By Megan Ahearn
When Joseph Pitts was an English cabin boy in the late 1600s,
Barbary pirates captured him as a slave. Pitts eventually converted
to Islam, after he was beaten into submission. A second master
treated him more kindly, like a son, and then he began to embrace
Islam.
Pitts is thought to be the first Englishman to make the spiritual
pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca. Despite his long years
in the Middle East, Pitts later became homesick. After he was
freed, he slipped onto a boat from Smyrna to Italy and crossed
Europe to get to England.
Pitts' story is one of seven collected by Daniel Vitkus, FSU
English assistant professor, and published in his new book, "Piracy,
Slavery and Redemption: Barbary Captivity Narratives from Early
England."
The stories in Vitkus' book are true tales in a literary genre
known as captivity narratives. There have been captivity narratives
from all societies. Some involve Native Americans abducting European
women or Africans enslaved by other Africans. The Barbary captive
narratives between 1570 and 1704 are tales of English sailors
and merchants enslaved by the Barbary Pirates of North Africa.
The tales challenge many of the convictions in Western society
that the West has always been culturally, economically and politically
superior to the ancient Muslim countries in the Near East. Vitkus'
collection of stories might make many Westerners take a second
look at the long, and often complex, relationship between Muslims
and Christians.
The stories were written by slaves who had escaped and returned
to their homeland.
In all seven tales, Muslim pirates took British sailors as
their captives. The high seas were at the time ruled by the vast,
efficient Ottoman-Turk Empire, and the British were considered
to be bands of disorganized seafarers.
Through the narratives, Vitkus' writing samples describe a well-run
Islamic empire. Vitkus notes that the Christians who were taken
into captivity painted an even-keeled portrait of their Muslim
captors.
"The larger goal is to create a greater awareness of
Christian and Islamic relations," said Vitkus. "At
a time when our president is calling for a crusade, we need a
more comprehensive look at the situation."
Vitkus became charmed with the Islamic culture of the 16th
and 17th centuries after a six-year stint working at American
University in Cairo.
He considers the narratives not only a chance to right some
historical wrongs, but to tell fascinating tales.
So, almost 300 years after one of the last captive narratives
was written, British and American troops are seen as masters
of the high seas. The Muslim world is seen by many as an uncivilized
society populated with the unsophisticated poor.
Vitkus said he found more ironies while editing the narratives.
There was the tale of the slave who got away from his Muslim
captors only to end up in the even more treacherous claws of
the Spanish Inquisitors.
"There was a tolerance in Islam of the Christians and
Jews who had already settled in the area, while in Europe many
Jews were persecuted and forced to leave," Vitkus said.
Vitkus plans to write two more books about the culture of
the Middle East.
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CHARLIE
BARNES
