In the wake of the fear that gripped Europe after the fall of Constantinople (1453) the
English dramatists joined most continental artists (literary and visual) in representing the
Ottoman Turks in plays inspired by historical events. As the many subjective elements involved
in the stereotyping of the Turks in these plays-revolving around complex themes such as tyranny
captivity war and conquests-arose from their perception of Islam Ottoman milieu as a
dramatic setting provided for the English audiences a common experience of fascination and fear
of the Other. The Ottomans' failure in the second siege of Vienna (1683) however became a
factor in the reversal of trends in the representation of the Turks on stage. As the ascending
strength of a web of European alliances began to check further the Ottoman expansion what then
began to dazzle the aesthetic imagination of the eighteenth century England was the sultan's
seraglio with images of extravaganza and decadence. In this book Esin Akal_n draws upon a
selective range of seventeenth and eighteenth century plays to reach an understanding both
from a non-European perspective and Western standpoint how one culture represents the other
through discourse historiography and drama. The book explores a cluster of issues revolving
around identity and difference in terms of history ideology and politics of representation.
In contextualizing political cultural and intellectual roots in the ideology of representing
the Ottoman Muslim as the West's Other the author ultimately tackles with the questions of
how history serves literature and to what extent literature creates history.
