Pashas Traders and Travellers in the Islamic World James Mather

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.

James Mather was educated at Cambridge University and at Harvard, where he was a Kennedy scholar. He is now a commercial barrister in London.

"Mather’s study adds to the debate about orientalism by exploring the response of Britons to the Middle East in the era before the British Empire. His book is rich with details about the daily lives of the pashas and is filled with the evocative sights and sounds of Middle Eastern souks and cities." —The Guardian (Review)

"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

"The Print in Early Modern England is a beautifully produced and richly illustrated book of the kind we have come to expect and appreciate from Yale University Press….The author can surely be congratulated for having achieved his aim of revealing the great range of the iconographic repertoire available in early modern England. He has presented an important part of the culture of this period that can now be seen and explored more fully than ever before. It is a fine contribution to our understanding of the visual realities and representations of the past." —Margaret Aston, Print Quarterly

“…impressive history of the forgotten Levant Company….Mather’s vivid story and its rich cast of ‘pashas’ - the English company members who all but go native - is told with great panache.”—Professor Jerry Brotton, BBC History Magazine

"For more than 200 years, the Levant Company was one of the most influential and intriguing of British institutions, but it has never found a worthy popular historian. Enter James Mather, whose erudite, well-researched book was met with a fanfare of critical praise a little while ago. The paperback has just hit the shelves, and it’s a remarkable volume."—Jonathan Wright, Geographical

"Pashas is a wonderful book. It is engaging, widely researched, and informative…..The strength of Mather’s Pashas lies in its extensive use of primary documents and sources, its elegant writing, and its breadth."—Nabil Matar, Journal of Islamic Studies Vol.22 No.2