Abstract: The Protestant and the Catholic reformations resulted in devastating religious wars, followed by imperialist wars between Britain and France. In the Ottoman East of the eighteenth century, these wars were fought on paper and from pulpits and printing presses by local Catholic and Maronite clergy, by Protestant English residents, and by pamphleteers from Halle. This corpus of Arabic texts ranges from manuscripts of letters and polemics by local writers to print publications sent to the region from Halle, and shows the divisive impact and the cultural challenges of proselytization, at the same time that it reveals the institutionalization of the European missionary ‘project’ – in a manner that was alien to the religious societies of the Ottoman regions.
Bio: Nabil Matar is Professor of English, Presidential Professor in the President’s Interdisciplinary Initiative on Arts and Humanities, and Samuel Russell Chair in the Humanities at the University of Minnesota. He has published numerous books and articles on relations between early modern Britain, Western Europe, and the Islamic Mediterranean, and has two forthcoming books: Mediterranean Captivity through Arab Eyes, 1517- 1798 (Brill 2020) and Luther and the Papacy through Arab Eyes 1517-1798 (Palgrave 2022).
Please note that due to Covid-19 conditions, Prof. Matar’s talk will be held virtually. Click here to register and access a video link.
