Customer Reviews

Pirate Utopias: Moorish Corsairs & European Renegadoes (New Autonomy)

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I really thought this book was great. It has a unique stance and is not just written from a historical perscpective. Wilson's premise is that the pirate republic of Salle was actually the first democracy (leadership not based on class, race or money) even before the French Revolution, though I'm still a bit skeptical on that point, I thought it was well argued and a good read. I've actually bought this book a few times and given it away to freinds and had to buy a it again! I especially liked the chapter on female pirates.

"Pirate Utopias"is a refreshingly new look at an almost forgotten episode in European/North African history.Wilson not only examines the lives and actions of several notorious pirates in order to identify their incentive,but paints them against a colourful backdrop of a restricted Christian Europe,comparing this picture with the more democratic tendencies of the Islamic nations. During the period concerned (from the 16th to the 19th century),several thousand European Renegadoes renounced Christianity to join the pirate "jihad".In Wilson's view,only a few had been forced to convert,but the majority may have chosen Islam in order to practise social resistance.- The author's view on the socio-political aspects is challenging our pre-conceived perceptions on piracy in particular and history (in the Hegelian Monumentalist sense) in general. He describes the Bou Regreg republics as the first democratic spaces ashore-the pirate ships already being such. While the main subject of the book is to examine and re-evaluate the relationship between Islamic pirates and European renegades,Wilson also uses the figure of Corsair Captain Murad Reis as a link to inspect piracy in 17th century Ireland. Because a closer look would stretch the limits of this book,he kept it brief,just as he only mentions the Uskoks in a footnote. Consequently the latter Utopias of Hispaniola,Libertatia and Nassau are confined to the last chapter. It is a generally well-researched book,which is very exciting in its innovative take on piracy in relation to larger social structures. An exciting book which satiates your literary appetite only to leave you wanting more! And good fun to read, too...

786
Possible the best of PLW. A one-of-a-kind chronicle of an era of history that the Western World would love to forget: the heyday of Ottoman and independant Barbary Piracy. Read about thousands of Moricos (Spanish Muslims) who joined the Barbary fleets en masse after being kicked out of Spain after the Inquisitions and their unique imprint on emerging Morrocan society; read about the thousands of European "Renagadoes" who happily dropped out of the Western world and its stifiling oppression to take up the green banner of Islam; read about life as a Renagado Corsair and some rare accounts of their lives. Destoy your myths about piracy and "jihad." Despite PLW's eccentricites and (at times)weird agenda, this book is a masterpiece, no doubt.

Pirate Utopias: Moorish Corsairs and European Renegadoes by Peter Lamborn Wilson is a wonderful combination of piratology, history, and Islamic/political studies. The book weaves together fact, fiction and speculation into what is the most documentative research to date on the topic of the renegadoes and -- what Mr. Wilson labels on the back cover of the book -- the "insurrectionary communities" that they (and other non-Muslim pirates) formed in Africa in the 16th through 19th centuries.

The renegadoes were European Christian pirates whom for various reasons embraced Islam. These reasons can only be speculated upon, but the sheer numbers (Mr. Wilson puts the number somewhere in the thousands) of conversions makes this book a much-welcomed and relevant historical study.

Peter Lamborn Wilson is a writer, philosopher, Sufi, and anarchist. He has written extensively on various aspects of Islam, mysticism, and anarchist thought, and quite often finds a way to blend all three, with Pirate Utopias being a perfect example.

What I like about Mr. Wilson is that he is not afraid to ask questions. He sometimes finds answers for them, sometimes admits he can't, and other times decides to leave the question open for interpretation and to be answered by the reader's own imagination. This style of writing comes works well when dealing with a topic such as the renegadoes, because of the sheer lack of research material available on them.

The book deals with a variety of sub-topics, starting with a brief overview of the renegadoes. He then sets his sights on North Africa, and more specifically Algiers and the small Moroccan port town of Sale, providing a political, spiritual and economic backdrop to the renegado's stories. He borrows the term "microhistory" from C. Ginzberg (Wilson, 16) and chooses to look at a small slice of time (approximately fifty years in the 17th century) to frame the renegados behavior and activity.

He starts by looking at the possible reasons for a small but substantial trend of sympathetic tendencies towards Islam around this time, despite Europe's venomous hatred towards Muslims, which was a leftover sentiment of the crusades. He questions if somehow Islam had a "positive shadow," and if really Europe was "monolithically opposed to Islam." (Wilson, 17) He looks at several options; cross pollination of mysticism (Sufism, hermetic sciences, and Rosicrucianism), growing anti-Christian or "at least anti-clerical," sentiments in the society, or attractions to a "sensual" Islamic culture as some of the possible reasons (Wilson, 18-21). He also uses the old Arab adage "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" for a possible justification why many of these rouges jumped ship so to speak, and became Muslims,

"Priests hate Islam; I hate Priests; therefore I like Islam". (Wilson, 20)

Any combination of these reasons created a small but substantial "tradition of free-thinkers, who generally viewed it [Islam] as a kind of anti-Christianity" (Wilson, 20). His research and arguments paint a persuasive picture.

He goes on to look at two separate independent political states, Algiers and Sale, who were both funded by piracy for a select period of time. These governments were surprisingly democratic, and the book goes deep into the political history of both cities with surprising detail. This also brings us to the title of the book, Pirate Utopias, which is the term for these "Temporary Autonomous Zones" (Wilson, 204). He goes into a detailed theory about how these "communities of social resistance" sprung up in North Africa and other locations around the globe providing not only shelter and a place to re-group, but "enclaves of total liberty" which occupied "empty places on the map" (Bey 119). These communities were both "anarchistic in affording maximum of personal freedoms, and communistic in eliminating economic hierarchy" (Wilson 146).

Much of the remainder of the book is taken from old writings about various renegadoes. Mr. Wilson addresses that while we do have a handful of written accounts, the majority of them are usually degrading and sensationalist at best. Sadly, there is little first-hand information about these renegadoes written by renegadoes, but through Mr. Wilson's diligent research, he pieces the lives of several of these characters together. We meet personalities such as John Ward (the 1612 West-end hit A Christian Turn'd Turke was written about him) who at age 50 became a pirate, embraced Islam, never to be caught and tried. He retired after years of piracy, living comfortably until he died in his home in Tunis in 1628. And there is Englishman Peter Easton, a farm laborer who after embracing Islam, "commanded a fleet of forty vessels by 1611", and when offered forgiveness from the King of England after being caught replied, "why should I obey the king's orders, when I am a kind of king myself?" From his remark and others in the book we start to see a "pirate ideology" start to emerge, a "sort of proto-individualist-anarchist attitude." The short biographical sketches and stories go on and on for several chapters (Wilson, 51-52).

Mr. Wilson goes on to investigate the relationship between the apostasy of these Westerners and heresy (noting that the Renegadoes leaned more towards Islamic heterodoxy), proposing the idea of heresy as cultural transfer.

"When a religion from one culture penetrates another culture, it frequently does so (at least initially) as "heresy"; only later do the Orthodox Authorities arrive to straighten everyone out and toe the line (Wilson, 200).

Interestingly, this was one important way that Islam entered into the mainstream and psyche of the public in the United States--through the quasi-Islamic organizations such as the Moorish Science Temple, Nation of Islam and the Nation of Gods and Earths.

Wilson openly contemplates about the Renegadoes towards the end of Pirate Utopias,

"No one has interpreted their conversion to Islam as a kind of ultimate form of Ranterism, or even as a means of escape from (and revenge upon) a civilization of economic and sexual misery--form a smug Christianity based on slavery, repression and elite privilege. Renegado apostasy as self-expression--mass apostasy as class expression-- the Renegadoes as a kind of pro-proletarian "vanguard..." (Wilson, 204)

For me, the book has inspired me to look deeper about the reasons for my conversion (see critical essay--packet 3). I was able to use the book not only in an inspirational sense for my writings, but by using some actual citations as well. After contemplating some of the stories of these Renegadoes, a question came to me--could I have converted for some of the same reasons that these Westerners did hundreds of years before me? Was my conversion partially (to quote Mr. Wilson from the cover of the book), "a praxis of social resistance?" Was there an undercurrent of dissent in the motivation for my embrace of Islam?

Maybe I am only entertaining romantic notions in my mind for comparing my conversion experience to the likes of the conversions of (in)famous Renegado pirates such as John Ward or Peter Easton.

Then again, maybe I'm not.

"Pirate Utopias"is a refreshingly new look at an almost forgotten episode in European/North African history.Wilson not only examines the lives and actions of several notorious pirates in order to identify their incentive,but paints them against a colourful backdrop of a restricted Christian Europe,comparing this picture with the more democratic tendencies of the Islamic nations. During the period concerned (from the 16th to the 19th century),several thousand European Renegadoes renounced Christianity to join the pirate "jihad".In Wilson's view,only a few had been forced to convert,but the majority may have chosen Islam in order to practise social resistance.- The author's view on the socio-political aspects is challenging our pre-conceived perceptions on piracy in particular and history (in the Hegelian Monumentalist sense) in general. He describes the Bou Regreg republics as the first democratic spaces ashore-the pirate ships already being such. While the main subject of the book is to examine and re-evaluate the relationship between Islamic pirates and European renegades,Wilson also uses the figure of Corsair Captain Murad Reis as a link to inspect piracy in 17th century Ireland. Because a closer look would stretch the limits of this book,he kept it brief,just as he only mentions the Uskoks in a footnote. Consequently the latter Utopias of Hispaniola,Libertatia and Nassau are confined to the last chapter. It is a generally well-researched book,which is very exciting in its innovative take on piracy in relation to larger social structures. An exciting book which satiates your literary appetite only to leave you wanting more! And good fun to read, too...

"Pirate Utopias"is a refreshingly new look at an almost forgotten episode in European/North African history.Wilson not only examines the lives and actions of several notorious pirates in order to identify their incentive,but paints them against a colourful backdrop of a restricted Christian Europe,comparing this picture with the more democratic tendencies of the Islamic nations. During the period concerned (from the 16th to the 19th century),several thousand European Renegadoes renounced Christianity to join the pirate "jihad".In Wilson's view,only a few had been forced to convert,but the majority may have chosen Islam in order to practise social resistance.- The author's view on the socio-political aspects is challenging our pre-conceived perceptions on piracy in particular and history (in the Hegelian Monumentalist sense) in general. He describes the Bou Regreg republics as the first democratic spaces ashore-the pirate ships already being such. While the main subject of the book is to examine and re-evaluate the relationship between Islamic pirates and European renegades,Wilson also uses the figure of Corsair Captain Murad Reis as a link to inspect piracy in 17th century Ireland. Because a closer look would stretch the limits of this book,he kept it brief,just as he only mentions the Uskoks in a footnote. Consequently the latter Utopias of Hispaniola,Libertatia and Nassau are confined to the last chapter. It is a generally well-researched book,which is very exciting in its innovative take on piracy in relation to larger social structures. An exciting book which satiates your literary appetite only to leave you wanting more! And good fun to read, too...

"Pirate Utopias"is a refreshingly new look at an almost forgotten episode in European/North African history.Wilson not only examines the lives and actions of several notorious pirates in order to identify their incentive,but paints them against a colourful backdrop of a restricted Christian Europe,comparing this picture with the more democratic tendencies of the Islamic nations. During the period concerned (from the 16th to the 19th century),several thousand European Renegadoes renounced Christianity to join the pirate "jihad".In Wilson's view,only a few had been forced to convert,but the majority may have chosen Islam in order to practise social resistance.- The author's view on the socio-political aspects is challenging our pre-conceived perceptions on piracy in particular and history (in the Hegelian Monumentalist sense) in general. He describes the Bou Regreg republics as the first democratic spaces ashore-the pirate ships already being such. While the main subject of the book is to examine and re-evaluate the relationship between Islamic pirates and European renegades,Wilson also uses the figure of Corsair Captain Murad Reis as a link to inspect piracy in 17th century Ireland. Because a closer look would stretch the limits of this book,he kept it brief,just as he only mentions the Uskoks in a footnote. Consequently the latter Utopias of Hispaniola,Libertatia and Nassau are confined to the last chapter. It is a generally well-researched book,which is very exciting in its innovative take on piracy in relation to larger social structures. An exciting book which satiates your literary appetite only to leave you wanting more! And good fun to read, too...