Islam, Race, and Political Legitimacy in Ralegh’s The Life and Death of Mahomet

Abstract

In the “Epistle Dedicatory” for A notable historie of the Saracens, Thomas Newton articulates a commonly expressed early modern English anxiety: that Islamic peoples might conquer European Christians.1 Although Newton and others represented Turks and Moors as tyrannical rulers needing to be feared, recent scholarship continues to uncover the complexity of early modern European views of Muslims.2 Sir Walter Ralegh’s The Life and Death of Mahomet, The Conquest of Spaine Together with the Rysing and Ruine of the Sarazen Empire (published posthumously in 1637) illustrates the complexity of English engagements with Muslims within a single text. Although vilified at times, Moors prove to be more legitimate rulers of Spain than Spaniards. Moreover, while there are both virtuous and villainous Moors in this history, no Spaniard is portrayed in a favorable light: the text represents all Spaniards as traitors to both Christianity and Spain. Although Ralegh’s long-standing hatred of Spain—one that seems out of place in Jacobean England—is seen in The Life’s representation of Spaniards, what is more surprising is the history’s simultaneous condemnation of Islam and validation of the Moorish occupation of Spain.3