Chapter 6 - Islam

Summary

British Romanticism’s engagement with Islam was shaped by an age of conflict, tumult, and intellectual ferment. Following the French Revolution, British Romantic writers gained knowledge of Islam through processes of cultural osmosis. Despite the growing presence of Muslims visiting and even living in Britain, Islam remained the stereotypical “Other.” At the same time, as republican and irreligious, the broader milieu in which these Romantic writers operated manifested its radicalism in the form of the distribution and dissemination of subversive manuscripts, with Islam providing an effective vehicle. While they often subscribed to notions about Britain’s intellectual and moral superiority vis-à-vis the Muslim world, these writers deployed Islam to reinforce a wider cause, in some cases arguing for a radical revision of contemporary orthodoxies, even when a positive depiction risked social approbation and possible punishment in a Britain where prejudice against Islam endured.