An Arab's Journey to Colonial Spanish America: The Travels of Elias al-Mūsili in the Seventeenth Century (Middle East Literature In Translation) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0815607903 ISBN 13: 9780815607908

Publisher: Syracuse University Press, 2003

Synopsis

In 1905, the Jesuit scholar Antūn Rabbāt discovered the writings of Elias al-Mūsili in a Jacobite diocese in Aleppo, Syria. Al-Mūsili, a seventeenth-century Arab and a priest of the Chaldean Church, traveled widely across colonial Spanish America, becoming the first person to visit the Americas from Baghdad. Rabbāt transcribed into Arabic and published those portions relating to al-Mūsili’s travels.

Surrounded by a world seemingly filled with exotic miracles, al-Mūsili shares his perceptions of native peoples and their customs, beliefs, and treatment by Spanish conquistadors. Because of the uniqueness and significance of his journey, al-Mūsili was supported by the pope and authorized by the queen regent of Spain. He provides thoughtful descriptions of high-level officials and clerics in the New World and rare insight on a voyage that would turn into a twelve-year adventure.

Acclaimed Middle Eastern historian Farah is the first to make these writings available in English translation, providing an invaluable document for scholars of Middle Eastern history and of the church in Latin America.

About this title

Book Description:

An invaluable document for scholars of Middle Eastern history and of the church in Latin America.

About the Author:

Caesar E. Farah was professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic history at the University of Minnesota. He authored numerous books including Islam, The Sultan’s Yemen: Nineteenth-Century Challenge to Ottoman Rule, and Arabs and Ottomans: A Checkered Relationship.

About this edition

• Publisher: Syracuse University Press
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0815607903
• ISBN 13: 9780815607908
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 117
• Editor: Farah Caesar E.