The Sultan and the Queen
The Untold Story of Elizabeth and Islam
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Narrated by:
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Ralph Lister
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By:
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Jerry Brotton
About this listen
When Queen Elizabeth was excommunicated by the Pope in 1570, she found herself in an awkward predicament. Now England's key markets would be closed to her Protestant merchants. To complicate matters the staunchly Catholic king of Spain was determined to destroy her, bolstered by the gold pouring in from the New World.
In a bold decision with far-reaching consequences, Elizabeth set her sights on the East. She sent an emissary to the shah of Iran; wooed the king of Morocco, trading gunpowder for sugar; and entered into an unprecedented alliance with the powerful Ottoman Sultan Murad III.
This marked the beginning of an extraordinary alignment with Muslim powers and of economic and political exchanges with the Islamic world of a depth not again experienced until the modern age. Londoners were gripped with a passion for the Orient. In this groundbreaking book, Jerry Brotton reveals that Elizabethan England's relationship with the Muslim world was far more amicable - and far more extensive - than we have ever appreciated as he tells the riveting story of the businessmen and adventurers who first went east to make their fortunes.
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- Unabridged
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From tales of chivalrous knights to the barbarity of trial by ordeal, no era has been a greater source of awe, horror, and wonder than the Middle Ages. In handsomely crafted prose and with the grace and authority of his extraordinary gift for narrative history, William Manchester leads us from a civilization tottering on the brink of collapse to the grandeur of its rebirth, the Renaissance.
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Ruined by the narrator
- By Wallen on 02-28-09
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The Borgias
- The Hidden History
- By: G. J. Meyer
- Narrated by: Enn Reitel
- Length: 19 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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The startling truth behind one of the most notorious dynasties in history is revealed in a remarkable new account by the acclaimed author of The Tudors and A World Undone. Sweeping aside the gossip, slander, and distortion that have shrouded the Borgias for centuries, G. J. Meyer offers an unprecedented portrait of the infamous Renaissance family and their storied milieu.
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Marvelous !
- By Cinders on 08-02-13
By: G. J. Meyer
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Foundation
- The History of England from Its Earliest Beginnings to the Tudors: The History of England, Book 1
- By: Peter Ackroyd
- Narrated by: Clive Chafer
- Length: 18 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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In Foundation the chronicler of London and of its river, the Thames, takes us from the primeval forests of England's prehistory to the death of the first Tudor king, Henry VII, in 1509. He guides us from the building of Stonehenge to the founding of the two great glories of medieval England: common law and the cathedrals. He shows us glimpses of the country's most distant past - a Neolithic stirrup found in a grave, a Roman fort, a Saxon tomb, a medieval manor house.
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The Most Annoying Narrator EVER
- By JudieBee on 12-25-15
By: Peter Ackroyd
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Sicily
- An Island at the Crossroads of History
- By: John Julius Norwich
- Narrated by: Michael Healy
- Length: 14 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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"Sicily," said Goethe, "is the key to everything." It is the largest island in the Mediterranean, the stepping-stone between Europe and Africa, the link between the Latin West and the Greek East. Sicily's strategic location has tempted Roman emperors, French princes, and Spanish kings. The subsequent struggles to conquer and keep it have played crucial roles in the rise and fall of the world's most powerful dynasties.
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DISAPPOINTING
- By SRdto on 11-22-16
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A Great and Terrible King
- Edward I and the Forging of Britain
- By: Marc Morris
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 18 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Edward I is familiar to millions as "Longshanks", conqueror of Scotland and nemesis of Sir William Wallace (in Braveheart). Yet this story forms only the final chapter of the king's action-packed life. Earlier, Edward had defeated and killed the famous Simon de Montfort, traveled to the Holy Land, and conquered Wales. He raised the greatest armies of the Middle Ages and summoned the largest parliaments. Notoriously, he expelled all the Jews from his kingdom.
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Fascinating book
- By Mary Elizabeth Reynolds on 04-13-15
By: Marc Morris
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The New World
- A History of the English Speaking Peoples, Volume II
- By: Sir Winston Churchill
- Narrated by: Christian Rodska
- Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Between 1485 and 1688, England became a Protestant country under Henry VIII. His daughter, Elizabeth I, battled for succession and supremacy at home, and the discovery of 'the round world' enabled a vast continent across the Atlantic to be explored. While this new era was spawning the beginnings of modern America, England was engaged in a bloody civil war and sustained a Republican experiment under the leadership of Oliver Cromwell.
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Churchill series
- By Elizabeth Weingarten on 08-27-08
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Defenders of the Faith
- Charles V, Suleyman the Magnificent, and the Battle for Europe, 1520-1536
- By: James Reston Jr.
- Narrated by: Jim Meskimen
- Length: 14 hrs and 48 mins
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In the best-selling Warriors of God and Dogs of God, James Reston Jr. limned two epochal conflicts between Islam and Christendom. Here he examines the ultimate battle in that centuries-long war, which found Europe at its most vulnerable and Islam on the attack. This drama was propelled by two astonishing young sovereigns: Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and Turkish sultan Suleyman the Magnificent. Though they represented two colliding worlds, they were remarkably similar.
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Good account of interesting period of history
- By ItalCali on 03-11-22
By: James Reston Jr.
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Lancaster and York
- The Wars of the Roses
- By: Alison Weir
- Narrated by: Maggie Mash
- Length: 22 hrs and 9 mins
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Lancater and York is a riveting account of the Wars of the Roses, from beloved historian Alison Weir. The war between the houses of Lancaster and York was characterised by treachery, deceit, and bloody battles. Alison Weir's lucid and gripping account focuses on the human side of history. At the centre of the book stands Henry VI, the pious king whose mental instability led to political chaos, and his wife Margaret of Anjou, who took up her arms in her husband's cause and battled in a violent man's world.
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Dense, fascinating history...questionable delivery
- By kbreezy on 10-04-17
By: Alison Weir
What listeners say about The Sultan and the Queen
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- J. Fogel
- 02-16-23
Everyone needs to read this book
An entertaining and in-depth examination of interfaith politics and trade connections as well as cultural history of the Elizabethan Age. Hard to give an overview, it's so rich-- Mostly a trade and social history that follows court dealings, treaties, and remarkable characters who shaped the ever shifting relationships between England, Spain, Morocco and the Ottoman Empire, it gives a sensitive vision of how the sides saw each other. Mainly grounded in English history and literature (really insightful readings of various Marlowe, Peele, and especially Shakespeare plays in political and social context. Amazing read, recaptures and presents the important and often (in Europe and the US) neglected or erased history of Islam and multicultural "messy and uneasy" coexistence as part of European and especially English life in the 15th to 17th centuries.
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- marwalk
- 07-21-19
Essential for understanding our own era
The enticing title of this book belies its full scope, as it's a window into more than just England, but documents the multinational intrigue of the 16th Century. The reader is transported between London, Constantinople, Moscow, Prague, Madrid, Venice, Marrakesh, and many other sites where actual events took unexpected turns. I don't think anyone could write a novel with a more captivating plot than this real world history.
During the period covered, Christendom was torn apart by the Protestant Reformation and the effective atomization of Christianity as a result. Queen Elizabeth's incentive for cultivating economic ties with the Turkish Sultan was partly driven by England's isolation from the rest of Catholic Europe following her excommunication by the Pope. This encouraged the seemingly unintuitive collaboration between Protestant Christians and the Islamic nations.
Concurrently the continuing schism within Islam between Sunni and Shia affected intra-Islamic relations between Turkey, Persia, and North Africa. It's apparent from the material covered that the conflicts within and between the different sects of Christianity and Islam were driven more by national and commercial interests than anything theological.
Throughout this period, the Jews have an integral role, often as commercial proxies between Muslims and Christians. And sometimes they found themselves on the short end of the deal.
There are no heroes in these events, only fallible humans like you and me, some with more impure motives than others. Schoolbook figures such as Sir Francis Drake are revealed as hardly invincible. The blatant racism and cultural chauvinism in many of Shakespeare's plays expose the mythology about the southern Mediterranean circulating among a white English population with limited actual information about the people there. The unfamiliar customs and behavior in London of some individuals from those regions sometimes did not help dispel those prejudices. In an age when global navigation had just then become a reality, experiences like these were unfolding for different peoples worldwide, each in their own form.
In the audio book version, the narrator does an excellent job with international pronunciations and inflections. This adds valuable context to the content.
Far beyond its entertainment and informative value, this book is essential for understanding the cultural influences driving international relations in our own time. It would be difficult to ever again view institutional religion as a purely spiritual endeavor. National and commercial interests dominate most religious thought, more so than most believers are willing to admit. They may need to seek higher and deeper for the still small voice of the God of Abraham.
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- GregRobin Smith
- 04-19-24
A major work detailing a fascinating, under-understood and important time
The depth of research and thorough examination of the thousands of influences is greatly appreciated. As a Shakespearean scholar, I found the many Ottoman related influences on Elizabethan theatre to be remarkable.
I am including this title in my recommendations for further reading to my upcoming classes on Shakespeare
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