Pirate Utopias: Moorish Corsairs & European Renegadoes'Peter Lamborn Wilson shows why we cherish pirates - and why, for the sake of the future, we must continue to do so. Interesting and compelling...a rollicking, adventurous book.'Marcus Rediker, author, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea'A chronicler, a historiographer, and a piratologist in the tradition of Defoe...with immense learning and interesting sympathies. His scholarship cuts through the seas of ignorance and prejudice with grace and power.'Peter Linebaugh, author, The London Hanged'One of those rare books which give historians new ideas to think about. It deals with 17th century European converts to Islam - usually but not always as pirates - whose numbers Wilson puts at thousands. His careful analysis of (the) renegadoes, their ideas, and political practice leads to a very tentative suggestion that some of them may have links with Rosicrucianism and the 18th-century Enlightenment...Historians will have to think about this book's novel theme and pursue its implications. Wilson really does turn the world upside down!'Christopher Hill, author, The World Turned Upside DownFrom the 16th to the 19th centuries, Muslim corsairs from the Barbary Coast ravaged European shipping and enslaved thousands of unlucky captives. During this same period, thousands more Europeans converted to Islam and joined the pirate holy war. Were these men (and women) the scum of the seas, apostates, traitors -- Renegadoes? Or did they abandon and betray Christendom as a praxis of social resistance?Peter Lamborn Wilson focuses on the corsairs' most impressive accomplishment, the independent Pirate Republic of Salé, in Morocco, in the 17th century. Corsairs, Sufis, pederasts, "irresistible" Moorish women, slaves, adventures, Irish rebels, heretical Jews, British spies, a Moorish pirate in old New York, and radical working-class heroes all populate a book which intends to entertain and to make a point about insurrectionary communities. |
Common terms and phrases
17th century al-Ayyashi Algerian Algiers Andalusians Anthony apostasy Arabic Autonomedia Baltimore Barbary Berber boats booty Bou Regreg called Captain captives captured Casbah Castle Christian coast Coindreau consul converted to Islam Cork crew culture Dala'iyya Danser Defoe Divan Dutch el-Behar England English Europe European fleet French Grietse Hackett harbour historians Hornacheros Ireland Irish Islam Janissaries Jansen Jansz Kinsale land least Libertatia Madagascar Majesties Marabout Mediterranean merchants Mission Moorish Moors Morat Moriscos Moroccan Morocco Moslem Mouette Murad Reis North Africa Ocak Old Salé Ottoman perhaps Peter Lamborn Wilson piracy pirate utopia planters port prize Rabat ransom Renegadoes Republic of Salé Saadian Sack of Baltimore sail sailors Saint Sala Salé Salé's Sallee seems sent ship shipp Sir Fineen Sir Walter Coppinger slaves Slawis Spain Spaniards Spanish Sufi Sufism Sultan Taiffe Thomas Crooke tion towne trade Tripoli Tunis Turkish turned Turk Venetian vessel voyage Ward women