This book tells the story of three Englishmen whose lives intersected for a very brief time (1738-45) through a mutual interest in the two geographic regions commonly termed “the Levant” and “Barbary”.1 These gentlemen were Revd Dr Thomas Shaw (1694-1751), Dr Charles Perry (c.1698-?) MD and Revd Dr Richard Pococke (1704-65), and their shared interest culminated in the publication of an extraordinary body of assorted eastern “travels” – a contemporary term used to describe written travel accounts – within a period of seven years.2 These authors had much in common: both Shaw and Pococke came from respectable families, growing up in small towns in England (details of Perry’s background are unfortunately not known, though clearly he came from a wealthy family); all graduated from university suitably qualified for their chosen profession (the church and medicine); all had the leisure and means to pursue their travels; and all were in their late thirties and early forties when their books went to print. While Perry was the only member of this group to have published a book before bringing out his eastern travels (a medical treatise on madness), and both he and Pococke produced further scholarly works in later life, it was their eastern travels that catapulted them into immediate and lasting fame.
These grandiose works, folio-sized tomes encompassing many areas of the region and many fields of scholarship, had the distinction of being reissued, incorporated into compendiums, and/or translated into French, German and Dutch by the end of the 18th century. First editions of these works are still highly collectable, not least because they contain engraved maps and illustrations of antiquities and natural curiosities that were a source of great wonder for the original readers, who were unlikely to ever undertake the eastern voyage and thus had to make do with experiencing it second hand. Many of the smaller antiquities and natural curiosities depicted in the books (and some of the larger ones, including statues and human mummies) were items which the authors shipped back to England to fill their cabinets or adorn their homes. In doing so, they played an important role in the history of British collecting, by increasing an awareness of eastern art and other artefacts and thus encouraging the spread of an “oriental” taste.
My reason for focusing on British exploration of the east, when many other nationalities were travelling in the region at this time, is purely circumstantial and relates to my original interest in Pococke – and indeed it is around him that much of this volume is framed and many of the comparisons made. While editing his previously unpublished foreign travel correspondence (a complete diary account of his two journeys, the second of which included a three-year eastern voyage),3 I was intrigued by the frequent references to his growing friendship with a certain Dr Perry, who had already been in the east for at least two years by the time they met. This unlikely pair – one with a background in theology and classics and the other in medicine – became intermittent travel companions and journeyed back to England at the same time, though not together. While this correspondence (the only source that connects them during their voyage) suggests that they were fond of each other’s company and proved helpful to one another in their explorations of Egypt, Greece and Cyprus, neither author mentioned the other in his published travels and clearly there was a cooling off between them after their return to London, in the lead-up to the publication of their books, which came out weeks or even days apart.
A further point of interest for me was the constant reference, in contemporary and later literature, to Pococke’s so-called “attack” on Thomas Shaw. Having been chaplain to the English consul in Algiers for 13 years (1720-33), Shaw probably believed that his long-considered views on the east were more valid than those of a mere traveller. He was therefore incensed when Pococke – supposedly a former friend – published Description 1 in 1743, which “controverted” or contradicted some of the theories on Egypt which he had offered in his own Travels five years earlier. In response to this affront, Shaw brought out a lengthy Supplement to his original work (1746), in which he vigorously admonished his rival and put him firmly in his place.4 That was where the matter ended for the two antagonists, as Pococke failed to respond to this outburst – at least in print – and Shaw, after revising his book for what turned out to be a posthumous edition, died five years later. However, the story of the attack has lived on and is still recorded in biographical accounts of both authors.
Such a curious set of personal interrelationships, which were initially positive and then turned sour, together with this sudden upsurge in British travels to the Levant and Barbary, resulting in the appearance of three very similar works within such a short space of time, encouraged me to examine the circumstances of these authors’ endeavours. As we shall see, however, this short British phase of eastern voyages and travel writing, which spanned from the early 1720s to the late 1740s, was not confined to Shaw, Perry and Pococke. It involved several other individuals, (especially from Ireland), some of whom went on to publish their works; and their interrelationships with the central characters, however tangential, are also of interest to this study.
The first two chapters of this volume provide background material on the wider subject. Chapter 1 sets the historical context by outlining the main motivations (religious, professional and recreational) for British gentlemen to undertake the arduous eastern voyage.5 It also gives a brief account of the political, religious, social and cultural state of the Ottoman Empire at the time of our authors’ travels in the east. Chapter 2 sets the literary context of the three authors by locating them within the body of European and British travel writing of the time, and in particular travel accounts relating to the east. This includes a discussion of the prevailing fears and negative perceptions of the eastern voyage. Chapter 3 presents short biographical accounts of the authors and their relationships with each other and their reasons for travelling to and in the east. Chapter 4 analyses the development of their travel books, as can be ascertained from internal and external evidence, including the sources available to them. Chapter 5 presents a summary of their itineraries. Chapters 6-8 comprise surveys of the three texts in chronological order of their publication (Shaw, Perry and Pococke),6 including aspects of the narrative and content, both textual and illustrative. Chapter 9 brings together the themes, similarities and differences between the three books under discussion. It considers the importance of patronage for the three authors, the reception of their work, the impact of their travels and travel writing on their subsequent lives and literary output, their influence on later expeditions to the east, and their contribution to eastern antiquarianism and art. An appendix lists the various editions, abridged editions and translations of our three authors’ texts, the entries for which are grouped by author and listed in chronological order, according to the date of their publication.
Note on the dating of letters: one aspect of eighteenth-century letter-writing that can be confusing for the modern reader is the double dating system used in correspondence sent from abroad. This is where letters are dated according to both the Gregorian and the Julian calendars, with a difference of 11 days. The dates of letters from Pococke are therefore presented with two dates, as in, for example, his letter sent from Rome, dated “11/22 April 1735”.