William Percy's Mahomet and His Heaven

William Percy's Mahomet and His Heaven (1601) - roughly contemporary to Shakespeare's Othello - is the only known play of the early modern period to place the Prophet Mohammad on the stage. The play takes place in around the mosques of 'Mecha' and the action mirrors parts of the Qur'an, the Islamic holy text that was rarely available in England at the time. Matthew Dimmock presents here the play in its entirety, with a critical introduction which introduces some of the key themes of the play, and its textual and social context. A section of detailed explanatory scholarly notes follow the play, with a full translation of the short Latin sections and a reference to any political or literary parallels. This book should be required reading for historians and literary scholars dealing with notions of 'race' and 'religion' in early modern England.