Celebrities often travel to remote corners of the world, and Byron was no exception. When the war in Western Europe and his own limited resources made the typical Grand Tour impossible, Byron ventured further afield into the Ottoman Empire. There he spent time with Ali Pasha, who ruled Greece and Macedonia, and visited the court of the Sultan in Constantinople. He is portrayed in the painting above wearing a Turkish costume he purchased on that journey.
Upon his return to England, Byron built on the fame of Childe Harold by writing six wildly popular Turkish tales in verse, expanding the popularity of the Byronic hero and pointing up differences between eastern and western views of religion, sex and law. In the process, he participated in and perpetuated another fascination of the Romantic era, Orientalism.
Orientalism was the movement in art and literature which emphasized the colorful and unfamiliar aspects of Asian life--bazaars, harems, religion and customs.
Europe first learned about Muslim life when Napoleon took scholars and artists along to document his findings during his Egyptian Expedition (1798-1801). Though he lost the conflict, the report of the expedition stirred widespread interest in Northern Africa and the Middle East among Europeans.
By the time Byron arrived in 1810-11, the Ottoman Empire was in decline, though the Turks still held parts of northern Africa, the Middle East, and even Europe.
Constantinople had been a meeting place of East and West, with conflicts between the two continuing since the Crusades of the Middle Ages, through battles like the Siege of Vienna and naval engagements like the Battle of Lepanto. These conflicts, as well as Byron's Turkish tales, were fueled by the contrast between Christian and Muslim views of love, sex, death and the afterlife.
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