The Sultan's Organ

The diary of Thomas Dallam. Finally published 400 years late!
 

A fascinating glimpse of the clash of Western and Muslim cultures. Translated into modern English, it reads as if its Elizabethan author were alive today.

 

In 1598 merchants of the City of London paid for a present to be given by Queen Elizabeth to Sultan Mehmet III of Turkey. She hoped to turn the Sultan's military might on her Spanish enemies. The merchants hoped to secure trading concessions.

 

The present was a carved, painted and gilded cabinet about sixteen feet high, six feet wide and five feet deep. It contained a chiming clock with jewel-encrusted moving figures combined with an automatic organ. It could play tunes on its own for six hours – or by hand.
 

The organ was dismantled and loaded on a merchant ship early in 1599. It took six months to get from London to Constantinople. Four craftsmen went with it They were Thomas Dallam the organ builder, John Harvey the engineer, Michael Watson the carpenter and Rowland Buckett the painter. Dallam was just twenty four years old.
 

On their odyssey they encountered storms, volcanoes, exotic animals, foreign food, good wine, pirates, brigands, Moors, Turks, Greeks, Jews, beautiful women, barbarous men, kings and pashas, janissaries, eunuchs, slaves and dwarves. Finally, Dallam met the most powerful man in the known world, the Great Turk himself.

 

The Sultan was so impressed by this marvel of British technology that he offered Dallam a permanent job. The remuneration package included a house and two virgins.
 

Dallam was the first foreigner to record a glimpse into the Sultan's harem. And the first to make an overland crossing of mainland Greece. The Sultan's Organ is a wonderful tale that will entertain travellers to Greece and Turkey and fans of Elizabethan history.

{100 pages}

1108178754
The Sultan's Organ

The diary of Thomas Dallam. Finally published 400 years late!
 

A fascinating glimpse of the clash of Western and Muslim cultures. Translated into modern English, it reads as if its Elizabethan author were alive today.

 

In 1598 merchants of the City of London paid for a present to be given by Queen Elizabeth to Sultan Mehmet III of Turkey. She hoped to turn the Sultan's military might on her Spanish enemies. The merchants hoped to secure trading concessions.

 

The present was a carved, painted and gilded cabinet about sixteen feet high, six feet wide and five feet deep. It contained a chiming clock with jewel-encrusted moving figures combined with an automatic organ. It could play tunes on its own for six hours – or by hand.
 

The organ was dismantled and loaded on a merchant ship early in 1599. It took six months to get from London to Constantinople. Four craftsmen went with it They were Thomas Dallam the organ builder, John Harvey the engineer, Michael Watson the carpenter and Rowland Buckett the painter. Dallam was just twenty four years old.
 

On their odyssey they encountered storms, volcanoes, exotic animals, foreign food, good wine, pirates, brigands, Moors, Turks, Greeks, Jews, beautiful women, barbarous men, kings and pashas, janissaries, eunuchs, slaves and dwarves. Finally, Dallam met the most powerful man in the known world, the Great Turk himself.

 

The Sultan was so impressed by this marvel of British technology that he offered Dallam a permanent job. The remuneration package included a house and two virgins.
 

Dallam was the first foreigner to record a glimpse into the Sultan's harem. And the first to make an overland crossing of mainland Greece. The Sultan's Organ is a wonderful tale that will entertain travellers to Greece and Turkey and fans of Elizabethan history.

{100 pages}

3.45 In Stock
The Sultan's Organ

The Sultan's Organ

by John Mole
The Sultan's Organ

The Sultan's Organ

by John Mole

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Overview

The diary of Thomas Dallam. Finally published 400 years late!
 

A fascinating glimpse of the clash of Western and Muslim cultures. Translated into modern English, it reads as if its Elizabethan author were alive today.

 

In 1598 merchants of the City of London paid for a present to be given by Queen Elizabeth to Sultan Mehmet III of Turkey. She hoped to turn the Sultan's military might on her Spanish enemies. The merchants hoped to secure trading concessions.

 

The present was a carved, painted and gilded cabinet about sixteen feet high, six feet wide and five feet deep. It contained a chiming clock with jewel-encrusted moving figures combined with an automatic organ. It could play tunes on its own for six hours – or by hand.
 

The organ was dismantled and loaded on a merchant ship early in 1599. It took six months to get from London to Constantinople. Four craftsmen went with it They were Thomas Dallam the organ builder, John Harvey the engineer, Michael Watson the carpenter and Rowland Buckett the painter. Dallam was just twenty four years old.
 

On their odyssey they encountered storms, volcanoes, exotic animals, foreign food, good wine, pirates, brigands, Moors, Turks, Greeks, Jews, beautiful women, barbarous men, kings and pashas, janissaries, eunuchs, slaves and dwarves. Finally, Dallam met the most powerful man in the known world, the Great Turk himself.

 

The Sultan was so impressed by this marvel of British technology that he offered Dallam a permanent job. The remuneration package included a house and two virgins.
 

Dallam was the first foreigner to record a glimpse into the Sultan's harem. And the first to make an overland crossing of mainland Greece. The Sultan's Organ is a wonderful tale that will entertain travellers to Greece and Turkey and fans of Elizabethan history.

{100 pages}


Product Details

BN ID: 2940032948933
Publisher: John Mole
Publication date: 12/16/2011
Sold by: Smashwords
Format: eBook
File size: 2 MB

About the Author

After graduating from Oxford University with a degree in French and German and with an MBA from the INSEAD business school in France, I spent fifteen years criss-crossing Europe and the Middle East for an American bank. I was based in the USA, London and Greece, where I restored an old stone house on the island of Evia, which the family goes back to every year.

My fortieth birthday present to myself was to quit salaried employment. The main reason was to write full time. I reviewed the modern French novel and science fiction for the TLS. Published works include three comic novels – Sail or Return,The MonogamistThanks, Eddie! – and the best-selling guide to European cultures Mind Your Manners, available in twenty languages. Management Mole was about going back as a temp in the back offices of the kind of organisation I used to manage.

Meanwhile I tried my hand at various entrepreneurial ventures. An attempt to establish a franchised chain of baked potato restaurants in Moscow came to an end when the Russian Mafia became interested. I had more success with INBIO Ltd, which imported Russian biotechnology for environmental protection, and with a project to control the spread of water weed on Tanzania's Lake Victoria. These ventures resulted in books such as It's All Greek To Me! and I was a Potato Oligarch.

Travel around the Mediterranean and further east has inspired more books. The Sultan's Organ is the diary of a musician who took an automated organ and clock to Constantinople as a gift of Queen Elizabeth to the Sultan. It's such a great read that I put it into modern English. For Martoni's Pilgrimage I translated from Latin the diary of an Italian lawyer who travelled to the Holy Land in 1394 and had a hard time getting back home. The Hero of Negropont is a comedic novel about an English Lord, who gets shipwrecked on Evia in 1792, when Greece was still under Turkish rule. 

A journey on an antiquated 50cc motorcycle through Greece to the monastic state of Mount Athos gave rise to Harley and the Holy Mountain, a trip back in time as well as space.

When not at the laptop or on the road I sing and play the baglama, a miniature bouzouki, with a Greek band in London

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