Boy from Baltimore

[JesusA (imported)]

Our Pueros has done it again. His latest story, “The Boy From Baltimore,” is an incredible excursion through 17th century Ottoman history. We feel the time and place through Pueros’ senses. As I read the story, I could hear the sounds and smell the smells of the Ottoman Empire. It’s a wonderful (and very long) read. Printed out, it’s over 80 pages in 12 point single-spaced type. There’s enough in it to justify multiple readings.

The story follows the life trajectory of Tom Davis, an English boy, castrated at age 6. I have read enough historical accounts of the period to know that everything in the story COULD by 100% accurate – even the dialogue is plausible. I have had correspondence with a Dutch woman who wrote that her family fortune began with a ship’s captain who raided the Irish coast for slaves to sell into the Mediterranean area. As I posted in another thread on the Archive:

“If there was a small but confident Muslim community in London, then larger numbers of Englismen could be found living across the Ottoman Empire, as Matar shows in “Islam in Britain, 1558 – 1685”. British travelers regularly brought back tales of their compatriots who had “crossed over” and were now prospering in Ottoman service: one of the most powerful Ottoman eunuchs during the sixteen century, Hasan Aga, was the former Samson Rowlie from Great Yarmouth….”

William Dalrymple, “The Truth About Muslims”, The New York Review of Books, November 4, 2004, page 34.

Pueros has done his historical research well. Other Archive authors interested in the period would do well to read his work carefully.

Ottomans 2: The Boy From Baltimore

Part 1 - http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/O/ea_92238ottomans.htm

Part 2 - http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/O/ea_92144ottomans.htm

[Valery_V (imported)]

By: Pueros

Ottomans 2 - Part 1 of 2: The Boy from Baltimore

https://eunuchworld.co/s10522

Ottomans 2 - Part 2 of 2: The Boy From Baltimore

https://eunuchworld.co/s11099