Charles Beirouti

Supervisors: Dr John-Paul Ghobrial & Dr Sarah Mortimer

College: New College

Contact: charles.beirouti@new.ox.ac.uk

Research Topic: Funded jointly by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and New College, my research centres broadly on the depiction of Islam - and of Islamic practice and belief - in seventeenth-century British travel accounts, particularly those written by clerics.

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, thousands of Britons travelled to the Islamic world, particularly to the Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal Empires, and to the Muslim sultanates of North Africa. Among this diverse group of men and women, there were diplomats, merchants, clerics, scholars, spies, gentlemen travellers, soldiers, servants and captives, all of whom had their own ambitions, fears and prejudices. My PhD thesis will therefore ask the following questions of this variegated group of British travellers: what kind of exposure did they have to Islam, and what did they make of Islamic practice and belief? How did they make sense of the changes that convulsed the Muslim world during this period, such as the intensification of the Sunni-Shi’i divide, the rise of millenarianism, and the influence of disparate forms of Sufism? And why did they think and write what they did about Islam, and how did they use the religion to reflect on the state of seventeenth-century British society? As a way into these questions, my thesis will explore a combination of journals, correspondence and published works composed by contemporary British travellers to the Muslim world, particularly clerics, most of whom served with English trading companies.

At present, I am examining the writings of Edward Terry (c. 1590-1660), chaplain to the first official English ambassador to Mughal India, Sir Thomas Roe (served 1616-19). I welcome any queries about my research!

Academic Profile:

2017 - present: PhD in History, University of Oxford.

2015-2017: MA in Global History, University of Warwick.

2011-2015: BA (Hons) in French and History, University of Warwick, with year abroad at l'Université Paris-Sorbonne, 2013-2014

Teaching:

October - December 2018: Graduate Teaching Assistant, 'The Crisis of the Reformation: Britain, France and the Netherlands, 1560-1610' (third-year undergraduate history module).

Conference Papers:

September 2018: ‘Reassessing the Utility for Historians of Seventeenth-Century European Travel Literature: Edward Terry and the Muslims of Mughal India’; Rothermere American Institute Annual Postgraduate Conference ('Incredible: Lying, Credibility, and the Truth in Historical Research'), University of Oxford.

May 2016: ‘Anglo-Ottoman Diplomacy during the Seventeenth Century: The Embassy of Sir Thomas Roe, 1621-1628’; Department of History Postgraduate Conference, University of Warwick.

March 2016: ‘Propaganda, Persuasion and the mission civilisatrice: French Cinematic and Television News during the Algerian War, 1954-1962’; British Conference of Undergraduate Research, Manchester Metropolitan University.

September 2015: ‘Propaganda, Persuasion and the mission civilisatrice: French Cinematic and Television News during the Algerian War, 1954-1962’; International Conference of Undergraduate Research, University of Warwick.