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Freedom of Information releases and corporate reports
operated an illegal waste site on unregistered land
burnt it and ignored warnings from the Environment Agency to stop
He appeared at Teesside Magistrates’ Court last month for sentencing and having previously denied the allegations
changed his plea to guilty to three offences of operating a waste site without an environmental permit
which is at the end of Gladstone Street in Brotton
is next to council-owned allotments and does not have an environmental permit or a registered exemption
which are required by law to manage waste operations
Booker was fined £648 and will pay a victim surcharge of £259
A remediation order was made against Brooker for him to clear the site of all waste
If he fails to comply he could be subject to further action
Area Environment Manager for the Environment Agency
Environmental permits are in place to protect the public and environment and we told Booker a number of times that he must stop his activities and clear the waste from the site
Illegal activity such as this undermines legitimate businesses that work hard to operate within the regulations
as well as putting the environment at risk and impacting on the local community
In February 2022 an Environment Agency officer visited the land and saw waste including scrap electricals such as fridges and washing machines
as well as shopping trollies and scrap vehicle parts
and a letter was sent instructing him to cease all activity and clear the site
By May 2022 most of the waste had been cleared
but Boooker resumed waste activity on the land
By October the same year waste was again strewn across the site and the pathway access to the allotments – including a pram
In January 2023 the Environment Agency gave Booker one month to clear the site
but a month later it was still full of waste - again with evidence of burning
When he was interviewed in May 2023 Booker said he’d owned two garages on the land that he knocked down
He said he’d brought rubble to the land to develop it
but that people fly tipped the plot and he cleared it by putting it into residents’ bins or throwing it in the allotments
He denied being responsible for disposing and burning waste
He also claimed not to have a vehicle but evidence from the council confirmed he was seen in a scrap van in Saltburn in October 2023
A final visit on 19 March 2024 saw the site still had waste present
Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods and Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council
Our officers work closely with colleagues in the Environment Agency and other partner agencies every day to protect the public
The decision to go to court is never taken lightly
if the law which is clearly there to protect our residents
businesses and the environment we all share is disregarded in this way this action must be taken and I fully support the EA
I would like to thank the Environment Agency and everyone else involved for their hard work on this case
Illegal waste activity can be reported to the Environment Agency on 0800 807060
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Tech giants said today’s digital native kids would be the first generation who would not know what it meant to get lost
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The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more.
The development of the hippocampus can also be stunted in childhood
Children living in urban environments rarely see the sun rise or set and cannot tell the difference between east and west
When I volunteered to go into my local school to teach kids about direction
I found they struggled to distinguish north from south and east from west – though they could do so if allowed to use their phones
Wherever kids do travel they are probably following the blue dot on their phone screen, showing them the way without reference to the world around them. Maps have never been more accessible in the palm of our hands on our phones
but they are as much a tyranny as a liberation
The famous ‘blue marble’ Apollo 17 photograph of the Earth is upside downCurrent studies suggest a link between this so-called developmental topographical disorientation and mental health
as online experiences lead to a digitally poisoned awareness of space and place
disoriented in a digital world where we have given up on tools that enhance our cognitive abilities
like paper maps and magnetic compasses that enabled us to navigate and orient ourselves in tandem with the physical world
We have retreated from using the spatial skills that sustained us for millennia
No wonder our sense of being lost is existential as much as directional
This was an orientation that defined European Christianity for more than 1,000 years
early Islamic maps placed south at the top
because the people that first converted to the faith lived directly north of Mecca
The easiest way to understand their holy direction was to orient their maps so that Mecca was “up”
We still talk about going up north and down south in the UK
an old hangover from understanding the four points of the compass according to our bodies: up and down
South does just as well as the cardinal direction
which had its magnetic compasses pointing south
Stuart McArthur published his Universal Corrective Map of the World
oriented southwards with Australia at the top
The compass appeared in the 13th century on European maritime maps that allowed navigators to orientate themselves on a north-south axis
But it took another 400 years for these maps to agree on putting north at the top
which had always been an inauspicious direction in most societies as a place of cold and darkness
It was crowned cardinal direction by the Flemish mapmaker Gerardus Mercator
But Mercator was more interested in enabling pilots to sail accurately east to west
distortion was minimised either side of the equator
which was ideal for European maritime empires sailing east to west via Cape Horn and the Cape of Good Hope
The north and south poles were projected to infinity
as everyone presumed they were ice-bound and travelling there seemed pointless
one of the most reproduced images in human history
Historically no societies have put west at the top of world maps because of its associations with sunset and death
the west has situated north on top after centuries of imperial domination
But will it stay there as India and China reorientate our global economy
Might the use of compasses disappear altogether – and with them the cardinal directions
In my lifetime we have gone from looking up
aspiring to a shared global village inspired by Nasa’s blue marble photograph
glued to the blue dot on our phones as our hippocampi shrink and many of us withdraw from nature
maps and compasses are cognitive artefacts
we can take steps not just to appreciate nature
acknowledging that it will always be bigger than us
Many share basic principles of psychotherapy: grounding
imagining ourselves from outside or “above” our bodies
we need to explain who we are by understanding where we are
Use a compass (even on your phone!) to work out the four cardinal directions
so rethink your attitude to clock time by noticing the movement of the sun east to west from sunrise to sunset
We’re just a dot in the universe: accept it
but using paper maps will make you more aware of your surroundings
just like a story: turn your route into an adventure
Thousands of years before the invention of the compass
we understood and identified the four cardinal directions according to winds
Identify the wind’s direction according to your body: is it behind or in front of you
This is a simple grounding exercise that reorients us according to the elements
Get lost. Take a trip, turn off your phone and deliberately get lost. It’s a little scary, but it will heighten your senses and sharpen your appreciation of the world around you. If that is too daunting, read Rebecca Solnit’s A Field Guide to Getting Lost
who knows what you might find when you deliberately get lost
Four Points of the Compass: The Unexpected History of Direction by Jerry Brotton is published by Penguin at £20, or buy a copy for £17 at guardianbookshop.com. Jerry is also the presenter of the podcast What’s Your Map?
This is the archive of The Observer up until 21/04/2025
The Observer is now owned and operated by Tortoise Media
Humans do not have an innate neurological toolbox like animals
The configuration and language of the four directions is common to many—though not all—cultures
They probably even pre-dated astronomical observations of the Sun’s movements and the stars and were first inspired by the ‘egocentric coordinates’ of the human body
Our most basic corporeal orientations are fourfold: front and back
In many ancient languages ‘front’ and ‘back’ are synonymous with east and west
while ‘left’ and ‘right’ are often equivalent to north and south
east—qedem or mizrach—also means ‘forward’ or ‘front’
while ‘west’—achor—is a synonym for ‘behind.’ In Arabic
in which sacred and ritual beliefs are based on facing east
Other cultures use the body’s position to interpret directions in very different ways
in other words they are dependent on their physical context and can shift according to the speaker’s point of view (examples of deictic terms about space include ‘here’
the dark and cold north synonymous with the ‘back’ of the body
north is kita—‘behind’ or ‘afterwards’—with minima meaning south
Many south-eastern African Bantu languages also use corporeal references to distinguish between the four cardinal directions
the language of the Hehe people of Tanzania
ancient rock art made by the Dogon people of Mali often depicted a personification of the ‘life of the world,’ or aduno kine
as a simple diagrammatic figure personifying the Dogon creation myth in which the deity Amma stretched an egg-shaped ball of clay in four directions with north at the top to create the world grasped in the god’s hands
Cave paintings show a figure with a torso and arms forming a cross that represents the four cardinal directions
Dividing orientation into four directions emanating from the body is part of a larger symbolic fascination with ordering natural phenomena
In mathematics four is the smallest composite number (a number divisible by a number apart from one and itself)
In geometry it is related to the cross and the square and their associations with totality and completeness
The Arabic numeral 4 originated in a simple cross which added the diagonal stroke that is now most familiar in Western numerals
Quadripartite symbolism has provided many cultures and religions with an organizing principle for the seasons
natural causes (according to Aristotle) and the four corners of the Earth
The ancient Chinese dynasties divided their domains into four lands (si tu) and imagined the world formed by four seas
Each of the four cardinal directions were imagined as ‘intelligent creatures:’ the green dragon of the east; the crimson bird of the south; the white tiger of the west; and the black turtle of the north
each colored direction matching the hues of the soil in the corresponding Chinese regions
Buddhism believes in the four cardinal directions representing elements and cycles in life
moving from east (dawn) through south (noon and fire)
west (dusk and autumn) and north (night and dissolution)
Hinduism reveres the four Vedas (religious texts) and alongside Hindu mythology includes the Lokapāla
the four guardians of the cardinal directions: Indra (east)
The earliest surviving record of the four cardinal directions was made during the first great Mesopotamian empire
2254–2218 BCE) is the first known to have adopted the title ‘King of the Four Corners of the World.’ Archaeological excavations undertaken in 1931 at Yorgan Tepe
unearthed hundreds of clay tablets containing Akkadian and Sumerian cuneiform inscriptions
One of the most significant of them measures just under seven by eight centimeters
It is a topographical map and is usually referred to as the ‘Gasur map.’ At its center is an agricultural estate
through which a river runs from top right to bottom left before branching off into two tributaries that flow into a larger body of water on the far left
The settlement sits in a valley with two mountain ranges running across the top and bottom of the map
The lake has recently been identified as Zrebar (or Zerivar) Lake in the Kurdistan province of western Iran
The inscriptions offer an account of the central agricultural estate
described as 300 hectares of “cultivated land.”
The Gasur map is the oldest known map to show and name cardinal directions
The damaged semi-circle top left is labelled IM-kur
‘east;’ the one bottom left is inscribed IM-mar-tu
‘north.’ Presumably the missing section of the tablet’s right-hand side originally included the inscription IM-ulù
‘south.’ Yet the naming here is not quite what it seems
The prefix ‘IM’ (‘tumu’) refers to winds—the map identifies four directions by meteorological experiences rather than astronomical observations
Other Mesopotamian texts describe four principal winds forming a diagonal cross
equivalent to the modern directions of north-west
These translate into the Akkadian terms on the Gasur map as IM-kur
which blows in from the Zagros mountain range to the north-east of Mesopotamia; IM-mart-tu
a south-western ‘desert’ wind derived from the word Amurru
describing the nomadic Amorite people of Syria and Palestine west of the Euphrates
as well as the direction from which hot sand-storms blow; IM-mir
yet dry wind that cools the land; and IM-ulù
a south-eastern ‘demon’ or ‘cloud’ wind that originates in the Persian Gulf
These cardinal directions referred to quadrants rather than points and derived from specific aspects of human and physical geography
For the farmers cultivating the land in Azala (modern-day Kurdistan) over 4,000 years ago
the four cardinal directions in terms of prevailing winds were not only a means of orientation: understanding wind direction and changeable climatic conditions was crucial for the cultivation of crops and could mean the difference between feast and famine
When the cuneiform text on the map is read from top to bottom
the direction from which the regular north-western winds blow
IM-mir is established as a word with connotations of fertility
which operates within Akkadian social conventions and language as a term evoking volatility
the connotations of these two directions became embedded in the rhythms of sedentary
agricultural societies with little or no reference to travel or orientation
which were largely irrelevant to such communities
The words and connotations of cardinal directions that are spoken give shape and order to societies; they are part of an activity that anchors people within their physical world and makes sense of their surroundings
The Mesopotamian combination of meteorological
geographical and ethnological words for the four directions and their various connotations find parallels
albeit in very different terms and under contrasting conditions
across the globe and in many languages throughout early recorded history
such as egocentric references—those from a subjective perspective like front/back
left/right—and allocentric examples—using landmarks or objects including rivers and mountains independent of a subject’s point of view—are greater in some languages
Indigenous cultures like that of the Guugu Yimithirr people in Queensland in Australia’s far north have an acute sense of cardinal directions but with little perception of egocentric coordinates
Instead they use a system of ‘absolute’ geographical orientation
referring to things and places as relative to the cardinal directions
“Please move to the left,” they would say
“Please move to the west,” and “Pass the salt
it’s to the north,” instead of “Pass the salt
it’s under your nose.” Some—usually societies sparsely populating small regions
such as the Yurok people of northern California—possess no terms for any of the four directions
Compass points are common to most societies
The etymologies of cardinal directions across different cultures reveal their speakers’ preoccupations with and rules for using each word within any given society
In Africa the language games within which each direction found expression were often defined through complex ethnological distinctions
which translates as ‘many cannibals.’ Traditionally the sea lay directly south of the Zulu kingdom
the origin of cold winds and fog that hid malevolent spirits and man-eating monsters
Various south-east African languages also derive the names of cardinal directions from neighboring ethnic groups: the Setswana and Sesotho languages use bokane (north) to describe Nguni-speaking people to the north
while borwa (south) derives from the word for ‘Bushmen,’ or the Khoisan of southern Africa
Ancient Mesoamerican cosmologies used cardinal directions to describe their gods and stories of Creation
The Mayans of northern central America understood east and west first
based on astronomical observations of the rising and setting Sun
before meanings associated with north and south
split into four deities called the Bacab (sometimes shown as jaguars) that held up the four corners of the world
each one representing a direction and a color
East (translated as ‘exit’—of the Sun emerging from the underworld) was associated with red and fire
and west (translated as ‘entrance’ of the Sun setting into the underworld) with black
North (often associated with white) and south (usually labelled yellow) were less demarcated as both directions and colors
and changed over time and across Mesoamerican languages and cultures
What was strikingly different about Mayan and subsequent Mesoamerican cardinal directions from those of Mesopotamia and most other cultures was that they operated on three
The Aztecs imagined the Earth as a horizontal disk divided by the dual east–west and north–south axes
a geometric pattern of five points arranged like a cross
effectively structuring the Aztec world picture according to five directions
In 1325 CE the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan (modern Mexico City) was founded around the Templo Mayor
which symbolized the Aztec centre of the world
where the vertical and horizontal axes of the cardinal directions met
the Earth and the underworld came together
Greek philosophy and science showed no interest in a fifth direction
Instead it inherited the Mesopotamian agricultural preoccupation with winds
Mythical personifications of the four directions as gods
first appear in the ancient works of Homer (c
His Iliad and Odyssey both mention four gods representing cardinal winds
is possibly an archaic variant of ‘mountains’ or ‘roaring;’ Notos
comes from the ‘brightness’ of sunrise; the western wind of Zephyrus stems from the ‘gloom’ of sunset
In ancient Greece weather was assumed to emanate from Zeus
but his meteorology was fickle and unpredictable
Subsequent natural philosophy wanted to challenge the view that natural phenomena such as the weather lay in the hands of Zeus and other deities
As the rules of the game shifted so did the language of the four directions: astronomical observations began providing alternative names
or ‘the bear,’ taken from the northern constellation of Ursa Major
The earliest and most powerful case for the centrality of climate and directions in Greek life was made by Aristotle in Meteorology (c
Taking as his subject “everything which happens naturally,” Aristotle described the Earth as a sphere sitting at the centre of the universe
Meteorology included the earliest known geometrical diagram to codify cardinal directions according to wind systems
showing the northern hemisphere with Greece at the centre
or twelve altogether including ‘half winds’ (Eurus is replaced with Apeliotes
This systematic codification of winds as coming from a specific direction was central to Aristotle’s ethnological approach to the Earth
which he divided into five climatic—klimata
They were based partly on meteorological conditions
as Aristotle reasoned that the ‘incline’ of the Sun lessened the further north one travelled from the Equator
creating intemperate zones at the poles and the Equator
leaving just two habitable ‘temperate’ zones
Greek agriculture and its growing maritime trade needed to anticipate the weather
as Aristotle’s disciple Theophrastus of Eresos (c
he claimed that “what happens in the sky
on Earth and on the sea is due to the wind.” Timosthenes of Rhodes (fl
His twelve wind directions each described different regions and people
This was a significant development in human geography that subsequently connected cardinal winds with geographical directions and cultures
Aparctias (north) was associated with Scythia
the Central Asian nomadic kingdom; Notus (south) with Ethiopia; Apeliotes (east) with Bactriana
covering most of Afghanistan; Zephyrus (west) with the Straits of Gibraltar
the westernmost limits of the classical world
India and others were also aligned with winds
As the preoccupations of Greek thinking embraced human geography and trade
so the words for each direction changed and the rules of their usage also shifted
This began a conflation of direction with identity that still persists today
The Greeks even built a ‘Tower of Winds’ that still stands in Athens
Designed by the astronomer Andronicus of Cyrrhus around 100 BCE
each side of the octagonal tower shows deities facing one of eight principal directions: Boreas (north)
Lips (south- west) and Skiron (north-west)
Not only is the tower the first known weather station
it also functioned as one of the earliest known clock towers (horologion)
Below each deity is a sundial; inside the tower are the remains of a water-clock
the beginnings of a long history in which the measurement of time is involved in understanding direction
The Tower of the Winds stood in the Roman Agora (27–17 BCE)
and the Romans gradually adopted the Greek terms for winds and introduced new Latin words
a reference to the ‘seven stars’ of Ursa Major
including australis (‘harsh’ or ‘sharp’) or meridionalis (from ‘midday’)
West was occidentalis (‘falling’ or ‘passing away’) and east was orientalis (‘rising’ or ‘originating’) or subsolanus (literally ‘under the sun’)
the adaptation was messy and contradictory
competing Latin synonyms introduced and debates about the correct number of wind directions
The Roman architect Vitruvius even introduced a twenty-four-point wind ‘rose’ in his book On Architecture (c
Vitruvius emphasized the importance of harmony
order and proportion in planning “the orientation of the streets and lanes according to the regions of the heavens” and the winds
we breathe—from whatever direction—is what keeps us alive
The character and quality of winds determined life and death
In later societies the winds were central to personal orientation
For the Inuit people living in the Arctic regions of Greenland
the primary tools for navigation were the winds and snowdrifts
elements of a very different environment to that of the Greeks
Winds were personified and gendered according to their temperament
The north-western Uangnaq is often regarded as the prevailing wind and considered female
due to its volatile nature: it can gust furiously then die away just as quickly
The ‘male’ south-easterly Nigiq blows in more steadily and is believed to ‘retaliate’ to its opposite
with Kanangnaq (north-east) and Akinnaq (south-west) completing the four Inuit cardinal directions
Excerpted from Four Points of the Compass: The Unexpected History of Direction by Jerry Brotton
Reprinted with the permission of the publisher
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merchants and chancers: this sparkling book sets out Elizabethan England’s complex and extensive relationship with the Islamic world
an Arab chronicler wrote of exotic Sultana Isabel
the ruler of a small kingdom under attack by the infidel Spaniard
He described how she was delivered from invasion by reehan sarsaran
just like that sent against the people of Aad in the Qur’an
This was a sure sign that Allah was on her side
there was rejoicing at the chronicler’s court in Marrakech – fireworks
This Sultana Isabel, queen of a foreign land, is none other than Elizabeth I
The sharp winds that saved her were the storms that broke up the Spanish Armada
a fleet of 130 ships containing 19,000 soldiers
that her merchants and spies were active from Essaouira in the west to Isfahan in the east is a little disorientating (pun intended) to those of us who know English history from the inside
But Jerry Brotton’s sparkling new book sets out just how extensive and complex England’s relationship with the Arab and Muslim world once was
and tentatively connects the threads of that engagement to our own times
There are plenty of stories of incongruity and culture shock
such as when Great Yarmouth man William Harborne
eunuch and senior advisor to a North African potentate
Captured by Turkish pirates a decade before
a career as a rich and powerful member of the Algerian ruling elite was more appealing than … life as a struggling
The Sultan offered Dallam concubines from his harem and allowed the Englishman to spy on women through a wall grateAnd then there is the moment in Istanbul when Thomas Dallam
unveils an extraordinary musical contraption
a gift from Elizabeth to the most powerful man in the world
and played a song of 4 parts … in the top of the organ
did stand a holly bush full of blackbirds and thrushes
which at the end of the music did singe and shake their wings.”
The Sultan was so impressed that he offered Dallam two concubines from his harem – and allowed the Englishman to spy on the secluded women “through a grate in the wall”
“That sight did please me wondrous well,” he wrote
when most people died a stone’s throw from where they were born
there were nevertheless those whose adventures led them to the edges of the known world – and to cultures so different from their own as to seem dreamlike
who charmed Shah Abbas of Persia into making him a diplomat
then romped from Moscow to Prague to Rome to Venice leaving a trail of debt and discombobulation in his wake
These individual stories form part of a rich tapestry of interaction that was ultimately directed by the geopolitics of the day
Elizabeth’s merchants were motivated by money
They sold English cloth and imported silks
But there were compelling reasons to seek out Muslim partners in particular
because fraternising with non-Christians could otherwise be regarded as blasphemous
from the point of view of superpower Spain
excommunicating Elizabeth in 1570 and effectively encouraging all good Catholics to assassinate her
Reinstating the break with Rome made by her father and establishing a Protestant settlement
Catholic Spain’s enemies – North Africa’s Arab rulers and the Ottomans – were her friends
but it was just as well to have a theological explanation
were natural partners because they both deplored idol worship
Officials at the Ottoman court were happy to deal with Elizabeth’s representatives “because they are Lutherans
Elizabeth styled herself “most mighty defender of the Christian faith against all kind of idolatries”
when the “clash of civilisations” could be expected to be at its starkest
Brotton mixes historical narrative with vivid portraits of the popular culture of the day. The Turks and Moors that populate the stage in works by Robert Wilson, Marlowe and Shakespeare are variously one-dimensionally evil
As the sophistication of the public’s understanding of the Muslim world increased
There are powerful lessons for modern Elizabethans here
“Despite the sometimes intemperate religious rhetoric,” he writes
“the conflict between Christian Europe and the Islamic world was then
defined as much by the struggle for power and precedence as by theology
This story is part of the heritage of Christians
Muslims and any others who call themselves English.” At a time when many see Islam as a recent and strange intruder
Brotton’s excellent history is a reminder that a careful study of England’s “island story” shows just how wrong they are
To order This Orient Isle for £16 (RRP £20) go to bookshop.theguardian.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99.
The 20-year-old answered questions from the excited youngsters before handing out medals
posing for photographs and signing autographs
Hayden told the young Boro fans about how his career started and offered them words of encouragement
“Thank you to Hayden for taking the time to come over to East Cleveland,” says the Foundation’s Gary Walton
“We appreciate it and the kids absolutely loved it.”
Hayden’s visit came after a week of activity that saw Riley McGree send a video message of congratulations to Richmond School after they won a competition centred on environmentally sustainability
Academy player Max Howells was in the judging panel for that one
this time with Marc Bola proudly displayed a "Football is for Everyone" t-shirt designed by 14-year-old Lillie Heard ahead of Saturday’s win over QPR
The first team squad had picked the winner
one of the three astronauts on board the Apollo 17 spacecraft took a photograph
Released by Nasa following the mission's safe return from the moon
it showed – for the first time – the fully illuminated face of the Earth
Set against the cloud-streaked blue of the oceans
Arabia and Antarctica were all clearly on display
was a literally cosmic image of the geography of our planet
an unknown scribe in Iraq had drawn on a clay tablet the very earliest surviving attempt to show the world
Iraq itself – which on the Nasa photograph could just be made out at the top of the globe – was placed at the centre of an encircling ring of ocean
marshes and the river Euphrates: all were represented
Portrayed as a massive rectangle bisected by the Euphrates
its position within the ring of the ocean only incidentally reflected its actual position within Iraq
The concern of the cartographer lay ultimately with what he would no doubt have seen as an altogether more authentic dimension of reality
If Babylon was placed at the centre of the map
then that was because the Babylonians – with the conceit that comes naturally to a swaggering
imperial people – took for granted that their city served the cosmos as its pivot
Between the Mesopotamian scribe and the American astronaut
there stretched an immense ideological as well as technological gulf
not everything had changed over the course of the millennia
The photograph released by Nasa might not have been oriented around Washington DC
as was the clay tablet around Babylon; but it spoke of a certain level of superpower self-satisfaction
was the photograph entirely devoid of its own metaphysical dimensions
had described the sphere of the world as something that a soul
ascending in a moment of supreme transcendence
might behold as fashioned "of colours more numerous and beautiful than any we have seen"
with the realisation at last of the dream of extra-terrestrial travel
the image of the planet in all its fragile beauty
set against the infinite blackness of space
prompted in many an almost religious consciousness of the commonality of human experience
Its influence over the succeeding decades – whether on third-world identity politics or environmentalism – would prove immense
is a representation of the earth's geography so accurate and neutral that it brings with it no baggage at all
What is true of a photograph tends to be even more so of one composed by human hand
"A map," as Jerry Brotton observes in his fascinating and panoramic new history of the cartographer's art
"always manages the reality it tries to show"
It is the truth of this observation that enables him to trace
mountains and seas have been drawn in various cultures and periods
the contours of human self-awareness as well
Peaks and troughs; disinterest and prejudice; pin-point accuracy and whole realms of experience imagined as the haunt of fearsome monsters: civilisation bears witness to them all
Contained within his book are studies of a dozen landmark maps
These range in time from the classical to the contemporary
the sweeping self-assurance of his title – A History of the World in Twelve Maps – should not be taken wholly at face value
If there is one truth that Brotton's survey repeatedly emphasises
it is that cartographers cannot help but betray their own centre of gravity
the Hereford Mappa Mundi portrayed the easternmost reaches of Asia as the haunt of griffins
and "the accursed sons of Cain"; meanwhile
scholars took for granted that the far west was "the zone of cultureless savagery"
a year after the Apollo 17 mission took its celebrated photograph
the German historian Arno Peters unveiled a new map of the world which corrected what he saw as the unforgivably Eurocentric projection of Mercator
and served to increase the size of Africa and South America at the expense of Europe
"The applications of the Peters projection," as Brotton points out
"throw into stark relief the fact that
individuals and organisations have appropriated world maps for their own symbolic and political ends
regardless of the cartographer's claims to comprehensiveness and objectivity." Even Google Earth
which incorporates so much geographical information that it seems set to consign paper maps to obsolescence
still has a way to go before it can provide standard high-resolution data of the entire planet
those regions most exhaustively covered tend to be the ones with the highest concentration of computers and credit-cards
A clue as to the focus of his own mapping is to be found in the title he holds at the University of London: "Professor of Renaissance Studies"
that the meat of his book should consist of a brilliant survey of cartography in the early modern period
when Europeans began to explore entire continents unsuspected by Ptolemy
and maps bore vivid witness to the geopolitical and commercial upheavals unleashed in their wake
Martin Waldseemüller's map of 1507 may have been the first map to name America
WashingtonWhether it was Martin Waldseemüller drawing what may or may not have been the first map to name America
or Diogo Ribeiro recalibrating the location of the Moluccas in a sneaky attempt to buttress the imperial interests of the Spanish crown
the cartographers of the 16th and 17th centuries were fitting standard-bearers for the emerging era of European supremacy
Yet the narrative is not simply the one illustrative of western arrogance and greed articulated by Arno Peters
far from serving as a monument to the glories of European civilisation
was in fact an expression of the very opposite: a deep despair at the savagery of its hatreds
"was part of a cosmography that aimed to transcend the theological persecution and division of sixteenth-century Europe."
Nor are the subtlety and empathy that underlie this judgment absent when Brotton
venturing beyond his home territory of the Renaissance
comes to explore the cartographical expanses of the middle ages
His study of the delightfully named Book of Roger – a compilation of Greek
Latin and Arabic geographical knowledge assembled by a Muslim scholar under the aegis of a Christian king – provides a perspective on the limits of medieval multi-culturalism that is no less hard-headed for Brotton's sense of wonder that it should have existed at all
Even more striking is his take on the tension between the dimensions of the eternal and the earthly implicit in the Mappa Mundi – which in its original setting pointed towards the second coming
that moment of cosmic transfiguration when the New Jerusalem will descend from heaven
and all geography promptly becomes redundant
that it belongs to "a genre of map unique in the history of cartography that eagerly anticipates and welcomes its own annihilation"
it is only in the period that gave us the phrase "terra incognita" that his mapping of the contours of cartography in the past becomes just a trifle perfunctory
Brotton's survey of Ptolemy and the reaches of classical geography that he was drawing on is workmanlike
but it lacks the spark and the sense of the unexpected that elsewhere are such features of the book
This – since Ptolemy is the first of Brotton's 12 cartographers to be featured – is doubly unfortunate
Readers who find the first chapter dry – as many may well do – are strongly urged not to cast the book aside
Brotton's idea of tracing within maps the patterns of human thought and civilisation is a wonderful one
Tom Holland's In the Shadow of the Sword is published by Little
Skelton is an amalgamation of four smaller villages
It has an industrial estate to the north which provides a significant amount of employment
It also has a conservation area around Skelton Castle and a village green
The settlement forms along a railway track and a narrow street layout
It benefits from a state of the art secondary school
The residents of the two places had wide ranging views and ideas about where they lived
Residents of Skelton wanted to strengthen their local centre and attract new investment to the industrial estate
Residents of Brotton were concerned about the future of their village centre and the possibility of excessive residential development
The difficulty was to achieve a good balance between what Brotton didn’t want and what Skelton did want – in other words
to consolidate the issues affecting residents of both communities
Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council and the parish council agreed that by working in collaboration and genuine partnership
a neighbourhood development plan would give weight to the aspirations of the community whilst also fitting in with the borough council’s own existing local plan
This plan would be adopted as a Supplementary Planning Document
A working group was established to lead on the preparation of the plan
Design Council Cabe was consulted to provide a fresh pair of eyes
They helped the working group to think differently about design through a series of workshops
so that the group were better equipped to craft an impactful neighbourhood plan
Design Council Cabe set up workshops to help get the working group's activities off the ground
One of the most notable was a 'Place check' exercise whereby the group toured the area by bus
identifying what they did and didn't like about the parish
This helped everyone crystallise issues of concern as well as the opportunities of respective areas
there was a conflict over the use of a car park in the local centre between Skelton Estates and the Co-op
there was interest from housebuilders to construct new homes while there were some concerns that there were still empty older homes in the village
Design Council Cabe advised on how the community could address these issues through specific policies in the plan
Discussions tackled the questions of: ‘What does good design look like?’ and ‘What makes a good place?’ In the last session
the Building for Life criteria was introduced so that the group could evaluate development proposals for their area
Design Council Cabe helped the working group to realise that they could set the design agenda rather than reacting to what was happening to their area
By understanding what good design looked like
members of the parish council gained more confidence in what they were communicating
The parish council got in touch with youth groups such as Brownies
Rainbows and Guides as well as local schools
Children made scrapbooks of the villages and put their ideas onto wish trees to show what they would like to be included in the plan
By engaging young people in exercises around what they thought about the area
this enthusiasm and interest then filtered through to their parents and other local people
this exercise was hugely effective in generating interest in the plan
The borough council used the information the parish council had gathered through the workshops and the community consultation to prepare the first draft of the plan which then went out for consultation and is now a Supplementary Planning Document (SPD)
As this was an SPD the borough council was much more involved than if this had been a neighbourhood development plan
The process of creating the neighbourhood development plan has made local people more aware of planning and how they can take a control of change
We feel more confident to debate design issues
Design Council Cabe supported Skelton and Brotton Parish Councils during 2012
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Doting dad-of-two Kevin McPike has never taken a day sick off work in his life
so being diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia came as a huge shock
They’ve linked up with blood cancer charity DKMS to organise a special stem cell donor registration event
Family friend Nicola Borrell said: “Whilst it's amazing that a match has been identified for Kev
we know there are many others still waiting for a match that could potentially save their lives – we feel it's only right that we rally the troops and try our hardest to help those in need."
DKMS spokesperson Mahima Mathur added: “If you are found to be a match for someone needing a transplant
donating your stem cells is a simple process similar to giving blood
someone in the UK is diagnosed with blood cancer
so you could be giving someone a second chance at life.”
Registering as a stem cell donor is a quick and easy process involving a simple mouth swab
offering hope to blood cancer patients who – unlike Kevin – are still urgently in need of a compatible stem cell match
Anyone aged 17 to 55 and in general good health
Anyone who does so at the registration drive at Brotton Community Hall will also be offered the chance to enjoy a ‘breakfast bun’ afterwards
people of all ages will be able to join Kevin in supporting DKMS – other shops and the wider community have all pitched in to provide snacks and refreshments
All proceeds raised will go toward the work of DKMS
which holds the UK’s biggest stem cell register
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Today was GP Pledge day across parkrun, to celebrate the parkrun practice initiative which started a year ago. We are please to be partnered with Brotton Surgery and were delighted to welcome Dr Jardine and staff to join in our event, well done to them all.
We also had our first parkrun cuppa and chat which we held in St Peter's School sport hall
but lovely to have the facility and feedback was positive
I'd like to say thank you to the following people for making this possible;
Richard Unthank and caretaker Martyn for giving us free access to the hall
Co-op and Mark Laker the Co-op community representative for donating tea and coffee
Judith for the endless supply of tea's and coffee's and Andrew for his cleaning skills when we realised there'd been a minor flood
Just a reminder - parkrun is cancelled on the 6th July due to Brotton Carnival requiring access to the playing field for car parking
of whom 33 were first timers and 7 recorded new Personal Bests
Representatives of 17 different clubs took part
The event was made possible by 12 volunteers:
Graham HALL • Joanne MARSHALL • Philippa HAMBLEY • Nathan MARSHALL • Andrea SPARKES • Emma JACKSON • David ALMOND • Judith BRIDGETT • Malcolm PEGGS • Alan HARRISON • Gary BEARD • Mark SHORT
Today's full results and a complete event history can be found on the Marshall Drive parkrun, Brotton Results Page
Since then 536 participants have completed 878 parkruns covering a total distance of 4,390 km
A total of 52 individuals have volunteered 181 times
© parkrun Limited (Company Number: 07289574)
No part of this site may be reproduced in whole or in part in any manner without the permission of the copyright owner
a retired Brough Park racing greyhound?…and so much more….eh
– who were this eclectic group of visitors last weekend
To try and explain….how did they know each other?….and why visit Marshall Park
– a story that doesn’t really need to be told…but can be enjoyed by a readership of thousands –
Mick Hydes originally comes from Ashington
There was never a running club in Ashington back in the 80’s/90s so Mick ran for Blyth and Newcastle based clubs before moving up to Paisley
Years later Mick heard that Ashington created a club ‘Ashington Hirst’
so made Connie a member and was put in touch with Lee Elder who was on the committee at the time
although had relocated to Ashington and then onto nearby Blyth
heard her accent and asked if she was from Teeside
Of course she was and Mick said something like ‘I only really know of one other person from Teeside.’ When asked by Lee who this was
ridiculously Lee knew of him – Rob Nicholls
editor of the renowned Middlesbrough FC fans fanzine ‘Fly Me to the Moon’ and a regular face on BBC ‘Look North’ and many other similar media outlets
Lee explained that back in her Fishburn days and a regular attendee at both Ayresome Park and laterly the Riverside cheering on Boro
she regularly purchased the fanzine outside the ground from Rob…..more on this later…
moving on – back to more recent times in Paisley
Mick and Connie are regulars in the fine bar ‘De Beers’ and are friends with Nic
a stonemason from…..go on have a guess….yes
Nic gets talking of his hometown and fondly of the Cliff Tramway
and would be fun to visit when next in the North-East’
an idea to visit on a Saturday is muted and a search for a potential parkrun is undertaken
This was mainly because a quick google search on the workings of the Tramway reveals it takes 55 seconds each way
so had to add a parkrun because an 75 minute drive from Ashington to Saltburn deserves more than a 55 second thrill
parkrun websites explored and Marshall Drive discovered
Saturday 30th December noted as the potential date as part of our New Year trip
parkrun starts at 9am and would take Connie around 30 mins
Another google search for Saltburn businesses brings about ‘Beehive Beauty Products’
who are incredibly based in a house on…..go on have a guess….yes
Marshall Drive – brilliant….more on this later too
Lee is invited along as she now lives in Blyth
As a native of Fishburn with many Middlesbrough connections
Lee sits in the passenger seat and directs us to Saltburn
As we arrive skirting around the Middlebrough by-pass
the fanzine and weekly Monday trips to the Riverside to witness the construction of the stadium
Lee also admitted a liking for a weekly dose of chicken curry and chips (obviously before serious running days took hold…) from a certain catering van nearing the site
and we are fairly sure we are heading for Brotton
We play ‘hunt the parkrun volunteer hi-viz’ and we see one on the street
Wind down the window and introduce ourselves to Judith and the finer directions are granted – we get to the carpark
the first people there at the great time of 8.30am – time for a warm-up
Milburn is walked around the area for a pitch inspection – gets patted a lot from passers-by
volunteers and fellow dog walkers who ask of his racing career
Newcastle before being rescued at retirement
and now lives safely and we think happily in Paisley with his running mam and very retired from running dad
Connie and Lee raced away on their four laps with Mick and Milburn wandering around
Full results on the website – check out their times
Both attendees enjoyed thoroughly with much talk afterwards of heading for the A-Z of parkrun completion…..if you’ve not heard of this – ask a ParkRunner
basically Marshall Drive would be your ‘M’ and you aim to complete the A-Z in any order…..one for another report perhaps
a late-night Friday drive home from seeing Boro win at Huddersfield means he sleeps in and then tries in vain to make it on time from his home in Middlesbrough – eventually calling time at 8.53am whilst at Redcar
there was a surprise late Christmas pressie for Connie
from Beehive Beauty Products appeared with a wonderful gift basket to hand over
There was no delivery charge as you can literally see her house from the finish line….
a gift basket presentation and then two times 55 seconds on the Tramway Car – we will be back in Newbiggin for noon at this rate….lets pan it out a little… (a bit like this report…)
Connie and Milburn on the downward section
coffee in the town centre is welcome and delicious
Lee reveals her interest in post-box spotting
can be spent exploring the varying types of post boxes and their significance
There are websites dedicated to this ‘specialist interest’
Saltburn has a Queen Victoria ‘Penfold’…or does it…
Lee informs us that originals were discontinued in 1879 but replicas later introduced at places of historic or natural beauty
A walk along the terrace to the head of the Tramway car is filled with trepidation – will they allow Milburn on
more to the point – will they let any of us on
A 55 second thrill and then we walk along the boardwalk and view the beach-huts
to get back on the Tramway and head back to the car – drop off Lee and the rest of us to Newbiggin
Marshall Drive – we soooooo enjoyed our visit
He gave us a bottle of champagne a few months ago
to celebrate Milburn’s 8th birthday – which was a landmark for our big lad
We told Nic that we would hold this back for a special event
What better than the evening after a day spent in Nic’s hometown
enjoying Nic the Saltburn stonemason’s champers
of whom 10 were first timers and 1 recorded new Personal Bests
Representatives of 7 different clubs took part
The event was made possible by 9 volunteers:
Dawn HARRISON • Billy SUTHERLAND • David ALMOND • Judith BRIDGETT • Lisa HORNSEY • Malcolm PEGGS • Sonia STOCKS • Mark SHORT • Rebecca CACIOPPO
Today's full results and a complete event history can be found on the Marshall Drive parkrun, Brotton Results Page.
Marshall Drive parkrun, Brotton started on 23rd February 2019. Since then 2,222 participants have completed 6,027 parkruns covering a total distance of 30,135 km, including 722 new Personal Bests. A total of 161 individuals have volunteered 2,104 times.
No part of this site may be reproduced in whole or in part in any manner without the permission of the copyright owner.
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Tudor England was hand in glove with Islam
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a 24-year-old blacksmith and musician from Warrington entered the Topkapi palace in Constantinople and began to play a clockwork organ he had built "in front of the most powerful ruler in the world"
and the mechanical organ – along with its young artificer – belonged to a boatload of eye-catching presents that Queen Elizabeth I had sent to help sustain the Anglo-Turkish alliance that had
and offered the Englishman his pick of the Topkapi harem concubines
"It must have all seemed a long way from Warrington"
"By the end of Elizabeth's reign," Brotton notes
"thousands of her subjects were to be found in the Islamic world"
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
this Anglo-Muslim wall against Spanish hegemony stretched almost 4,300 miles "from Marrakesh via Constantinople to Isfahan"
With Henry VIII's break with Rome and then (in 1570) Elizabeth's excommunication as a "heretic" by Pope Pius V
England found itself shunned as a rogue state by Catholic Europe
It needed friends with clout in strategic locations
Around the Mediterranean and the Middle East
Thus the stage was set for an extraordinary half-century of adventures
conspiracies and misunderstandings: a little-known story that Brotton chronicles with scholarship
He tells a very English story: the quest for the sweet deal and the quick groat usually trumps theological niceties
It runs from the Leicestershire mercer Anthony Jenkinson's meeting in Aleppo with Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent
to the mishaps and manoeuvres of the freelance diplomat Sir Anthony Sherley at the Persian court of Shah Abbas I
With a tempting trade pact or military alliance in the offing
it proved surprisingly easy for both sides to forget the little matter of whether Jesus of Nazareth was the divine Son of God or simply the last prophet before the final revelation to Mohammed
The human exchange that yielded treaties with Muslim powers soon reached the London stage
Brotton calculates that 60 English plays put Turks
Moors and Persians on stage between 1576 and 1603
And no writer embarked on a steeper learning curve than William Shakespeare
through the 20 years that separate the schemingly wicked – but still charismatic – Aaron the Moor in Titus Andronicus to the tragic
"Protestant England came closer to Islam than at any other time in its history until today"
the shift was driven in part by peace with Spain (in 1604) but mainly by the new commercial-imperial focus on south Asia and the Americas
The day of the East India and Virginia Companies had dawned
So the age had passed when an intrepid but ruthless merchant-venturer such as Jenkinson could despatch a slave-girl known as Aura Soltana from Astrakhan as a gift for the Queen
she turns up in a ledger of Elizabeth's servants as "our dear and well-beloved woman Ippolyta the Tartarian"
who taught her mistress "the fashion of wearing Spanish leather shoes"
What did Aura-Ippolyta herself make of her fantastic voyage
Someone should get cracking on the screenplay now
Allen Lane, £20. Order at £18 inc. p&p from the Independent Bookshop
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book review","description":"Tudor England was hand in glove with Islam
Professor of Renaissance Studies at Queen Mary University of London is presenting a new ten-part series for BBC Radio 3’s The Essay
Written and presented by Professor Jerry Brotton from Queen Mary’s School of English and Drama
Blood and Bronze will tell the story of Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1571)
one of the Italian Renaissance’s most controversial yet frequently overlooked artists
In the series Professor Brotton turns detective to pursue the trail of Cellini
The artist spent his life reinventing himself in his art and autobiography
He was a goldsmith; sculptor; painter; poet; soldier; musician; thief
Professor Brotton will untangle the man from his mythmaking by recreating his life and times across the city states of Renaissance Italy from Cellini’s birthplace of Florence to Rome Naples and Venice
Each episode will recreate moments in Cellini’s life
from youthful duels to artistic commissions and murders
It will document his escapades as a soldier
his imprisonment as well as his poisoning and exile and his turbulent and disturbing love life
The series will also explore Cellini’s triumphant art works
culminating in the casting of the bronze sculpture of ‘Perseus with the Head of Medusa’
a work that rivals Michelangelo’s ‘David’ and which to this day stands on public display in Florence’s Piazza della Signoria alongside works by Michelangelo and Donatello
There is also a contemporary twist that is central to this story
In the final programmes Professor Brotton investigates the ongoing authentication of a self-portrait recently unearthed in France
The picture was bought in a French flea market on the French Riviera by a Russian businessman
It has been claimed that it is Cellini’s only surviving painting
Professor Jerry Brotton said: “I’m delighted to work with BBC Radio 3 on this new series about a neglected but important and larger than life Renaissance artist like Benvenuto Cellini
In the age of #MeToo and Black Lives Matter it’s an important moment to reassess the lives and works of such artists
It’s also a great opportunity to move into a new medium of podcasts that shows how humanities academics can use their skills to reach new audiences.”
Queen Elizabeth I of England reached out to Islamic leaders "for hard-nosed political and commercial reasons," says author Jerry Brotton
Catholic Europe shunned England so the Protestant queen traded with its enemies—and changed her country's culture forever
and her country was shunned by the rest of Europe
The queen sought help from a surprising source: the Islamic world
She’s establishing a Protestant state and England has become a pariah in Catholic Europe
So she reaches out for alliances with the Islamic world
What flows from that is an exchange of trade and goods, regardless of sectarian and theological differences. Elizabeth is not reaching out to Sultan Murad III because she’s a nice person and wants religious accord
She is doing it for hard-nosed political and commercial reasons
In the last few years, there’s been a parochial identification of the Tudors, reflected in the way they have featured in recent TV shows, like The Tudors. It has become an index of Englishness
But it never tells the wider story of what’s going on internationally
I started working on 16th-century maps and what the maps were telling me was that there was an exchange between the Islamic and Christian worlds
which wasn’t being told in the official histories
They all come in with the trade with the Islamic world
when she starts to write to the Sultan in 1579
you and I have many similarities in terms of our theology
We do not believe in idolatry or that you should have intercession
a saint or a priest will get you closer to God
Protestantism says you should read the Bible and then you will be in direct contact with God
Sunni Islam says the same: You have the Koran
you’re fighting Spanish Catholicism; I’m fighting Spanish Catholicism
[Laughs] Islam believes Jesus is a prophet
They always talk about the fact that they both believe in Jesus but not how they believe in Jesus
one of the earliest Englishmen to establish diplomatic and commercial connections with Persia
It’s not clear whether this is a slave name or the name of the place she’s come from
a similar figure is established as a lady-in-waiting in Elizabeth’s court
If it’s the same person—and I believe it is—she becomes a kind of fashion adviser to the queen
telling Elizabeth how to wear certain kinds of shoes or materials
Her exotic background made her exactly the kind of person to whom Elizabeth could say
The subject of this painting by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger may have been the first Muslim woman known to enter England
There’s a tantalizing painting of an anonymous woman by Marcus Gheeraerts, called The Persian Lady, which some people speculate is of this woman. She’s dressed in a very opulent, oriental fashion. It could be our lady Aura Soltana, a slave who ends up in Elizabeth’s bedroom, dressing her. It’s an amazing story.
You have many similar stories of people converting to Islam or, in the language of the time, “turning Turk.” It’s relevant to the current situation in the Middle East because, invariably, it’s Christians and Protestants who are embracing Islam, not the other way around. There are accounts of people who willingly embrace Islam because, in contrast to the way in which we see that culture today, the Muslim world is seen as tolerant and embracing difference.
Murad III, the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, wrote letters to Elizabeth that were dusted in gold.
Another Moor pops up there called the Prince of Morocco
So Shakespeare is playing with different versions of these Muslim
You get the evil Aaron and the rather noble Prince of Morocco
Around 1601 Shakespeare then writes Othello
powerful military commander: The Moor of Venice
He’s drawing on this history of Anglo-Islamic relations to say
He might save us but he might also kill us all in our beds
Post 9/11, it is one of the most frequently performed tragedies because of the complexity of its relationship with religion and ethnicity, which we are now seeing in North Africa and the Middle East
It’s become about much more than simply a black man destroyed by a white man
Prince Charles laughs with Muslim students in Bradford
the city in northern England where author Jerry Brotton grew up
those issues of sectarian differences were never in play
Following characters traveling through a world that is now in meltdown
They’re moving through places currently under control of the so-called Islamic state
What they’re doing at that point is encountering an Islamic world that is powerful
and superior to the culture that produced them: Protestant English culture
There’s an attempt to understand and accommodate
That was the real shock and surprise for me, in a good way. There are Elizabethan Englishmen talking about the distinction between Sunni and Shia in the 1560s
when many people today don’t understand the distinction
hopefully the book is one little attempt to offer another kind of story of toleration and accommodation
This interview was edited for length and clarity
wrote letters to Elizabeth that were dusted in gold
On Monday April 29 Queen Mary, University of London’s Professor Jerry Brotton will be presenting a television documentary on BBC Northern Ireland called ‘Mapping Ulster’
Jerry Brotton, Professor of Renaissance Studies, in the School of English we explore Northern Ireland's vivid origins
tracing the arrival and impact of Scots and English migrants in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
through a unique collection of extraordinary maps
This programme follows on from Professor Brotton’s recent acclaimed book
and a recent successful Leverhulme funding application on the history of maps
Professor Brotton who also starred in a three-part series about extraordinary stories behind maps on BBC Four
is currently writing a book on Shakespeare and Islam and researching the history of discovery in the early modern period
For more information click on the links below:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01s2t5j
set the standard for all subsequent dictionaries
Even university students struggle with Johnson’s essays
which are mostly about other dead white men
Traditionalists might decry Dr Johnson as another victim of decolonising the curriculum in favour of BAME writers
They are even less likely to have read his translation of the 17th-century Portuguese Jesuit Jerónimo Lobo’s Voyage to Abyssinia (1735)
Equally neglected is his one and only stage play
on the doomed relationship between an Ottoman sultan and Greek prisoner set in Istanbul
inspired by his interest in translating Lobo’s account of the religion and politics of the Habesha people of Ethiopia and Eritrea
Both reveal an interest in and sympathy with people and places a world away from the elite gentlemen’s clubs and political debates of Georgian England
Increasingly the classroom is just one of many spaces to challenge traditional assumptions about figures such as Johnson and his inaccessible writing
an urban accident of geographical proximity has led to a reassessment of Irene beyond the seminar room
The house where Johnson lived and wrote his dictionary is today a museum
It sits in a central London square opposite the Arab British Centre
an organisation dedicated to understanding the Arab world and its history in the UK
Both institutions teamed up to launch an exhibition this month entitled London’s Theatre of the East
It includes an exhibition in Dr Johnson’s house of Arab-British artists responding to the long history of Arabs and Muslims in England and on its stage from Shakespeare to Johnson’s Irene
They include the Palestinian-Irish playwright Hannah Khalil’s dramatic monologue about the wife of the printer who published the first English translation of the Qur’an in 1649
The British-Moroccan novelist Saeida Rouass is cutting up Johnson’s Irene and his dictionary with Arab accounts of British life to create a startling composite text
Other artists will also be on display in the exhibition
alongside the first public performance of Johnson’s Irene in 270 years
The time has come to reassess Johnson’s neglected play
When it opened at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane in 1749 it only ran for nine nights
The problem lay in the play’s central story of the Ottoman sultan
Mehmed the Conqueror (or “Mahomet” in Johnson’s play)
a Greek Christian captured after the fall of Constantinople in 1453
Using a trope common to the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras
the apocryphal story portrays Mehmed as a violent oriental despot
who publicly beheads the hapless Irene once he realises his passion for her threatens to undermine his political authority
Decolonising Dr Johnson doesn’t consign him to the rubbish heap of dead white writers: on the contrary
it returns him to a more diverse English literary cultureIn Johnson’s version of the story
Irene and her friend Aspasia debate their public and religious roles as women
Irene tells Mahomet that women share with men thought
and she dies because of the decisions she makes
not because she is simply a pawn in a male world
Mahomet in turn is shown in a state of emotional turmoil at his conflicted situation
rather than as the raging Turk of the Elizabethan stage
demanded the play was altered for performance
with Mahomet portrayed in melodramatic fashion and Irene killed onstage
This led to booing and laughter on the play’s premiere and a hasty decision to return to Johnson’s original version
Johnson tried to challenge prevailing beliefs about oriental drama
especially the assumption that its female characters were passive
as much as the mannered language and static staging
that led to its critical and theatrical neglect
The performance at Dr Johnson’s house restores Johnson’s more compassionate and contradictory depictions of Irene and Mahomet
This will never redeem the play as a lost classic
But it does allow new audiences drawn from across black
Asian and minority ethnic communities to engage with this icon of white English culture writing about their own history
they may see that there is no national or cultural purity to what is called English literature
The culture and history of Abyssinia and the Ottoman empire were important ingredients imported into Johnson’s life and works
and we diminish his achievements if they are ignored
it returns him centrestage to a more diverse English literary culture
Decolonising the English curriculum as well as
Muslim and white Britons – to be part of a conversation about Johnson and his literary legacy
It also deepens our understanding of Johnson and his writings
rather than diminishing or even dismissing them
he was a political and religious conservative
but he was also a passionate abolitionist who identified with outsiders based on his own life of mental and physical ill health
It is our problem – and challenge – to address Barber’s heritage of slavery and forcible removal that also enabled us to have the version of Dr Johnson that we do – dictionary
Jerry Brotton is the author of This Orient Isle: Elizabethan England and the Islamic World. London’s Theatre of the East is at Dr Johnson’s House through 15 February 2020; arabbritishcentre.org.uk; drjohnsonshouse.org
But why let reality get in the way of a story that fires up his base
But Johnson’s 2007 essay – an appendix to a later edition of his book praising the Roman empire – reveals a level of historical ignorance shocking even for such a political opportunist
He claims Byzantine Constantinople “kept the candle of learning alight for a thousand years”
while the Ottomans failed to develop printing presses in the city “until the middle of the 19th century”
Byzantine rule had gone backwards for generations prior to its fall to the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II in 1453
who repopulated the ruined city with Jews and Christians to help build one of the most sophisticated and cosmopolitan centres of its time
courted for its commercial power by Venice and a magnet for Renaissance Italian scholars and artists (Leonardo even proposed a design for a bridge across the Golden Horn for the sultan in 1502)
The city’s first officially recognised printing press opened in 1727
not because of previous objections by zealous mullahs but because of the Islamic handwritten calligraphic tradition that regarded words as art – something print struggled to reproduce
View image in fullscreenSultan Mehmed II transformed Constantinople into ‘one of the most sophisticated and cosmopolitan centres of its time’
Photograph: Leon Neal/AFP/Getty ImagesJohnson argues there is nothing like Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel in the Muslim world “because it is beyond the technical accomplishment of Islamic art” and “theologically offensive to Islam”
He might like to know that scholars now believe Michelangelo took inspiration for designing St Peter’s from the imperial mosques designed by the Ottoman architect Sinan
who also influenced the other great Italian architect
Johnson’s attack on Islamic aniconism – the rejection of figurative images – betrays a profound ignorance of both Islamic calligraphy and the differences between Sunni and Shia traditions in representing figures
But then there’s little sense that he even grasps the differences between the two Islamic denominations as he collapses the diversity of what he calls the Islamic world into one angry
his position is understandable: the tradition of Greco-Roman study at Oxford that produced the man we all know has always quietly assumed the “East”
from the Persian empire to the rise of Islam
And hardly anyone within that field studies Arab or early Islamic history
So the myths and prejudices harden into facts
There is no awareness of the life of Muhammad
a merchant outside the Meccan trading elite
The only Qur’anic passages written in the prophet’s lifetime concerned commerce
So much for a religion inimical to capitalism
embraced industrialisation and struggled in support of political constitutionalism
because his anti-Islam statements only shore up his political base in the short term
But “speaking your mind” based on proven ignorance is no way to engage in meaningful political dialogue with a quarter of the world’s population
Let’s see how successful that is as a strategy for Johnson over the coming years
Jerry Brotton is professor of Renaissance studies at Queen Mary University of London
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Every TV viewer is familiar with the grotesque image of the aged Elizabeth I’s blackened teeth
Jerry Brotton starts his story of Elizabethan England’s interaction with the Muslim world by introducing us to Abd al-Wahid bin Masoud bin Muhammad al-Annuri
As the envoy looks at the Virgin Queen’s rotten gnashers we see
40 years of Moroccan sugar exports wreaking their havoc
If Brotton sometimes overstates his case for the Islamic world’s centrality to Elizabethan court politics
Trade with the Islamic world was well under way even as Elizabeth ascended her insecure throne in 1558
By the 1560s England was importing 250 tons
Saltburn and East Cleveland is on the north east of England
with some parts of this area being inhabited since at least the 7th century
Saltburn is home to The Saltburn Cliff Lift
which is one of the world's oldest water-powered funiculars
Saltburn & East Cleveland covers the TS12 & TS13 postcode areas which includes Skelton
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