Author:
Eva Simmons
Imagine being captured in war, or kidnapped by pirates and sold into slavery. The terror you would feel. Throughout most of the Middle Ages and later, such atrocities were commonplace: Christians and Muslims fought battles, and enslaved their conquests. Members of these two religions were supposed to hate each other. And many did. But they also fell in love. And, despite their differences, found kinship, and dangerous romance.

This groundbreaking book tells how Muslims and Christians captured and captivated each other, and how stories about their passionate love for the ‘other’ travelled and changed, from the Arabian Nights, across the Mediterranean and beyond.
Copyright Year:
2025
E-Book (PDF)
Availability:
Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-71228-7
Publication:
19 May 2025
Hardback
Availability:
Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-71226-3
Publication:
15 May 2025
Cover Muslim–Christian Romance in Times of Captivity

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Eva Simmons, (Ph.D. 1990, London University), is a journalist and independent scholar working in fields of English and Comparative European literature. Her thesis was on Restoration dramatist Aphra Behn, and she has published on Behn and 17-18th century English literature.
Preface

Acknowledgements

List of Figures

Introduction: Muslim–Christian Romance in Times of Captivity
 1 Slavery from Ancient Times Onwards, and Its Documentation

 2 Slavery and Love

 3 Chapter 1: Early Islamic Perspectives

 4 Chapter 2: Mediaeval Christian Romances

 5 Chapter 3: Lived Experience of Slavery in North Africa and the Mediterranean: Development of the Mediterranean Slave Trade

 6 Chapter 4: Slavery and Romance in 16th–17th Century Novels and Plays of Spain

 7 Chapter 5: Slavery and Romance in 16th–17th Century Literature of England and France

 8 Chapter 6: The 18th Century and Beyond; and Conclusion
 8.1 Gender-Role Reversal and the Lure of the Desert: Genteel Heroines and Commanding Arab Heroes


 9 A Caveat


1 Early Islamic Perspectives
 1 The Coming of Islam: Slavery, Sexuality, and Religious and Cultural Difference
 1.1 The Qurʾan and Slavery

 1.2 One Thousand and One Nights (Alf Layla wa Layla)

 1.3 Greek Influence

 1.4 One Thousand-and One-Nights: Analysis


 2 One Thousand and One Nights: Stories
 2.1 The Story of Nur al-Din Ali ibn-Bakkar and the Slave Girl Shams al-Nahar

 2.2 The Story of the Slave-Girl Anis al-Jalis and Nur al-Din Ali ibn Khaqan

 2.3 ‘Occidentalism’: A Response to ‘Orientalism’


 3 One Thousand-and One-Nights Stories with Love between Muslims and Christians, and Religious Conversion Themes
 3.1 The Tale of King ʿUmar ibn al-Nuʾuman and His Sons Sharkān and Zau al-Makan (Nights 45–145)

 3.2 The Story of Ali Nur al-Din and Miriam the Sash Maker (Nights 863–94): Plot and Analysis


 4 Some Shorter Nights Stories
 4.1 The Tale of the Abbot Who Converted to Islam (Nights 412–14)

 4.2 The Story of the Christian Princess and the Muslim (Nights 477–78)

 4.3 The Tale of the Muslim Hero and the Christian Girl (Nights 474–77)

 4.4 The Man from Upper Egypt and His Frankish Wife (Nights 894–96)


 5 Tales of the Marvellous and News of the Strange (16th century ce?)
 5.1 Sīrat Dhāt al-Himma


 6 Poetry
 6.1 Slave Motifs in the Poetry of Al-Andalus

 6.2 Ruler-Poets

 6.3 Poetry and Religion


 7 Ibn Ḥazm

 8 Yusuf and Zulaikha
 8.1 Jami’s Yusuf and Zulaikha


2 Mediaeval Christian Romances – Cultural Borrowings
 1 Arab Origins of the Idea of Courtly Love

 2 Digenes Akrites: Product of a Muslim-Christian Frontier

 3 Two Mediaeval French/Middle English Romances
 3.1 Floire et Blanchefleur

 3.2 Spiritual Kinship of Muslim and Christian

 3.3 Possible Sources of Floire et Blanchefleur

 3.4 Aucassin et Nicolette

 3.5 Floire et Blanchefleur and Aucassin et Nicolette: Analyses

 3.6 Ethno-Cultural Kinship

 3.7 Comparisons


 4 The Charlemagne NarrativeTradition
 4.1 The Chanson de Roland/Song of Roland

 4.2 The Character of Baligant

 4.3 The Character of Bramimonde


 5 Other Charlemagne Texts
 5.1 Rouland and Vernigu

 5.2 Turpin’s History of Charles

 5.3 Otuel


 6 The Character of Floripas in Medieval French and English Literature
 6.1 Fierabras and Sir Ferumbras

 6.2 The Sowdone of Babylone

 6.3 Charles the Grete


 7 The King of Tars

 8 Boccaccio and His Successors


3 The Lived Experience of Slavery in North Africa and the Mediterranean – Development of the Mediterranean Slave Trade
 1 The Lived Experience of Slavery

 2 Conversion and Religious Practice

 3 Personal Narratives of Enslavement
 3.1 Father Jeronimo Gracián

 3.2 Diego Galán

 3.3 Fra Diego de Haedo/Dr Antonio de Sosa

 3.4 Emanuel (Emmanuel) d’Aranda

 3.5 Jacques Philippe Laugier de Tassy/John Morgan


 4 Morgan’s Additions and Comparisons with de Tassy’s Account

 5 Miguel de Cervantes

 6 Women Slaves and the Harem

 7 Thomas Pellow

 8 Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

 9 Lived Experience and Literature: Some Concluding Remarks


4 Slavery and Romance in 16th–17th Century Novels and Plays of Spain
 1 A Shared Culture in Spain
 1.1 El Abencerraje

 1.2 Pérez de Hita, Guerras civiles de Granada (Civil Wars of Granada)


 2 Changing Fortunes of the Moriscos
 2.1 Ozmín y Daraja


 3 Cervantes: ‘Moorish’ Themes, in Prose Fiction and on the Spanish Stage

 4 Cervantes’s Works
 4.1 El trato de Argel

 4.2 La Historia del cautivo/The Story of the Captive

 4.3 Los Baños de Argel [The Dungeons of Algiers]

 4.4 El Amante Liberal [The Generous – or Liberal – Lover]

 4.5 La Gran Sultana [The Great Sultana] Doña Catalina de Oviedo (Published 1615)


 5 Other Cervantine Texts
 5.1 El Gallardo Español [the Gallant Spaniard], Published 1615


 6 Summary

 7 Cervantes’s Literary Heir: Lope de Vega


5 Slavery and Romance in 16th–17th Century England and France
 1 ‘Moorish’ and ‘Turkish’ Themes in 16th–17th Century England

 2 Tragicomedy
 2.1 Robert Greene (1558–1592)

 2.2 Greene’s Orlando Furioso (1589? Printed 1594)

 2.3 Greene’s The Comicall Historie of Alphonsus, King of Aragon (1599)

 2.4 Philip Massinger, The Renegado, (Licensed 1624, Published 1630)


 3 Growth of ‘Moorish’ and Muslim Themes in France during the 17th Century
 3.1 Almahide


 4 Some Other ‘Moorish’ and ‘Turkish’ Themes in French
 4.1 Zaïde/Zayde

 4.2 Jean-François Regnard, La Provençale (Published Posthumously in 1731)


 5 The ‘Moorish’ or ‘Turkish’ Text in England after the Restoration
 5.1 John Dryden: Almanzor and Almahide, Or, The Conquest of Granada

 5.2 The Fair One of Tunis

 5.3 Some Other Post-restoration Texts in French and English

 5.4 Aphra Behn/Thomas Southerne Oroonoko


6 The 18th Century Onwards
 1 Galland and the Spread of Orientalism

 2 England

 3 Continuation of Slavery and Romance Themes

 4 Slavery and Romance in the 18th Century Theatre
 4.1 George Colman the Younger


 5 Nineteenth Century
 5.1 Ann Lemoine

 5.2 Lord Byron

 5.3 François-René de Chateaubriand and Washington Irving


 6 Sadomasochism and Its Commercial Lure

 7 Twentieth Century and Beyond
 7.1 Gender Role Reversal and the Lure of the Desert: Genteel Heroines and Commanding Arab Heroes


 8 The 21st Century: Tables Turned

 9 Slavery and Romance in Entertainment of the East

 10 Summary and Conclusion
 10.1 The ‘Other’ and the ‘Same’/ ‘Them’ and ‘Us’


 11 Post Script: Two Tales of Mixed-Faith Romance in the 21st Century
 11.1 Haret al-Yahud [Jewish Quarter]

 11.2 Gader Haya [Borderlife, Initial English Translation, Later Changed to All the Rivers]


Appendices

Bibliography

Index

Libraries, literary historians, university lecturers, students, feminists, critics, broadcasters, thoughtful general readers with an interest in Mediterranean history, Islamic studies, slavery studies, comparative/European/English literature, influence of Arabic literature on European literature, and romance.
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