English scholars when Arabic study was in it's infancy.This helped to create the right intellectual climate for a sympathetic reappraisal of Islam at least during the early part of the Enlightenment.
James Mather has produced an important work examining trade as well as cultural intercourse between Europe and Islam.During this happy interlude, it was conducted on equal terms , before the Western Imperial forays of the 19th & 20th C.The history lesson to draw is that parity in commercial relationships, untainted by Power inequalities,not only delivers mutual benefits,but fosters in the long run tolerant attitudes and harmonious cultural integration.A lesson unfortunately lost in our own polarised world.
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
An impressively researched book with comprehensive detail of events, personalities and a balanced opinion of the effects on the Levant trading period of political and social attitudes to the Islamic World.West meets East senza bloodshed. A good read in troubled times.
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