Traders and Travellers in the Islamic World

Much of the commentary that has accompanied the recent ‘Arab revolts’ has focused on Britain’s past dealings with the Middle East, especially in the period from the mid-19th century when Britain moved into territories ceded by the fading Ottoman Empire, softening the ground economically and culturally before troops went in. Which is why James Mather’s superb study is so valuable, for it shows another side to Britain’s engagement with the Middle East, telling the story of the Levant Company.

Tracing its origins to the charter granted by Elizabeth I in 1581 to London’s ‘Turkey merchants’, the company consisted of men ‘drawn to the Middle East by the impulse less of conquest than of peaceable commerce’. During the 17th and 18th centuries, with bases in the great entrepôts of Aleppo, Alexandria and Constantinople, figures such as George Baldwin and Heneage Finch, armed with curiosity and commercial acumen, ‘spoke for an attitude of mind which for a time was commonplace on the streets of London’, epitomised by Dr Johnson’s comment that there were ‘two objects of curiosity, the Christian and the Mahumetan’, since ‘all the rest may be considered as barbarous.’The universal language of trade was the key to the Pasha’s success. Today’s observers of the Arab world’s interaction with the West will be enlightened by James Mather’s erudite testimony to tolerance and cooperation.