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W. Empire pod UK.com. Hello and me, welcome to Empire with me Anita Arnan and me William

Dalrymport. So today we are going to be talking about the Barbary

slave trade. It's something I mean you might think it's something brand new to you but we have

actually touched upon this in Empire already during our Ottoman series. You will

remember and it was a jaw-dropping fact for many people me included. We talked about the slave raids

taking place where Englishmen were lifted from Stepney Green no less in East London and

taken far far far away.

And we just thought this was such a fascinating thing.

We'd only scratched the surface of it,

and we know how interested you were in it.

So we have got the best man here we could think of to discuss this and dig into this story a bit further.

It's Nabil Matar, professor of the University of Minnesota, author of this great book, Britain and

Barbary 1589 to 16. Great Beel, I should say, is one of my favorite historians, and I remember very well walking down Charing

Cross Road about 20 years ago and seeing in the window of an Islamic bookshop.

His first great book that I came across certainly is

Islam in Britain 1558 to 1685 and I remember just pausing and thinking

there was Islam in Britain in 1558 to 1685 and I just sort of stopped went straight into the book shop and bought the book which I did often do and it was the beginning of a process of discovery of Nabil's books, which I have reviewed and loved and admired ever since then.

And he has done extraordinary work bringing to life a whole world of early modern engagement

...