DRA Lecture: An Exeter Man in Algiers & Mecca

An Exeter Man in Algiers and Mecca: Joseph Pitts, 1662 - 1739

An illustrated talk by Paul Auchterlonie, Honorary Research Fellow, University of Exeter  

Long before European empires dominated the Middle East, Britain was brought face to face with Islam through the activities of the Barbary Corsairs. From the sixteenth to the early nineteenth centuries, Muslim ships based in North African ports terrorised European shipping, capturing thousands of ships and enslaving tens of thousands of Christians. Joseph Pitts’s book A Faithful Account of the Religion and Manners of the Mahometans, first published in 1704, is the intriguing and unique story of one Englishman’s experience of life within an Islamic society, both as a Christian slave and as a Muslim soldier. Joseph Pitts was born in Exeter c.1662 and was captured by Algerian pirates on his first voyage in 1678. Taken to Algiers, he was sold as a slave, forced to convert to Islam, and accompanied his third master on the pilgrimage to Mecca, by doing so becoming the first Englishman to visit the Muslim Holy Places.  Pitts then became a soldier in the Algerian army, taking part in campaigns against both the Moroccans and the Spanish, before undertaking a daring escape while serving with the Algerian Navy. Forced to walk across the Alps, Pitts finally reached Exeter after a journey lasting a whole year. On his return, he wrote an account of his adventures, describing his time in Algiers, his experiences as a slave, his pilgrimage to Mecca (the first such detailed description in English), how Muslims practice Islam and concluding with his audacious escape back to England.

Paul Auchterlonie worked for forty years as a librarian, first at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, then at the University of Lancaster, and for thirty years he was librarian in charge of the Middle East collections at the University of Exeter. He retired in 2011 and is currently an Honorary Research Fellow at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter. 

Admission £5 per person

To book please contact Abi Gray on 01548 830832 or email office@dra.uk.net. To secure your booking advance payment is required either in cash, by cheque payable to 'The Fenwick Charitable Trust', or by card over the phone. Payments are non-refundable. Any unsold tickets will be available to purchase at the door on the evening.