English Women Staging Islam, 1696-1707

Delarivier Manley and Mary Pix were among the groundbreaking "female wits," who debuted their original plays for the public stage in 1695-96. Two of these plays contain explicitly Islamicate themes. Manley'sThe Royal Mischiefexpands onThe Travels of Sir John Chardin into Persia(1686), and Pix'sIbrahimdraws on Rycaut'sHistory of the Turkish Empire(1687). Continuing this interest, Manley'sAlmyna(1706-7) responds to the newly translatedArabian Nights Entertainments(1704-17), and Pix'sThe Conquest of Spain(1705) engages the history of Islamic Spain recounted inThe Life of the Most Illustrious Monarch Almanzor(1693). These plays have been modernized and annotated in this edition, most for the first time. This edition also includes appendices with excerpts from historical sources and a select bibliography.