A collection of travellers tales. By introducing an array of accounts (of exploration, diplomatic, and commercial ventures), Kenneth Parker seeks to challenge widely-held assumptions about Early Modern encounters in the Orient. The documents assembled in this text have extraordinary resonance for us today. Many of the discourses which in part, emerged from those early encounters - such as Islamophobia, English Nationalism, and the Catholic/Protestant divide - are still active in contemporary society. This volume sheds a unique light on the development of a very English interest in the...