Robyn Hode has been traced back to 1323, while the first Saracen (Muslim) arrived in 1570.
The first Muslims in England
From as far away as North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia, Muslims from various walks of life found themselves in London in the 16th Century working as diplomats, merchants, translators, musicians, servants and even prostitutes.
Tudor England was hand in glove with Islam, both in diplomacy and free trade
"By the end of Elizabeth's reign," Brotton notes, "thousands of her subjects were to be found in the Islamic world". From Morocco to Persia, they traded, soldiered, settled, negotiated, spied and (fairly frequently) converted to Islam. As a counterweight to the threat from Catholic Spain, Elizabeth had built up an "impressive network" of diplomatic alliances and free-trade deals. They bound England to the Sultanate of Morocco, and to the Ottoman and Persian empires. By 1600, this Anglo-Muslim wall against Spanish hegemony stretched almost 4,300 miles "from Marrakesh via Constantinople to Isfahan". |
