INTRODUCTION

This chapter identifies some of the ways in which the Islamic world has been encountered, engaged with, understood and, of course, substantially misunderstood in Britain from an historical perspective. The historical narrative ranges from early encounters and impressions, through to the settlement of the first traders, sailors and students. What has brought Muslims to Britain across the course of history? How has the character of Muslim communities developed over time? How have perceptions of Muslims changed? Finally, some instances of contact and engagement between Britain and majority Muslim regions, especially from the sixteenth century onwards, are brought into focus. Fascinating insights emerge about the first converts to Islam, and the establishment of embryonic Muslim communities in the seventeenth century.

It is important at the outset to consider where information about Islam and Muslims in Britain has come from over the course of history, and the limitations and biases of difference sources. Any understanding of the relationship between Islam and Britain is inevitably shaped by the available evidence, so whether we are examining Christian ecclesiastical texts, travel diaries, captivity narratives, parliamentary papers, literary fiction, or stage plays, there are inevitably inherent limitations and biases. Misunderstandings of Islam and Muslims in one genre are often reproduced in another. So, for example, in the Anglo-Saxon world, information about Islam and Muslims was understood within a framework of Christian theological ideas and assumptions that pre-dated Islam (Scarfe Beckett 2003).