1 00:00:01,320 --> 00:00:04,280 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 2 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:14,600 Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. 3 00:00:14,720 --> 00:00:16,480 Speaker 1: Wilson and I'm Holly Frye. 4 00:00:16,840 --> 00:00:20,000 Speaker 2: This is the second part of a two parter on 5 00:00:20,200 --> 00:00:24,720 Speaker 2: Dean Mohammad, who was born in Putna in northeastern India 6 00:00:24,960 --> 00:00:27,760 Speaker 2: in seventeen fifty nine and was a camp follower and 7 00:00:27,760 --> 00:00:31,920 Speaker 2: then a soldier in the British East India Company's Bengal Army. 8 00:00:32,920 --> 00:00:36,360 Speaker 2: Where we left off in this whole story, Captain Godfrey 9 00:00:36,360 --> 00:00:40,760 Speaker 2: Evan Baker, who was basically Mohammad's patron, had been accused 10 00:00:40,800 --> 00:00:44,080 Speaker 2: of extortion and had resigned from the military, and then 11 00:00:44,200 --> 00:00:48,320 Speaker 2: Muhammad followed his example and together the two men sailed 12 00:00:48,360 --> 00:00:53,800 Speaker 2: to Cork aboard the Danish vessel Christiansborg in January of 13 00:00:53,880 --> 00:00:58,040 Speaker 2: seventeen eighty four. Dean Mohammed was by far not the 14 00:00:58,040 --> 00:01:01,120 Speaker 2: only Indian person who went to what's now UK during 15 00:01:01,120 --> 00:01:04,959 Speaker 2: the late eighteenth century, but this was something authorities were 16 00:01:05,000 --> 00:01:09,000 Speaker 2: actively trying to discourage. Officers often wanted to bring an 17 00:01:09,000 --> 00:01:12,440 Speaker 2: Indian servant with them on their voyage when returning home 18 00:01:12,440 --> 00:01:15,320 Speaker 2: from India, but officials in London were worried that this 19 00:01:15,360 --> 00:01:19,400 Speaker 2: could create a community of impoverished Indian immigrants in major 20 00:01:19,480 --> 00:01:23,200 Speaker 2: port cities. So the East India Company was required to 21 00:01:23,280 --> 00:01:27,440 Speaker 2: provide return passage for Indian servants, and white officers were 22 00:01:27,440 --> 00:01:30,840 Speaker 2: required to pay a bond of fifty pounds to ensure 23 00:01:30,880 --> 00:01:35,319 Speaker 2: that their servant would return to India. Baker and Mohammad's 24 00:01:35,360 --> 00:01:39,640 Speaker 2: return aboard a Danish ship raises some questions about whether 25 00:01:39,680 --> 00:01:43,319 Speaker 2: this happened. In Mohammed's case, the British East India Company 26 00:01:43,400 --> 00:01:47,080 Speaker 2: had informed the Danish East India Company of this requirement, 27 00:01:47,640 --> 00:01:52,000 Speaker 2: and in theory, the Danish company collected this bond when 28 00:01:52,040 --> 00:01:55,760 Speaker 2: officers from Britain or Ireland returned on one of their ships. 29 00:01:56,360 --> 00:01:58,760 Speaker 1: It is clear though that they did not. 30 00:01:59,040 --> 00:02:02,080 Speaker 2: Actually feel obligated to do this. It could be kind 31 00:02:02,080 --> 00:02:06,040 Speaker 2: of relax whether it was enforced. Baker and Mohammad also 32 00:02:06,120 --> 00:02:10,560 Speaker 2: boarded this ship outside of Kolkata proper, apparently because the 33 00:02:10,680 --> 00:02:14,080 Speaker 2: Christiansborg was also carrying some kind of secret cargo, so 34 00:02:14,120 --> 00:02:17,600 Speaker 2: it was loaded outside the city. A lot of kloak 35 00:02:17,639 --> 00:02:20,320 Speaker 2: and dagger stuff going on with this ship. Seems like 36 00:02:20,360 --> 00:02:22,160 Speaker 2: maybe there is a smuggling situation. 37 00:02:22,400 --> 00:02:26,359 Speaker 1: Not sure. Yeah, the Christiansborg arrived in Cork in late 38 00:02:26,440 --> 00:02:29,640 Speaker 1: seventeen eighty four, when Mohammed was about twenty five and 39 00:02:29,720 --> 00:02:33,639 Speaker 1: Baker was about thirty three. Baker was from a Protestant 40 00:02:33,680 --> 00:02:37,440 Speaker 1: Anglo Irish family that is, of English descent but born 41 00:02:37,480 --> 00:02:39,960 Speaker 1: in Ireland, part of a class that's known as the 42 00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:44,000 Speaker 1: Protestant Ascendancy. He seems to have quickly found a place 43 00:02:44,000 --> 00:02:48,360 Speaker 1: for himself within Cork's more elite Protestant society, marrying the 44 00:02:48,440 --> 00:02:49,840 Speaker 1: daughter of a wealthy baron. 45 00:02:50,760 --> 00:02:54,160 Speaker 2: This means that Mohammed was basically moving from one colonized 46 00:02:54,200 --> 00:02:57,320 Speaker 2: place to another, moving from India, which was in the 47 00:02:57,360 --> 00:03:00,320 Speaker 2: process of being colonized through the efforts of the British 48 00:03:00,360 --> 00:03:04,919 Speaker 2: East India Company, to Ireland, in which a Protestant English 49 00:03:05,000 --> 00:03:10,560 Speaker 2: ruling elite was governing a predominantly Catholic Irish population. Although 50 00:03:10,600 --> 00:03:13,960 Speaker 2: he was not the only Indian person living in Cork, 51 00:03:14,040 --> 00:03:17,600 Speaker 2: he was also something of an outsider there, even within 52 00:03:18,360 --> 00:03:22,359 Speaker 2: that sort of Indian immigrant community. Cork was a port city, 53 00:03:22,600 --> 00:03:26,520 Speaker 2: so most of its Indian population were sailors or servants 54 00:03:26,560 --> 00:03:30,080 Speaker 2: who had been working on ships. Others were the wives 55 00:03:30,240 --> 00:03:33,560 Speaker 2: or girlfriends of white sailors or soldiers who had brought 56 00:03:33,600 --> 00:03:37,320 Speaker 2: them to Cork from India, but Mohammed had been an 57 00:03:37,440 --> 00:03:40,880 Speaker 2: officer in the Bengal Army and had reached the second 58 00:03:40,960 --> 00:03:44,320 Speaker 2: highest rank that it was possible for an Indian to attain. 59 00:03:44,960 --> 00:03:48,680 Speaker 2: He was also closely connected to a white officer, albeit 60 00:03:48,720 --> 00:03:53,120 Speaker 2: one whose record was maybe a little spotty. But Mohammed 61 00:03:53,240 --> 00:03:56,920 Speaker 2: was seen as having a higher social rank than say, 62 00:03:57,160 --> 00:04:00,360 Speaker 2: a soldier looking for work on a departing ship. But 63 00:04:00,440 --> 00:04:04,720 Speaker 2: he was also lower in rank than Indian dignitaries and 64 00:04:04,800 --> 00:04:08,720 Speaker 2: officials who arrived from Southeast Asia for business or personal 65 00:04:08,800 --> 00:04:12,280 Speaker 2: or educational reasons. He also wasn't really seen as equal 66 00:04:12,320 --> 00:04:15,520 Speaker 2: to the Anglo Irish community that he was connected to. 67 00:04:15,800 --> 00:04:19,520 Speaker 2: Through this relationship with Baker, Mohammed seems to have been 68 00:04:19,520 --> 00:04:23,159 Speaker 2: regarded as something of a curiosity in Cork, not really 69 00:04:23,200 --> 00:04:26,120 Speaker 2: part of the Anglo Irish society that Baker was part of, 70 00:04:26,560 --> 00:04:30,400 Speaker 2: but not entirely outside of it either. Mohammed would have 71 00:04:30,440 --> 00:04:33,400 Speaker 2: already spoken English through his time in the Bengal Army. 72 00:04:33,600 --> 00:04:36,120 Speaker 2: That was one of many contexts in which an Indian 73 00:04:36,120 --> 00:04:39,760 Speaker 2: person might learn English in the eighteenth century, but it's 74 00:04:39,800 --> 00:04:42,880 Speaker 2: clear from his writing and the literary references in that 75 00:04:42,960 --> 00:04:45,839 Speaker 2: writing that he made a serious study of the language 76 00:04:45,920 --> 00:04:49,599 Speaker 2: and of material written in it. He again seems to 77 00:04:49,640 --> 00:04:52,880 Speaker 2: have worked in Baker's household as a valet or a butler, 78 00:04:53,279 --> 00:04:57,000 Speaker 2: a higher position than a regular servant, but not Baker's equal. 79 00:04:57,720 --> 00:05:00,680 Speaker 2: Godfrey Evan Baker died in seventeen eighty seven, and that 80 00:05:00,839 --> 00:05:04,240 Speaker 2: same year Dean Mohammad eloped with a young woman named 81 00:05:04,360 --> 00:05:07,640 Speaker 2: Jane Dally, who was described as a student and a 82 00:05:07,680 --> 00:05:11,920 Speaker 2: member of the Protestant gentry. We are not sure exactly 83 00:05:12,000 --> 00:05:16,000 Speaker 2: how old she was. Her gravestone and some obituaries give 84 00:05:16,040 --> 00:05:19,240 Speaker 2: a birth year of seventeen eighty That does not line 85 00:05:19,320 --> 00:05:22,560 Speaker 2: up with a marriage six years later. She was definitely 86 00:05:22,600 --> 00:05:26,600 Speaker 2: not a young child when they got married. It does 87 00:05:26,640 --> 00:05:29,800 Speaker 2: seem like she was young, though possibly in her like 88 00:05:29,960 --> 00:05:33,719 Speaker 2: mid to late teens. The couple also paid a bond 89 00:05:33,880 --> 00:05:37,000 Speaker 2: to the Anglican efficient who conducted the wedding ceremony, rather 90 00:05:37,080 --> 00:05:40,520 Speaker 2: than going through the usual process of posting the bands 91 00:05:40,600 --> 00:05:43,120 Speaker 2: ahead of the ceremony and having them read from the pulpit. 92 00:05:43,960 --> 00:05:46,680 Speaker 2: It is possible that they paid a bond rather than 93 00:05:46,720 --> 00:05:49,719 Speaker 2: posting the bands because they were trying to avoid controversy 94 00:05:50,120 --> 00:05:55,600 Speaker 2: around their respective ages or Mohammed's ethnicity. Marriages between white 95 00:05:55,640 --> 00:05:58,520 Speaker 2: people and people of color weren't unheard of in Britain 96 00:05:58,560 --> 00:06:01,359 Speaker 2: and Ireland at this points, especially in major cities that 97 00:06:01,440 --> 00:06:05,200 Speaker 2: had established immigrant communities, but most of the time these 98 00:06:05,200 --> 00:06:09,279 Speaker 2: marriages happened between servants or working class people, not with 99 00:06:09,440 --> 00:06:12,760 Speaker 2: members of the gentry. It's also possible that this was 100 00:06:12,800 --> 00:06:16,719 Speaker 2: something that the efficient demanded. This bond when people paid 101 00:06:16,720 --> 00:06:20,000 Speaker 2: it protected the Efficient in case it turned out that 102 00:06:20,080 --> 00:06:23,800 Speaker 2: the marriage was actually illegal in some way, such as 103 00:06:23,920 --> 00:06:27,200 Speaker 2: if a Protestant were marrying a Catholic, which was outlawed. 104 00:06:27,800 --> 00:06:32,200 Speaker 2: So Mohammad was definitely not Catholic. He did convert to Anglicanism, 105 00:06:32,600 --> 00:06:36,800 Speaker 2: he probably converted before this marriage took place, but it's 106 00:06:37,000 --> 00:06:40,200 Speaker 2: possible that this efficient still kind of looked at him 107 00:06:40,240 --> 00:06:44,600 Speaker 2: and regarded him as not Protestant. One last question mark 108 00:06:44,640 --> 00:06:48,680 Speaker 2: about the marriage between Dean Mohammad and Jane Day. It's possible, 109 00:06:48,800 --> 00:06:52,120 Speaker 2: but not totally certain, that something happened to Jane and 110 00:06:52,200 --> 00:06:54,919 Speaker 2: that he later remarried to someone else who was also 111 00:06:55,160 --> 00:06:58,520 Speaker 2: named Jane. Or it is possible that there was just 112 00:06:58,760 --> 00:07:01,640 Speaker 2: one Jane and that she and Mohammad were married for 113 00:07:01,680 --> 00:07:04,479 Speaker 2: the rest of their lives. There doesn't seem to be 114 00:07:04,560 --> 00:07:08,719 Speaker 2: clear documentation to clarify whether there was one Jane or two, 115 00:07:08,960 --> 00:07:13,040 Speaker 2: but it is confusing in the historical record. Yeah, and 116 00:07:13,080 --> 00:07:16,760 Speaker 2: I read some more modern write ups that definitively said 117 00:07:17,000 --> 00:07:20,440 Speaker 2: his first wife died and he remarried someone also named Jane, 118 00:07:20,520 --> 00:07:24,080 Speaker 2: and others that just proceed as though there is only 119 00:07:24,160 --> 00:07:27,800 Speaker 2: one Jane without getting into it at all. In seventeen 120 00:07:27,880 --> 00:07:32,560 Speaker 2: ninety three, Muhammad started placing advertisements for his forthcoming book, 121 00:07:32,800 --> 00:07:35,840 Speaker 2: looking for subscribers to help cover the cost of publication. 122 00:07:36,440 --> 00:07:38,480 Speaker 2: This was a common way for people to get their 123 00:07:38,480 --> 00:07:41,800 Speaker 2: books into print. He also seems to have visited a 124 00:07:41,880 --> 00:07:46,760 Speaker 2: number of prominent people in person to ask them to subscribe. Ultimately, 125 00:07:46,800 --> 00:07:49,920 Speaker 2: he got three hundred and twenty subscribers. A lot of 126 00:07:49,960 --> 00:07:54,920 Speaker 2: them were gentlemen, members of the nobility, other affluent and 127 00:07:55,000 --> 00:07:55,840 Speaker 2: prominent people. 128 00:07:55,880 --> 00:07:56,720 Speaker 1: They weren't all men. 129 00:07:56,840 --> 00:07:59,680 Speaker 2: There were a lot of like high ranking women among 130 00:07:59,720 --> 00:08:03,360 Speaker 2: the subscribers. It seems to have been very well connected 131 00:08:03,400 --> 00:08:04,640 Speaker 2: among the more elite people. 132 00:08:05,320 --> 00:08:08,480 Speaker 1: Four hundred and fifty copies of his book, The Travels 133 00:08:08,520 --> 00:08:11,920 Speaker 1: of Dean Mohammad, a native of Patna in Bengal, through 134 00:08:12,000 --> 00:08:14,720 Speaker 1: several parts of India. While in the service of the 135 00:08:14,840 --> 00:08:18,440 Speaker 1: Honorable the East India Company, written by himself in a 136 00:08:18,520 --> 00:08:22,080 Speaker 1: series of Letters to a friend in two volumes, was 137 00:08:22,120 --> 00:08:26,640 Speaker 1: published on January fifteenth, seventeen ninety four. The book was 138 00:08:26,640 --> 00:08:30,560 Speaker 1: dedicated to William A. Bailey, Esquire Colonel in the service 139 00:08:30,680 --> 00:08:34,679 Speaker 1: of the Honorable the East India Company. This dedication may 140 00:08:34,720 --> 00:08:37,719 Speaker 1: explain why the book describes one of Bailey's defeats as 141 00:08:37,760 --> 00:08:40,800 Speaker 1: a victory. As we noted in Part one, this was 142 00:08:40,840 --> 00:08:45,160 Speaker 1: written specifically for an English speaking audience, people from Britain 143 00:08:45,240 --> 00:08:49,120 Speaker 1: or Ireland who might have reason to visit India. So 144 00:08:49,280 --> 00:08:53,920 Speaker 1: epistolary travel narratives and epistolary novels were a really popular 145 00:08:54,000 --> 00:08:57,760 Speaker 1: genre in eighteenth century Britain, and Mohammad wrote this as 146 00:08:57,800 --> 00:09:01,280 Speaker 1: a series of thirty eight letters to a fictional addressing 147 00:09:01,280 --> 00:09:05,840 Speaker 1: these letters only as dear sir. And it's really obvious 148 00:09:05,880 --> 00:09:09,320 Speaker 1: from his writing that he had studied other travel narratives 149 00:09:09,360 --> 00:09:14,080 Speaker 1: as well as other English language literary styles and conventions. 150 00:09:14,400 --> 00:09:18,319 Speaker 1: This was written so skillfully that he had some detractors 151 00:09:18,320 --> 00:09:21,840 Speaker 1: who claimed it was impossible for an Indian to have 152 00:09:22,000 --> 00:09:24,559 Speaker 1: written such an English work. Again, there were a lot 153 00:09:24,600 --> 00:09:25,239 Speaker 1: of ways. 154 00:09:25,000 --> 00:09:27,959 Speaker 2: That people in India like Indian people in India were 155 00:09:28,000 --> 00:09:31,680 Speaker 2: learning English. This is not actually unusual to speak English, 156 00:09:31,720 --> 00:09:33,720 Speaker 2: but people were like, there's no way that an Indian 157 00:09:33,760 --> 00:09:36,120 Speaker 2: wrote this. It sounds way to English. 158 00:09:36,360 --> 00:09:39,840 Speaker 1: He assumes that his reader is educated and knowledgeable, and 159 00:09:39,880 --> 00:09:43,800 Speaker 1: subtly reinforces the idea that he is educated and knowledgeable 160 00:09:43,840 --> 00:09:49,000 Speaker 1: as well, including leaving Latin quotes in Latin untranslated, with 161 00:09:49,080 --> 00:09:52,160 Speaker 1: the implicit assumption that both he and his readers know 162 00:09:52,240 --> 00:09:55,920 Speaker 1: what those quotes say. He also includes terms from multiple 163 00:09:56,000 --> 00:10:01,160 Speaker 1: other languages, including Hindi, Persian, Bengali, and local dialects from 164 00:10:01,160 --> 00:10:05,400 Speaker 1: different parts of India. At other points, he used terminology 165 00:10:05,440 --> 00:10:09,160 Speaker 1: that would be accessible and understandable to his audience rather 166 00:10:09,240 --> 00:10:12,600 Speaker 1: than local terms that would have been more accurate. For example, 167 00:10:12,640 --> 00:10:15,880 Speaker 1: he describes a number of Muslim practices around birth and 168 00:10:15,920 --> 00:10:21,560 Speaker 1: circumcision as baptism. No actual baptism was involved, but he 169 00:10:21,600 --> 00:10:24,600 Speaker 1: was trying to make what he was describing more relatable 170 00:10:24,600 --> 00:10:28,440 Speaker 1: and understandable to the people who would read it. Muhammad 171 00:10:28,520 --> 00:10:31,720 Speaker 1: meant this also as an account of his own life 172 00:10:31,760 --> 00:10:35,480 Speaker 1: in India, including his time with the Bengal Army, and 173 00:10:35,640 --> 00:10:37,840 Speaker 1: as a travel guide for people who might want to 174 00:10:37,960 --> 00:10:40,320 Speaker 1: visit or work in India, whether this was in a 175 00:10:40,400 --> 00:10:45,480 Speaker 1: military or a civilian role. So he included extensive descriptions 176 00:10:45,480 --> 00:10:50,400 Speaker 1: of the Indian subcontinent's cities and landscapes, its plants and animals, 177 00:10:50,440 --> 00:10:55,599 Speaker 1: including elephants, rhinoceroses, and camels, and its cultures and religions, 178 00:10:55,720 --> 00:10:59,720 Speaker 1: primarily in terms of Muslims and Hindus. He also included 179 00:10:59,720 --> 00:11:02,640 Speaker 1: a glossary, and he printed this work as two small 180 00:11:02,720 --> 00:11:05,760 Speaker 1: volumes so that it would be more easily portable. We're 181 00:11:05,760 --> 00:11:08,280 Speaker 1: going to talk about the book in more detail after 182 00:11:08,320 --> 00:11:09,760 Speaker 1: we paused for a sponsor break. 183 00:11:19,400 --> 00:11:23,200 Speaker 2: Dean Mohammet's Travels of Dean Mahammet was not the first 184 00:11:23,360 --> 00:11:27,240 Speaker 2: English language book written by a traveler from somewhere outside 185 00:11:27,280 --> 00:11:30,760 Speaker 2: of Europe, was the first one by an Indian person 186 00:11:30,760 --> 00:11:33,880 Speaker 2: in English. We do know that this is unique though, 187 00:11:33,960 --> 00:11:36,560 Speaker 2: in terms of Muhammad's role in his place in both 188 00:11:36,720 --> 00:11:40,480 Speaker 2: Indian and Anglo Irish society. This is a work about 189 00:11:40,520 --> 00:11:43,520 Speaker 2: the peoples and the cultures of India written by an 190 00:11:43,559 --> 00:11:46,440 Speaker 2: Indian for an English speaking white audience. 191 00:11:47,160 --> 00:11:49,520 Speaker 1: Overall, it is far more. 192 00:11:49,360 --> 00:11:53,439 Speaker 2: Sympathetic to its Indian subjects than similar work by white 193 00:11:53,480 --> 00:11:57,760 Speaker 2: writers generally was in the eighteenth century, although it does 194 00:11:57,840 --> 00:12:01,840 Speaker 2: still describe tribal peoples who were living outside of the 195 00:12:01,880 --> 00:12:06,040 Speaker 2: more mainstream Indian society as savages. This book could be 196 00:12:06,160 --> 00:12:10,240 Speaker 2: kind of romanticized, but it was not really sensationalized in 197 00:12:10,280 --> 00:12:13,800 Speaker 2: the way that most white writers work on India was. 198 00:12:14,600 --> 00:12:17,920 Speaker 2: At the same time, broadly speaking, it was supportive of 199 00:12:17,960 --> 00:12:22,040 Speaker 2: the British East India Company's endeavors in India. Again, it 200 00:12:22,200 --> 00:12:24,920 Speaker 2: was specifically written for people who were likely to see 201 00:12:24,960 --> 00:12:28,840 Speaker 2: those endeavors as a good and necessary thing, but he 202 00:12:28,920 --> 00:12:32,199 Speaker 2: could also be critical both of the company's more extreme 203 00:12:32,280 --> 00:12:35,680 Speaker 2: efforts to control the Indian population and of the decline 204 00:12:35,720 --> 00:12:38,360 Speaker 2: in the power of the Mughal Empire that the British 205 00:12:38,360 --> 00:12:42,120 Speaker 2: had both taken advantage of and contributed to. So you 206 00:12:42,200 --> 00:12:44,680 Speaker 2: can read this book as an attempt to give an 207 00:12:44,679 --> 00:12:47,920 Speaker 2: English speaking European audience a more accurate idea of what 208 00:12:48,000 --> 00:12:51,559 Speaker 2: India and its peoples were like, or you can read 209 00:12:51,600 --> 00:12:55,520 Speaker 2: it as complicit with British efforts to colonize and control India, 210 00:12:56,520 --> 00:13:00,800 Speaker 2: or both. As an example of what this book is like, 211 00:13:00,840 --> 00:13:04,480 Speaker 2: he wrote this description of Bnaris, also called Varanasi as 212 00:13:04,520 --> 00:13:08,000 Speaker 2: an example of sort of the glories of India's past. Quote, 213 00:13:08,240 --> 00:13:11,360 Speaker 2: there was once a very fine observatory here, and a 214 00:13:11,360 --> 00:13:14,640 Speaker 2: few years ago some European gentlemen, led hither by the 215 00:13:14,679 --> 00:13:19,319 Speaker 2: love of science and antiquity, discovered a great many astronomical 216 00:13:19,400 --> 00:13:24,280 Speaker 2: instruments of a large size, admirably well contrived, though injured 217 00:13:24,320 --> 00:13:27,080 Speaker 2: by the hand of time. It was supposed they might 218 00:13:27,080 --> 00:13:30,640 Speaker 2: have been constructed some centuries ago under the direction of 219 00:13:30,720 --> 00:13:34,320 Speaker 2: the Great Okper, the fond votary of science, and the 220 00:13:34,400 --> 00:13:39,000 Speaker 2: distinguished patron of the Brahmins, who applied with unwearied assiduity 221 00:13:39,200 --> 00:13:43,440 Speaker 2: to the study of astronomy. So Akpa was the third 222 00:13:43,679 --> 00:13:46,920 Speaker 2: Mughal emperor. I've had him on my list for an 223 00:13:46,960 --> 00:13:56,320 Speaker 2: episode forever. I've maybe may yeah. I feel like a 224 00:13:56,360 --> 00:13:58,400 Speaker 2: lot of what I have about him is written from 225 00:13:58,559 --> 00:14:03,160 Speaker 2: a more Muslim perspective and not as much detail about 226 00:14:03,200 --> 00:14:06,199 Speaker 2: like how did the Hindus that he was ruling over 227 00:14:06,280 --> 00:14:10,760 Speaker 2: feel about Olivis. Muhammad described the decline of the Mughal 228 00:14:10,880 --> 00:14:14,280 Speaker 2: Empire this way. Quote the history of the revolutions of 229 00:14:14,280 --> 00:14:17,480 Speaker 2: his court is fraught with so much fiction that it 230 00:14:17,480 --> 00:14:21,600 Speaker 2: would be impossible to reconcile it to reason or reflection. Yet, 231 00:14:21,640 --> 00:14:24,440 Speaker 2: if we believe the records and traditions of the natives. 232 00:14:24,520 --> 00:14:27,680 Speaker 2: Its sovereigns were the greatest and most arbitrary monarchs in 233 00:14:27,720 --> 00:14:32,800 Speaker 2: the world. Their orders, though ever so extravagant, were submissively obeyed, 234 00:14:33,160 --> 00:14:37,440 Speaker 2: and their mandates observed by the remotest nations. Their very 235 00:14:37,560 --> 00:14:40,840 Speaker 2: name struck terror into the hearts of their enemies. But 236 00:14:41,040 --> 00:14:43,440 Speaker 2: so rapid has been the decline of their power that 237 00:14:43,520 --> 00:14:46,400 Speaker 2: the race of the great Tamerlane is now little respected. 238 00:14:46,480 --> 00:14:50,080 Speaker 2: Since the days of Nazam al Mulud, the royal tenure 239 00:14:50,120 --> 00:14:52,880 Speaker 2: of the throne is grown so insecure that the Mogul 240 00:14:52,920 --> 00:14:56,560 Speaker 2: has been of late years deposed at pleasure to make 241 00:14:56,600 --> 00:14:58,800 Speaker 2: way for such of his servants as could gain over 242 00:14:58,840 --> 00:15:02,320 Speaker 2: the people that great engine of power to their cause. 243 00:15:03,040 --> 00:15:06,280 Speaker 2: His authority, which prevailed in former ages over most of 244 00:15:06,320 --> 00:15:10,160 Speaker 2: the kings of Earth, now reaches little farther than his saraglio, 245 00:15:10,320 --> 00:15:13,560 Speaker 2: where he dreams away life, drowned in the enjoyment of 246 00:15:13,640 --> 00:15:19,080 Speaker 2: dissolute pleasures. Muhammad also described India in a lot of 247 00:15:19,360 --> 00:15:21,920 Speaker 2: passages in terms of like the India of the present 248 00:15:22,040 --> 00:15:26,840 Speaker 2: day as truly beautiful. As one example quote, the country 249 00:15:26,920 --> 00:15:31,640 Speaker 2: around Banaras is considered as the paradise of India, remarkable 250 00:15:31,720 --> 00:15:35,520 Speaker 2: for its lubrious air, fascinating landscapes, and innocence of its 251 00:15:35,520 --> 00:15:38,920 Speaker 2: inhabitants to simple manners, and had a happy influence on 252 00:15:39,040 --> 00:15:42,800 Speaker 2: all who lived near them. While wasteful war spread her 253 00:15:42,800 --> 00:15:46,200 Speaker 2: horrors over other parts of India, this blissful country often 254 00:15:46,320 --> 00:15:50,440 Speaker 2: escaped her ravages, perhaps secured by its distance from the ocean, 255 00:15:50,840 --> 00:15:54,560 Speaker 2: or more probably by the sacred character ascribed to the scene, 256 00:15:54,600 --> 00:15:58,000 Speaker 2: which had, through many ages been considered as the repository 257 00:15:58,080 --> 00:16:00,800 Speaker 2: of the religion and learning of the Brahmin and the 258 00:16:00,840 --> 00:16:03,960 Speaker 2: prevailing idea of the simplicity of the native Hindus, a 259 00:16:04,000 --> 00:16:07,840 Speaker 2: people unaccustomed to the sanguinary measures of what they term 260 00:16:08,280 --> 00:16:11,800 Speaker 2: civilized nations. Several of the letters in the book are 261 00:16:11,800 --> 00:16:15,440 Speaker 2: devoted to different aspects of culture and religion, with more 262 00:16:15,480 --> 00:16:19,000 Speaker 2: detail in terms of Muslim beliefs and practices. Since Mohammed 263 00:16:19,120 --> 00:16:22,320 Speaker 2: didn't have as much familiarity with the practices of Hinduism 264 00:16:22,640 --> 00:16:26,360 Speaker 2: or other religions. When English language writing on India was 265 00:16:26,400 --> 00:16:30,640 Speaker 2: full of descriptions of its people as savage, backward, and alien, 266 00:16:31,160 --> 00:16:35,680 Speaker 2: Mohammed wrote this description of Muslims quote, the Mohammedans are 267 00:16:35,800 --> 00:16:39,320 Speaker 2: in general, of very healthful people, refraining from the use 268 00:16:39,360 --> 00:16:42,880 Speaker 2: of strong liquors and accustomed to a temperate diet, they 269 00:16:42,880 --> 00:16:46,480 Speaker 2: have but few diseases for which their own experience commonly 270 00:16:46,520 --> 00:16:50,240 Speaker 2: finds some simple, yet effectual remedy. When they are visited 271 00:16:50,280 --> 00:16:53,080 Speaker 2: by sickness, they bear it with much composure of mind, 272 00:16:53,480 --> 00:16:56,920 Speaker 2: partly through an expectation of removing their disorder by their 273 00:16:56,960 --> 00:16:59,880 Speaker 2: own manner of treating it. But when they perceive their 274 00:17:00,480 --> 00:17:03,800 Speaker 2: grows too violent to submit even to the utmost exertions 275 00:17:03,800 --> 00:17:07,000 Speaker 2: of their skill, they send for Amolna, who comes to 276 00:17:07,040 --> 00:17:09,760 Speaker 2: the bedside of the sick person, and, putting his hand 277 00:17:09,840 --> 00:17:13,040 Speaker 2: over him, feels that part of his body most affected, 278 00:17:13,200 --> 00:17:16,480 Speaker 2: and repeats with a degree of fervency, some pious prayers, 279 00:17:16,920 --> 00:17:19,479 Speaker 2: by the efficacy of which it is supposed the patient 280 00:17:19,560 --> 00:17:24,440 Speaker 2: will speedily recover. The Mahometans meet death with uncommon resignation 281 00:17:24,520 --> 00:17:28,040 Speaker 2: and fortitude, considering it only as the means of enlarging 282 00:17:28,080 --> 00:17:31,239 Speaker 2: them from a state of mortal captivity and opening to 283 00:17:31,359 --> 00:17:34,600 Speaker 2: them a free and glorious passage to the mansions of bliss. 284 00:17:35,400 --> 00:17:38,159 Speaker 2: Those ideas console them on the bed of sickness, and, 285 00:17:38,240 --> 00:17:42,000 Speaker 2: even amid the pangs of dissolution. The parting soul, struggling 286 00:17:42,000 --> 00:17:44,840 Speaker 2: to leave its earthly prison and panting for the joys 287 00:17:44,840 --> 00:17:48,639 Speaker 2: of immortality, changes at bright intervals, the terrors of the 288 00:17:48,680 --> 00:17:52,160 Speaker 2: grim monarch into the smiles of a cherub who invites 289 00:17:52,200 --> 00:17:56,560 Speaker 2: it to a happier region. He also tried to dispelse 290 00:17:56,600 --> 00:17:59,840 Speaker 2: some misconceptions that he thought his readers probably had about 291 00:18:00,080 --> 00:18:03,600 Speaker 2: Islam as a religion. For example, quote the Mohammedans are 292 00:18:03,640 --> 00:18:06,919 Speaker 2: strict adherence to the tenets of their religion, which does not, 293 00:18:06,960 --> 00:18:11,680 Speaker 2: by any means consist in that enthusiastic generation for Mohammad, 294 00:18:11,840 --> 00:18:15,960 Speaker 2: so generally conceived, it considers much more as its primary 295 00:18:15,960 --> 00:18:18,920 Speaker 2: object the unity of the Supreme Being under the name 296 00:18:18,960 --> 00:18:22,360 Speaker 2: of Allah. Mohammed is only regarded in a secondary point 297 00:18:22,400 --> 00:18:25,840 Speaker 2: of view as the missionary of that unity, merely for 298 00:18:25,960 --> 00:18:29,320 Speaker 2: destroying the idle worship to which Arabia had continued so 299 00:18:29,480 --> 00:18:33,640 Speaker 2: long under bondage, and so far from addressing him as 300 00:18:33,680 --> 00:18:36,320 Speaker 2: a deity, that in their orations they do not pray 301 00:18:36,359 --> 00:18:40,600 Speaker 2: to him but for him, recommending him to the divine mercy. 302 00:18:41,359 --> 00:18:44,040 Speaker 2: It is a mistake in though generally received opinion that 303 00:18:44,119 --> 00:18:46,920 Speaker 2: pilgrimages were made to his tomb, which in a religious 304 00:18:46,960 --> 00:18:50,480 Speaker 2: sense were only directed to what is called the Kahaba 305 00:18:50,640 --> 00:18:54,440 Speaker 2: or Holy House at Mecca, an idle temple dedicated by 306 00:18:54,520 --> 00:18:58,840 Speaker 2: him to the unity of God. His tomb is at Medina, 307 00:18:59,040 --> 00:19:03,000 Speaker 2: visited by the Maham's purely out of curiosity and reverence 308 00:19:03,040 --> 00:19:06,439 Speaker 2: to his memory. As we mentioned before the break, this 309 00:19:06,520 --> 00:19:11,240 Speaker 2: book also included a glossary. Here are some examples. Bang 310 00:19:11,640 --> 00:19:16,480 Speaker 2: and intoxicating juice of a vegetable bizarre a market beetle, 311 00:19:16,640 --> 00:19:18,879 Speaker 2: a leaf growing on a vine and chewed by all 312 00:19:19,000 --> 00:19:24,080 Speaker 2: ranks of people, brahmin a priest, daggas custom house officers 313 00:19:24,200 --> 00:19:29,000 Speaker 2: or collectors, duly a woman's chair like a sedan, hackeries, 314 00:19:29,359 --> 00:19:34,000 Speaker 2: carts or coaches drawn by oxen, paddy grounds, rice fields, 315 00:19:34,200 --> 00:19:38,719 Speaker 2: pagoda an Indian temple. Raja the highest title claimed by 316 00:19:38,760 --> 00:19:42,880 Speaker 2: the Gentoo princes. He defined Gentoo as a native Indian 317 00:19:43,040 --> 00:19:47,760 Speaker 2: in a state of adulatry. Seepois Indian foot soldiers hired 318 00:19:47,800 --> 00:19:52,320 Speaker 2: and disciplined by Europeans. Zemindary an officer who takes care 319 00:19:52,400 --> 00:19:55,720 Speaker 2: of the rents arising from the public lands. I like 320 00:19:55,760 --> 00:19:58,040 Speaker 2: how some of the words that needed to be defined 321 00:19:58,240 --> 00:20:00,880 Speaker 2: in the eighteenth century are words that are just commonly 322 00:20:01,000 --> 00:20:06,120 Speaker 2: used in English now, like bizarre and pagoda. There were 323 00:20:06,160 --> 00:20:09,600 Speaker 2: also poems. Some of the poems weren't attributed to anyone, 324 00:20:09,640 --> 00:20:13,440 Speaker 2: they were presumably written by him. Others were quotes from 325 00:20:13,520 --> 00:20:18,040 Speaker 2: writers like John Milton. It's clear that Mohammed was influenced 326 00:20:18,080 --> 00:20:22,760 Speaker 2: by European writing about India, especially John Henry Gross's Voyage 327 00:20:22,760 --> 00:20:25,920 Speaker 2: to the East Indies published in seventeen sixty six, and 328 00:20:26,040 --> 00:20:30,399 Speaker 2: Jemima Kindersley's Letters from the Islands of Tenerif, Brazil, The 329 00:20:30,440 --> 00:20:33,040 Speaker 2: Cape of Good Hope and the East Indies that came 330 00:20:33,040 --> 00:20:37,679 Speaker 2: out in seventeen seventy seven. In fact, according to Michael H. Fisher, 331 00:20:37,720 --> 00:20:40,040 Speaker 2: who has written a number of works on Dean Muhammad, 332 00:20:40,400 --> 00:20:43,879 Speaker 2: about seven percent of this text comes from Gross's book, 333 00:20:44,240 --> 00:20:48,080 Speaker 2: but rewritten in Mohammed's voice and sometimes reframed to create 334 00:20:48,119 --> 00:20:50,760 Speaker 2: a more neutral or positive view of the people and 335 00:20:50,840 --> 00:20:54,960 Speaker 2: places that are being described. For example, Gross included a 336 00:20:55,000 --> 00:20:58,080 Speaker 2: passage on the practice of chewing beatle leaf, describing it 337 00:20:58,119 --> 00:21:00,760 Speaker 2: as a vicious habit and saying people did it to 338 00:21:00,840 --> 00:21:04,240 Speaker 2: fortify the stomach or preserve the teeth, but dismissing the 339 00:21:04,280 --> 00:21:08,080 Speaker 2: idea that it could do either thing. A very similar 340 00:21:08,119 --> 00:21:11,040 Speaker 2: passage is in Mohammed's book, but it doesn't dismiss the 341 00:21:11,080 --> 00:21:13,919 Speaker 2: idea that chewing beetle could fortify the stomach or preserve 342 00:21:13,920 --> 00:21:16,880 Speaker 2: the teeth, and it presents the chewing of beatle leaf 343 00:21:16,920 --> 00:21:21,520 Speaker 2: as a luxury for great men, not as a vicious habit. So, 344 00:21:21,600 --> 00:21:24,240 Speaker 2: as we've talked about before on the show, attitudes about 345 00:21:24,240 --> 00:21:27,440 Speaker 2: plagiarism were really different in the eighteenth century than they 346 00:21:27,440 --> 00:21:30,040 Speaker 2: are today. At that time, people were sort of picking 347 00:21:30,119 --> 00:21:33,040 Speaker 2: up and copying from one another all the time without 348 00:21:33,040 --> 00:21:37,200 Speaker 2: a lot of furor over it. It's likely that Muhammad 349 00:21:37,320 --> 00:21:40,080 Speaker 2: used some of this borrowing to kind of fill in 350 00:21:40,160 --> 00:21:42,800 Speaker 2: gaps in his own knowledge. Since he was Muslim, he 351 00:21:42,840 --> 00:21:46,679 Speaker 2: could not speak from experience about Hindu beliefs and practices. 352 00:21:46,800 --> 00:21:50,760 Speaker 2: He also couldn't really talk in detail about the cultures 353 00:21:50,760 --> 00:21:53,280 Speaker 2: and the practices of people who were living in areas 354 00:21:53,320 --> 00:21:55,119 Speaker 2: really far away from where he had grown up. There 355 00:21:55,440 --> 00:22:01,359 Speaker 2: there's enormous cultural diversity in the Indian subco and he 356 00:22:01,480 --> 00:22:04,439 Speaker 2: was talking about the other side of the region like 357 00:22:04,480 --> 00:22:08,080 Speaker 2: he might not actually know much detail. At some points, though, 358 00:22:08,160 --> 00:22:11,040 Speaker 2: like this description of the chewing of beatle leaf, he 359 00:22:11,080 --> 00:22:13,600 Speaker 2: borrows descriptions of things that he probably. 360 00:22:13,400 --> 00:22:16,879 Speaker 1: Would have known about. We don't totally know why he 361 00:22:16,960 --> 00:22:19,760 Speaker 1: chose to go with those passages and not ones of 362 00:22:19,760 --> 00:22:23,000 Speaker 1: his own. Beyond that, this book seems to line up 363 00:22:23,119 --> 00:22:26,480 Speaker 1: really well with East India Company records on where Mohammed's 364 00:22:26,560 --> 00:22:29,560 Speaker 1: units would have been during his fifteen years connected to it. 365 00:22:30,400 --> 00:22:33,760 Speaker 1: This is incredible considering that that meant he was writing 366 00:22:33,800 --> 00:22:36,600 Speaker 1: about things that had happened between ten and twenty five 367 00:22:36,680 --> 00:22:40,280 Speaker 1: years before. And there's no evidence that he kept detailed 368 00:22:40,280 --> 00:22:43,200 Speaker 1: notes during his time in the army. So he's kind 369 00:22:43,240 --> 00:22:47,200 Speaker 1: of the exception that proves the rule of memory being 370 00:22:47,200 --> 00:22:51,240 Speaker 1: pretty faulty. Yeah, yeah, And I don't maybe there were 371 00:22:51,280 --> 00:22:54,679 Speaker 1: notes though, or maybe he did a lot of research 372 00:22:55,720 --> 00:22:59,639 Speaker 1: going through old newspaper I don't know. He seems to 373 00:22:59,720 --> 00:23:02,960 Speaker 1: have done pretty good job though, of keeping the timeline correct. 374 00:23:03,600 --> 00:23:05,800 Speaker 1: I will talk about his life after this book came out. 375 00:23:05,920 --> 00:23:19,680 Speaker 1: After another quick sponsor break in seventeen ninety six, Godfrey 376 00:23:19,720 --> 00:23:23,800 Speaker 1: Evan Baker's younger brother, Captain William Massey Baker, bought an 377 00:23:23,920 --> 00:23:27,680 Speaker 1: estate outside of Cork. William Baker had a daughter named 378 00:23:27,720 --> 00:23:30,760 Speaker 1: Eleanor whose mother was Indian, and it's possible that Dean 379 00:23:30,840 --> 00:23:35,119 Speaker 1: Mohammad set up a household somewhere on that estate. He 380 00:23:35,280 --> 00:23:39,800 Speaker 1: definitely spent time there. On December seventh, seventeen ninety nine, 381 00:23:39,840 --> 00:23:44,360 Speaker 1: an Indian visitor to Cork named Abu Talib Khan visited 382 00:23:44,480 --> 00:23:47,240 Speaker 1: while traveling to London to reconnect with an old patron. 383 00:23:47,760 --> 00:23:49,960 Speaker 1: He wrote an account of his travels which was in 384 00:23:50,040 --> 00:23:54,000 Speaker 1: Persian and that included writing about this meeting with Dean 385 00:23:54,040 --> 00:23:57,600 Speaker 1: Mohammed at this estate. In eighteen oh seven, after a 386 00:23:57,640 --> 00:24:00,760 Speaker 1: little more than twenty years in Cork, Mohammad and his 387 00:24:00,840 --> 00:24:04,920 Speaker 1: family moved to the fashionable neighborhood of Portman Square in London. 388 00:24:05,640 --> 00:24:08,440 Speaker 1: At this point he had at least one son, William, 389 00:24:08,520 --> 00:24:11,879 Speaker 1: born in seventeen ninety seven. He and Jane went on 390 00:24:12,040 --> 00:24:15,480 Speaker 1: to have several other children, Emilia in eighteen oh eight, 391 00:24:15,920 --> 00:24:20,560 Speaker 1: Henry in eighteen ten, Dean in eighteen twelve, Rosanna in 392 00:24:20,640 --> 00:24:25,880 Speaker 1: eighteen fifteen, Horatio in eighteen sixteen, Frederick in eighteen eighteen, 393 00:24:26,040 --> 00:24:28,360 Speaker 1: and Arthur Eckber in eighteen nineteen. 394 00:24:29,400 --> 00:24:32,760 Speaker 2: Their living in Portman Square suggests that while they might 395 00:24:32,800 --> 00:24:35,960 Speaker 2: not have been fully accepted into British society, they weren't 396 00:24:36,119 --> 00:24:38,920 Speaker 2: entirely excluded from it either. As we said, this is 397 00:24:38,960 --> 00:24:41,760 Speaker 2: a really fashionable neighborhood. They also must have been making 398 00:24:41,800 --> 00:24:45,680 Speaker 2: a pretty comfortable living to be having a lodging there. 399 00:24:46,240 --> 00:24:50,560 Speaker 2: Muhammad started working for a Scottish nobleman named Basil Cochrane, 400 00:24:50,600 --> 00:24:54,800 Speaker 2: who had returned from India very wealthy, so wealthy that 401 00:24:54,880 --> 00:24:59,600 Speaker 2: he repeatedly faced accusations of embezzlement. At this point, so 402 00:24:59,720 --> 00:25:04,040 Speaker 2: called exotic treatments from the East had become a fad 403 00:25:04,240 --> 00:25:08,640 Speaker 2: in England, drawing inspiration from both Southeast Asia and Egypt. 404 00:25:08,880 --> 00:25:12,200 Speaker 2: Both of these places were being occupied or colonized by 405 00:25:12,240 --> 00:25:14,520 Speaker 2: England and France, and so people were kind of bringing 406 00:25:15,680 --> 00:25:21,400 Speaker 2: things inspired from those places back to Britain, Ireland's continental Europe. 407 00:25:21,800 --> 00:25:25,640 Speaker 2: Cochrane tried to find a business niche that could capitalize 408 00:25:25,680 --> 00:25:29,600 Speaker 2: on this fad, and he established a steam bath. Muhammad 409 00:25:29,640 --> 00:25:32,840 Speaker 2: got a job. They're doing shampooing. This was not washing 410 00:25:32,880 --> 00:25:36,080 Speaker 2: people's scalps and hair. It was a style of Indian 411 00:25:36,200 --> 00:25:40,160 Speaker 2: therapeutic massage, with the term shampooing coming from the word chumpy. 412 00:25:40,920 --> 00:25:44,800 Speaker 2: In eighteen ten, Muhammed established the Hindustani Coffee House in 413 00:25:44,840 --> 00:25:47,639 Speaker 2: Portman Square. This was more of a restaurant than a 414 00:25:47,680 --> 00:25:51,320 Speaker 2: coffee shop. He served meat and vegetable dishes with seasoned 415 00:25:51,400 --> 00:25:54,160 Speaker 2: rice in what sounds like almost a British and Indian 416 00:25:54,520 --> 00:25:59,440 Speaker 2: culinary fusion. The restaurant's decor was inspired by Indian fashion 417 00:25:59,480 --> 00:26:03,800 Speaker 2: and art, or possibly by Asian art more broadly. An 418 00:26:03,840 --> 00:26:07,399 Speaker 2: adjacent room had hookahs for smoking with tobacco blended with 419 00:26:07,480 --> 00:26:08,400 Speaker 2: herbs from India. 420 00:26:09,200 --> 00:26:09,440 Speaker 1: Yeah. 421 00:26:09,440 --> 00:26:12,480 Speaker 2: The reason we say Asian art more broadly possibly is that, 422 00:26:12,640 --> 00:26:15,040 Speaker 2: like one observer wrote a description of it that included 423 00:26:15,080 --> 00:26:18,040 Speaker 2: the word Chinese, and we don't really know if there 424 00:26:18,080 --> 00:26:20,200 Speaker 2: was Chinese art or if that this person just kind 425 00:26:20,200 --> 00:26:22,840 Speaker 2: of lumped everything, if they were trying to sound as 426 00:26:22,840 --> 00:26:27,119 Speaker 2: though they knew about other cultures. Yes, this was the 427 00:26:27,160 --> 00:26:29,919 Speaker 2: first known Indian restaurant in England and here is an 428 00:26:29,920 --> 00:26:33,200 Speaker 2: advertisement that ran for it. Quote Hindu Stanny Coffee House, 429 00:26:33,320 --> 00:26:37,320 Speaker 2: number thirty four George Street, Portman Square, Mohammed East Indian 430 00:26:37,440 --> 00:26:40,439 Speaker 2: informs the nobility and gentry. He has fitted up the 431 00:26:40,480 --> 00:26:44,400 Speaker 2: above house neatly and elegantly for the entertainment of Indian gentlemen, 432 00:26:44,840 --> 00:26:48,200 Speaker 2: where they may enjoy the hookah, the real chimed tobacco 433 00:26:48,640 --> 00:26:52,160 Speaker 2: and Indian dishes in the highest perfection and allowed by 434 00:26:52,160 --> 00:26:55,600 Speaker 2: the greatest epicures to be unequal to any curries ever 435 00:26:55,640 --> 00:26:59,520 Speaker 2: made in England with choice wines in every accommodation, and 436 00:26:59,560 --> 00:27:02,720 Speaker 2: now up to them for their future patronage and support, 437 00:27:03,040 --> 00:27:08,080 Speaker 2: and gratefully acknowledges himself indebted for their former favors and trusts. 438 00:27:08,200 --> 00:27:11,800 Speaker 2: It will merit the highest satisfaction when made known to 439 00:27:12,000 --> 00:27:15,119 Speaker 2: the public. People seem to have liked the food at 440 00:27:15,119 --> 00:27:18,959 Speaker 2: this restaurant, but Mohammed struggled to keep it afloat. It 441 00:27:19,080 --> 00:27:22,000 Speaker 2: wasn't in a good location to have a dedicated regular 442 00:27:22,080 --> 00:27:26,320 Speaker 2: clientele or to attract lots of attention from visitors and travelers. 443 00:27:27,040 --> 00:27:29,320 Speaker 2: After about a year, he brought in a partner named 444 00:27:29,400 --> 00:27:32,879 Speaker 2: John Spencer to try to salvage the operation, but this 445 00:27:33,080 --> 00:27:35,640 Speaker 2: just did not work out, and in eighteen twelve Mohammed 446 00:27:35,680 --> 00:27:39,680 Speaker 2: filed for bankruptcy. He wasn't involved in the restaurant after 447 00:27:39,720 --> 00:27:42,160 Speaker 2: this point, but it does seem like someone else took 448 00:27:42,200 --> 00:27:45,320 Speaker 2: over the space and ran a restaurant with the same name, 449 00:27:45,800 --> 00:27:51,320 Speaker 2: possibly for years afterward. Bankruptcy obviously was a huge financial 450 00:27:51,359 --> 00:27:54,800 Speaker 2: loss for the Mohammed family. They moved into a boarding house. 451 00:27:55,119 --> 00:27:58,320 Speaker 2: It's possible that Mohammed's eldest son took a job to 452 00:27:58,359 --> 00:28:02,440 Speaker 2: try to help out. Mohammad also advertised his services as 453 00:28:02,480 --> 00:28:05,560 Speaker 2: a valet or a butler, and eventually wound up working 454 00:28:05,640 --> 00:28:09,760 Speaker 2: at another steambath. Eventually the family moved to Brighton, which 455 00:28:09,800 --> 00:28:12,480 Speaker 2: was growing into a popular resort town with a focus 456 00:28:12,520 --> 00:28:17,240 Speaker 2: on sea bathing, bathing machines and wellness spas. Mohammed again 457 00:28:17,320 --> 00:28:19,520 Speaker 2: worked as a valet, then found a job at a 458 00:28:19,520 --> 00:28:23,720 Speaker 2: bathhouse and started selling his own cosmetics. By eighteen fourteen, 459 00:28:23,840 --> 00:28:26,679 Speaker 2: he and Jane were both working as bathhouse keepers at 460 00:28:26,720 --> 00:28:30,960 Speaker 2: the Indian Medicated Vapor Bath, where Mohammed used Cochrane's steambath 461 00:28:31,040 --> 00:28:35,359 Speaker 2: designs but with more Indian inspired elements. Jane learned to 462 00:28:35,400 --> 00:28:38,720 Speaker 2: do shampooing as well, and she supervised the women's baths. 463 00:28:39,480 --> 00:28:43,000 Speaker 2: Seawater was seen as having health benefits, and Mohammed drew 464 00:28:43,040 --> 00:28:47,160 Speaker 2: in seawater, heated it into steam, and customers bathed in 465 00:28:47,200 --> 00:28:50,960 Speaker 2: a contraption sort of like a steam room. In December 466 00:28:50,960 --> 00:28:54,440 Speaker 2: of eighteen fifteen, Muhammad opened a new business called Battery 467 00:28:54,520 --> 00:28:57,719 Speaker 2: House Baths, in a building that, as its name suggests, 468 00:28:57,760 --> 00:29:02,240 Speaker 2: had been a battery for the British Border Ordinance Apparently though, 469 00:29:02,560 --> 00:29:05,160 Speaker 2: all the cannon fire that went on there, combined with 470 00:29:05,240 --> 00:29:09,200 Speaker 2: ongoing erosion issues kind of weakened the foundation that made 471 00:29:09,240 --> 00:29:12,320 Speaker 2: it not a great idea to keep firing cannons around 472 00:29:12,360 --> 00:29:16,960 Speaker 2: there anymore. Within three years, Mohammad was billing himself as 473 00:29:17,080 --> 00:29:21,400 Speaker 2: a shampooing surgeon. He wasn't performing surgery like we would 474 00:29:21,400 --> 00:29:24,240 Speaker 2: describe it today. People were using the word surgeon to 475 00:29:24,320 --> 00:29:27,400 Speaker 2: mean more along the lines of doctor. So he was 476 00:29:27,520 --> 00:29:31,640 Speaker 2: using steam baths and massage to treat all manner of ailments. 477 00:29:32,080 --> 00:29:35,440 Speaker 2: And as his success grew, he opened another facility up 478 00:29:35,520 --> 00:29:37,800 Speaker 2: the cliff from the battery that was known as. 479 00:29:37,640 --> 00:29:41,720 Speaker 1: The West Cliff Baths. In eighteen twenty, Mohammad printed a 480 00:29:41,720 --> 00:29:44,880 Speaker 1: book that was basically a collection of customer testimonials for 481 00:29:44,920 --> 00:29:48,840 Speaker 1: his wellness treatments. This was called Cases Cured by Sheik 482 00:29:48,920 --> 00:29:53,400 Speaker 1: Dean Mohammed, shampooing surgeon and inventor of the Indian medicated 483 00:29:53,480 --> 00:29:58,160 Speaker 1: vapor and seawater bath. Sheik was the honorific chic which 484 00:29:58,160 --> 00:30:02,280 Speaker 1: he had begun using. Also started building Mohammed's baths on 485 00:30:02,400 --> 00:30:05,880 Speaker 1: King's Road in Brighton along with business partner Thomas Brown. 486 00:30:06,680 --> 00:30:09,880 Speaker 1: This bathhouse opened when Mohammad was sixty two, and he 487 00:30:09,960 --> 00:30:13,320 Speaker 1: and his family lived next door. In eighteen twenty two, 488 00:30:13,440 --> 00:30:17,840 Speaker 1: Mohammad published another book, Shampooing or Benefits Resulting from the 489 00:30:18,000 --> 00:30:21,840 Speaker 1: Use of the Indian Medicated Vapor Bath, as Introduced into 490 00:30:21,880 --> 00:30:25,840 Speaker 1: this Country by S. D. Mohammad, native of India, containing 491 00:30:25,880 --> 00:30:29,239 Speaker 1: a brief but comprehensive view of the effects produced by 492 00:30:29,280 --> 00:30:32,520 Speaker 1: the use of the warm bath in comparison with steam 493 00:30:32,640 --> 00:30:36,280 Speaker 1: or vapor bathing. This built on that earlier booklet of 494 00:30:36,320 --> 00:30:40,800 Speaker 1: testimonials outlining how he used shampooing and vapor baths to 495 00:30:40,880 --> 00:30:45,960 Speaker 1: treat various ailments. The book started with quote, Shampooing is 496 00:30:46,000 --> 00:30:49,280 Speaker 1: a process which I feel it incumbent on me to acknowledge, 497 00:30:49,400 --> 00:30:52,800 Speaker 1: cannot be practiced by any person unaccustomed to it, or 498 00:30:52,800 --> 00:30:56,080 Speaker 1: who has not frequently witnessed and been instructed carefully in 499 00:30:56,120 --> 00:31:01,240 Speaker 1: the operation. Several pretenders have since my establishment has been formed, 500 00:31:01,720 --> 00:31:04,480 Speaker 1: entered the held in opposition to me, who professed to 501 00:31:04,560 --> 00:31:07,640 Speaker 1: know the art. Yet I am sure their ignorance must 502 00:31:07,640 --> 00:31:10,560 Speaker 1: appear manifest to the world when it is known friction 503 00:31:10,760 --> 00:31:14,800 Speaker 1: is applied instead of another and less violent action. In 504 00:31:14,840 --> 00:31:18,000 Speaker 1: the vapor bathing too. I have my imitators, but the 505 00:31:18,000 --> 00:31:20,920 Speaker 1: public alone must decide on the merit of the copies 506 00:31:21,200 --> 00:31:24,920 Speaker 1: by a comparison with the original. The herbs with which 507 00:31:24,960 --> 00:31:28,480 Speaker 1: my baths are impregnated are brought expressly from India and 508 00:31:28,640 --> 00:31:32,520 Speaker 1: undergo a certain process known only to myself before they 509 00:31:32,560 --> 00:31:33,560 Speaker 1: are fit for use. 510 00:31:34,600 --> 00:31:39,160 Speaker 2: He described using his methods to treat asthma contractions, which 511 00:31:39,200 --> 00:31:43,480 Speaker 2: were spasms, paralysis, or palsy as in what might follow 512 00:31:43,520 --> 00:31:48,720 Speaker 2: a stroke, rheumatism, and sprains. Each description was followed by 513 00:31:48,840 --> 00:31:53,360 Speaker 2: several customer testimonials for how people had recovered. He also 514 00:31:53,400 --> 00:31:56,360 Speaker 2: gave a brief explanation that he said he did not 515 00:31:56,480 --> 00:32:00,120 Speaker 2: think all ailments could be cured through his methods, but 516 00:32:00,200 --> 00:32:03,560 Speaker 2: that he followed that with a number of testimonials that 517 00:32:03,560 --> 00:32:09,280 Speaker 2: were related to various other complaints. This included hoarseness, knee pains, 518 00:32:09,760 --> 00:32:16,400 Speaker 2: a spinal complaint, a nervous disorder, abscesses, piles that's hemorrhoids, 519 00:32:16,880 --> 00:32:20,240 Speaker 2: general weakness. Et said it was a wide range of 520 00:32:20,280 --> 00:32:25,200 Speaker 2: things covered in these additional testimonials. Listen, he's covering himself 521 00:32:25,280 --> 00:32:27,560 Speaker 2: by saying not everything is going to be cured, but 522 00:32:27,600 --> 00:32:30,479 Speaker 2: I'd have cured an awful lot of stuff. And he 523 00:32:30,560 --> 00:32:34,040 Speaker 2: also included several poems that were written in his honor, 524 00:32:34,280 --> 00:32:37,800 Speaker 2: like this one from Missus Kent of Wimpole Street, London. 525 00:32:38,680 --> 00:32:41,920 Speaker 2: Worn out by anguish and excess of pain, hope seemed 526 00:32:42,040 --> 00:32:47,040 Speaker 2: delusive and assistance vain. Oppressed by sorrow, languid by disease, 527 00:32:47,600 --> 00:32:51,560 Speaker 2: deprived of health, all pleasure ceased to please the bath 528 00:32:51,640 --> 00:32:55,400 Speaker 2: whose influence o'er the shattered frame, like the mild soothing 529 00:32:55,440 --> 00:32:58,680 Speaker 2: of a parent, came bade her. Now hope, who felt 530 00:32:58,760 --> 00:33:02,800 Speaker 2: afflictions rod and blessed with health, now breathes her thanks 531 00:33:02,840 --> 00:33:06,680 Speaker 2: to God, to thee Mohammed led a grateful heart its 532 00:33:06,760 --> 00:33:10,280 Speaker 2: warmest thanks ingratitude. In part by the great skill and 533 00:33:10,480 --> 00:33:14,960 Speaker 2: unremitting care, one has been saved that might have perished here, who, 534 00:33:15,040 --> 00:33:18,240 Speaker 2: while she feels a pulse within her veins, will bless 535 00:33:18,280 --> 00:33:23,200 Speaker 2: thy name if memory remains. There were several of these 536 00:33:23,280 --> 00:33:26,680 Speaker 2: very flattering poems. I love this whole thing, obviously. There 537 00:33:26,680 --> 00:33:32,080 Speaker 2: were also newspaper clippings praising his bathouse, a list of subscribers' names, 538 00:33:32,240 --> 00:33:35,720 Speaker 2: and a brief account of his own biography. This presented 539 00:33:35,800 --> 00:33:38,479 Speaker 2: him as ten years older than he really was, with 540 00:33:38,520 --> 00:33:42,640 Speaker 2: that ten additional years spent working at Calcutta hospital before 541 00:33:42,720 --> 00:33:44,320 Speaker 2: joining the Bengal Army. 542 00:33:44,400 --> 00:33:46,720 Speaker 1: This did not happen. 543 00:33:47,480 --> 00:33:52,240 Speaker 2: It was made up, as with that copied in paraphrased 544 00:33:52,240 --> 00:33:53,960 Speaker 2: parts of his travel book. Though this is also an 545 00:33:54,000 --> 00:33:57,560 Speaker 2: incredibly common for people who were working in this sort 546 00:33:57,600 --> 00:34:02,240 Speaker 2: of pseudo medical wellness spots base the do like making 547 00:34:02,320 --> 00:34:04,080 Speaker 2: up a medical biography for yourself. 548 00:34:04,200 --> 00:34:05,520 Speaker 1: Yeah, cooking up credentials. 549 00:34:05,720 --> 00:34:07,640 Speaker 2: Yeah. I'm not saying that's a great thing to do. 550 00:34:07,680 --> 00:34:10,160 Speaker 2: I'm just saying he was not doing anything unusual given 551 00:34:10,239 --> 00:34:12,160 Speaker 2: the time or the fact that he was working in 552 00:34:12,200 --> 00:34:16,440 Speaker 2: wellness in Brighton. In eighteen twenty five, Muhammad published a 553 00:34:16,480 --> 00:34:18,719 Speaker 2: revised version of his book that was more in line 554 00:34:18,760 --> 00:34:22,280 Speaker 2: with prevailing medical discourse around the ailments he was treating. 555 00:34:22,960 --> 00:34:26,600 Speaker 2: He also received a warrant of appointment as Royal shampooing 556 00:34:26,640 --> 00:34:30,719 Speaker 2: surgeon from two consecutive monarchs, Kings George the fourth and 557 00:34:30,800 --> 00:34:36,040 Speaker 2: William the fourth. Muhammad's bathhouses were incredibly popular. They were 558 00:34:36,040 --> 00:34:39,480 Speaker 2: described as very fashionable and elegant, and he tried to 559 00:34:39,520 --> 00:34:43,040 Speaker 2: open new branches in London and to fend off various 560 00:34:43,080 --> 00:34:46,640 Speaker 2: competitors in the eighteen twenties, but by the late eighteen 561 00:34:46,680 --> 00:34:50,200 Speaker 2: thirties his popularity was really starting to wane. In the 562 00:34:50,320 --> 00:34:53,200 Speaker 2: later years of his reign, King William the Fourth kind 563 00:34:53,200 --> 00:34:56,920 Speaker 2: of moved on to other resorts and other establishments, and 564 00:34:57,040 --> 00:34:59,319 Speaker 2: a lot of clients just kind of followed where the 565 00:34:59,400 --> 00:35:05,200 Speaker 2: king went. Although Mohammed extended numerous invitations to William's successor, 566 00:35:05,280 --> 00:35:08,920 Speaker 2: Queen Victoria, she apparently never visited one of his baths. 567 00:35:09,480 --> 00:35:13,440 Speaker 2: Mohammed's business in Brighton also suffered as it was disrupted 568 00:35:13,520 --> 00:35:17,320 Speaker 2: by the construction of various other buildings and sea walls, 569 00:35:17,360 --> 00:35:21,040 Speaker 2: and also other people just built bathhouses and those were 570 00:35:21,080 --> 00:35:25,440 Speaker 2: newer and more modern. In eighteen forty one, Mohammed's partner, 571 00:35:25,480 --> 00:35:30,120 Speaker 2: Thomas Brown died and Mohammed's baths were auctioned off. Even 572 00:35:30,160 --> 00:35:33,040 Speaker 2: though he seems to have made a very successful living 573 00:35:33,080 --> 00:35:35,600 Speaker 2: from his business, Mohammed did not have the money to 574 00:35:35,680 --> 00:35:39,640 Speaker 2: buy these bathhouses himself. He hoped the buyer would hire 575 00:35:39,719 --> 00:35:42,560 Speaker 2: him and then keep him on for running the baths, 576 00:35:42,600 --> 00:35:45,880 Speaker 2: but instead the space was leased to one of his competitors. 577 00:35:46,520 --> 00:35:51,160 Speaker 2: Mohammed tried to keep offering treatments in his home during 578 00:35:51,200 --> 00:35:54,200 Speaker 2: the last years of his life. Indians in England are 579 00:35:54,200 --> 00:35:57,560 Speaker 2: being seen less as a curiosity and more as an annoyance. 580 00:35:57,600 --> 00:36:00,000 Speaker 2: And as racially inferior to White Britain's life. 581 00:36:00,160 --> 00:36:01,399 Speaker 1: This wasn't new. 582 00:36:01,480 --> 00:36:04,320 Speaker 2: This had been the case before, especially among the more 583 00:36:05,040 --> 00:36:08,240 Speaker 2: less affluent classes of people, but it was just becoming 584 00:36:08,360 --> 00:36:12,359 Speaker 2: more obvious and more pronounced. Mohammed and his family seem 585 00:36:12,440 --> 00:36:16,480 Speaker 2: to have fallen from public site in Brighton. Jane died 586 00:36:16,480 --> 00:36:19,560 Speaker 2: of uterine cancer on December twenty sixth, eighteen fifty and 587 00:36:19,600 --> 00:36:22,760 Speaker 2: then Dean Muhammad died two months later on February twenty fourth, 588 00:36:22,760 --> 00:36:25,880 Speaker 2: eighteen fifty one, at the age of ninety one. They 589 00:36:25,920 --> 00:36:29,280 Speaker 2: were both buried at Saint Nicholas's Parish Church in Brighton. 590 00:36:30,520 --> 00:36:34,560 Speaker 2: Mohammad had been really well known while living in Cork 591 00:36:34,680 --> 00:36:37,320 Speaker 2: and then in London, and he had been famous during 592 00:36:37,360 --> 00:36:40,200 Speaker 2: the heyday of his Brighton baths, but by the time 593 00:36:40,239 --> 00:36:43,759 Speaker 2: he died, he and his businesses had largely been forgotten. 594 00:36:44,440 --> 00:36:47,680 Speaker 2: On September twenty ninth, two thousand and five, a historical 595 00:36:47,719 --> 00:36:50,279 Speaker 2: marker was unveiled in London at the site of the 596 00:36:50,360 --> 00:36:55,720 Speaker 2: Hindustani Coffeehouse and a Google doodle. On January fifteenth, twenty nineteen, 597 00:36:56,120 --> 00:36:59,200 Speaker 2: marked the two hundred twenty fifth anniversary of the publication 598 00:36:59,440 --> 00:37:02,760 Speaker 2: of the travel of Dean Mohammed. As a final note, 599 00:37:03,800 --> 00:37:06,960 Speaker 2: Dean and Jane Mohammad obviously had a very large family. 600 00:37:07,560 --> 00:37:08,240 Speaker 1: One of their. 601 00:37:08,120 --> 00:37:10,560 Speaker 2: Grandchildren has actually come up on the show before, not 602 00:37:10,719 --> 00:37:15,399 Speaker 2: that long ago. Frederick Henry Horatio Apera Mohammed lived from 603 00:37:15,400 --> 00:37:17,799 Speaker 2: eighteen forty nine to eighteen eighty four and worked at 604 00:37:17,840 --> 00:37:20,920 Speaker 2: Guy's Hospital in London, where he made a number of 605 00:37:20,960 --> 00:37:26,080 Speaker 2: important discoveries related to blood pressure, hypertension and kidney disease. 606 00:37:26,200 --> 00:37:28,000 Speaker 2: So of course we talked about him a bit in 607 00:37:28,040 --> 00:37:31,520 Speaker 2: our hygh pertension episode. Sadly, he died of typhoid at 608 00:37:31,520 --> 00:37:34,840 Speaker 2: the age of only thirty five. Do you have a 609 00:37:34,840 --> 00:37:37,680 Speaker 2: little listener mail to cap off Dean Mohammed's story. 610 00:37:38,040 --> 00:37:41,080 Speaker 1: I do, It's really quick. A quick point from Arturo 611 00:37:41,239 --> 00:37:42,960 Speaker 1: who wrote after our. 612 00:37:43,000 --> 00:37:47,640 Speaker 2: Episode on Lcaricia of Winchester and Arturur wrote, Dear Tracy 613 00:37:47,680 --> 00:37:50,360 Speaker 2: and Holly, you rightly point out that not all people 614 00:37:50,400 --> 00:37:53,000 Speaker 2: engaged in money lending were Jews, and not all Jews 615 00:37:53,000 --> 00:37:55,399 Speaker 2: were engaged in money lending, But I wanted to point 616 00:37:55,400 --> 00:37:59,760 Speaker 2: out another factor that pushed medieval Jews to banking, finance 617 00:37:59,800 --> 00:38:03,320 Speaker 2: and trade. Jews in many countries were forbidden from owning 618 00:38:03,440 --> 00:38:07,000 Speaker 2: land so they could not be farmers or landlords. They 619 00:38:07,000 --> 00:38:10,600 Speaker 2: were not allowed to join guilds, so many professional trades 620 00:38:10,600 --> 00:38:13,240 Speaker 2: were foreclosed to them. There were only so many ways 621 00:38:13,280 --> 00:38:16,400 Speaker 2: to make a living in medieval Europe. Regards are Turo. 622 00:38:16,600 --> 00:38:20,279 Speaker 2: Thank you for this note, our Turo. I feel like 623 00:38:20,280 --> 00:38:23,160 Speaker 2: we had made like similar points from a different direction. 624 00:38:23,280 --> 00:38:25,720 Speaker 2: We had talked about people being allowed to live only 625 00:38:25,760 --> 00:38:31,399 Speaker 2: in England in London and then other cities, and they're 626 00:38:31,400 --> 00:38:35,160 Speaker 2: being restrictions on what professions they could pursue, But we 627 00:38:35,239 --> 00:38:40,719 Speaker 2: hadn't specifically talked about land owning or the fact that 628 00:38:41,040 --> 00:38:44,560 Speaker 2: having to be a member of a guild cut people off. 629 00:38:44,400 --> 00:38:45,680 Speaker 1: From so many different professions. 630 00:38:46,600 --> 00:38:51,200 Speaker 2: I think, if I am remembering correctly from my research 631 00:38:52,920 --> 00:38:56,960 Speaker 2: toward the end of when there was a Jewish community 632 00:38:57,040 --> 00:39:01,239 Speaker 2: in England during the medieval period, there were some people 633 00:39:01,280 --> 00:39:05,040 Speaker 2: who were allowed to own lands. But don't quote me 634 00:39:05,080 --> 00:39:08,440 Speaker 2: on that. I could be misremembering, or I could have 635 00:39:08,800 --> 00:39:10,640 Speaker 2: blurred some things together in what I was doing. So 636 00:39:10,719 --> 00:39:13,040 Speaker 2: thank you so much our cheer every game giving us 637 00:39:13,080 --> 00:39:14,720 Speaker 2: a chance to make that distinction. 638 00:39:15,920 --> 00:39:17,600 Speaker 1: If you would like, you can send us an email. 639 00:39:17,719 --> 00:39:21,200 Speaker 1: We're at History Podcasts at iHeartRadio dot com. You can 640 00:39:21,239 --> 00:39:26,440 Speaker 1: look at our Facebook, our Instagram, our ex that used 641 00:39:26,480 --> 00:39:28,279 Speaker 1: to be Twitter. We're at mist in History at all 642 00:39:28,320 --> 00:39:31,520 Speaker 1: those places, and you can subscribe to our show on 643 00:39:31,560 --> 00:39:36,160 Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app or wherever you'd like to get your podcasts. 644 00:39:40,120 --> 00:39:43,240 Speaker 1: Stuff you Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. 645 00:39:43,560 --> 00:39:48,160 Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 646 00:39:48,280 --> 00:39:50,320 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.