UNSEEN, Unveiling Networks: Slavery and the European Encounter with Islamic Material Culture (1580–1700) aims to recover the role of the enslaved Muslim communities of Europe in the transmission of Islamic material culture, knowledge, and medical practices to Europe in the early modern period. From the late sixteenth century, thousands of North Africans, Turks, Berbers, Moriscos, and other religious minorities were enslaved in Europe as a result of the skirmishes occurring in the Mediterranean between Ottoman and European forces. They largely served as manpower to row on board the galleys, and when not out at sea, they lived in European ports, in penal colonies or onboard the galleys themselves. They were, however, far from being mere captives. In Spain, France, and Italy, during the periods of non-navigation in wintertime, they were allowed to open pop-up shops on land, peddle around town, or set up stalls around the port. Some were employed in local shops, pharmacies, or workshops. They thus made, imported and sold goods and remedies, and provided knowledge on their uses, functions, and workings to the local population.
This was a widespread phenomenon that fuelled, the project argues, the craze for all things Turkish among Europeans, replenished museums and cabinets of curiosities, and brought into Europe technological and medicinal practices from the Islamic world. Networks of exchange among scholars, collectors, and physicians across Europe led to the transfer of things and knowledge from the Islamic world as well as to the formation of a ‘Republic of Arabic Letters.’ However, what has so far been overlooked is that these networks often started from or led to the enslaved Muslim communities of European port towns. References to enslaved Muslim procurers and informants dot the correspondence of many European learned people; they are weaved into the descriptions of collection catalogues; and are found in medicinal treatises and pamphlets. UNSEEN seeks to demonstrate that it is their presence on the shores of Europe that sparked the first systematic investigation of Islamic culture in Europe.
UNSEEN comprises a team of researchers working across five countries, three continents, and seven languages. It combines the history of Mediterranean slavery, the history of collecting, European social and intellectual history, Ottoman social history, the history of science and medicine, and economic history to recover the pivotal role played by enslaved Muslim communities in Europe and redesign our present understanding of Europe’s early engagement with Islamic culture.
