I would ask our esteemed Cyrus, if he has ever read the book(s) by an American who travelled into the "Orient"? His last name was "Knox!"
Below is just one list of his works, etc.!
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4ADBR_enUS315US315&q=Backsheesh%21%2c+online+book+by+Knox
For you as an Easterner as opposed to me a mere Westerner, his accounts of his travelles thru the Orient are to me a "splash of Ice water" upon my back in the throughs of Summer, or a pot of near boiling water thrown upon one, in the depths of the Winter!
Have any of our members ever read of his travels?
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Dear Cyrus, from the account you gave us from above, I found these words in the first chapter, thus;
" cannot discover any thing further remarkable of Tangiers from the time it became a Roman colony, and during the period it was possessed by the Saracens, till the latter end of the fourteenth century, when it was taken by the Portuguese, who erected fortifications and other public works. It continued in their possession for nearly two centuries; and was at length given to our King, Charles the Second, as part of the dowry of his consort Catharine, We did not keep it long; for, owing to the little harmony that subsisted between that Monarch and his Parliament, it was ceded to the Moors in 1684, after we had blown up all the fortifications, and utterly destroyed the harbour. Since that event, it seems to have been gradually dwindling into its present insignificance."
Now Cyrus I ask you a question that I consider as one of great significance!
In the above quotation we can read the following words that supposedly refer to Muslims!
"cannot discover any thing further remarkable of Tangiers from the time it became a Roman colony, and during the period it was possessed by the Saracens."
Thus, considering that the word Saracens is now considered as but another word for "Muslims", then just why, in the next quotation do we read these words?
"It continued in their possession for nearly two centuries; and was at length given to our King, Charles the Second, as part of the dowry of his consort Catharine, We did not keep it long; for, owing to the little harmony that subsisted between that Monarch and his Parliament, it was ceded to the Moors in 1684, after we had blown up all the fortifications, and utterly destroyed the harbour...."
Now, we in our present knowledge of history also are told that the "Moors" are also members of "Islam!" In Shakespeare, and other romantic versions of English art, it seems that the words "Saracen" and "Moor", are sometimes seemingly used as nothing more than just another word for Muslim?
So, Cyrus, since you are somewhat of an expert, just how do you explain the change of words from "Saracen" to "Moor" in just a few sentences?
Regards,
Post script;
Actually in my remembrance, the actual use of the words "Muhammad" or "Muslim", do not appear in any English works until some time in the Middle Ages! Perhaps the word "Mus(s)elmen" or "Mosulmen", did occur sometime earlier, but it is presumed that this only refered to men from Mosul?
Could this word have been mistaken?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslin
Edited by opuslola - 16-Feb-2011 at 16:09
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