:)

In 17th century, when Charles II of England sent Captain Hamilton to ransom some Englishmen enslaved on the Barbary Coast his mission was unsuccessful as they all refused to return: the men had all converted to Islam and were now 'partaking of the prosperous Successe of the Turks', living in a style to which they could not possibly have aspired back home. The frustrated Hamilton was forced to return empty-handed: 'They are tempted to forsake their God for the love of Turkish women', he wrote in his report. 'Such ladies are', he added, 'generally very beautiful'.


William Dalrymple- Re-Orienting the Renaissance: Cultural Exchanges with the East