Samson_Rowlie

Samson Rowlie

Samson Rowlie

Chief Eunuch and Treasurer of Algiers during Ottoman rule

Samson Rowlie (died after 1588) was Chief Eunuch and Treasurer of Algiers during Ottoman rule. Born in Norfolk, England, the son of a Bristol merchant, Francis Rowlie, he was captured aboard of the Swallow[1] and castrated by the Ottomans in 1577.[2] He converted from Christianity to Islam and took the name Hassan Aga.[3] He served the Beylerbey of Algiers, Uluç Ali Pasha.

Portrait of Samson Rowlie/Hassan Aga

Richard Hakluyt's 1589 collection, The Principal Navigations, included a 1586 letter from William Harborne, England's ambassador to the Ottoman court, addressed to Hassan Aga, for the purpose of negotiating prisoner release.[4] A 1588 watercolor portrait depicts Hassan Aga with white skin and rosy cheeks, wearing a large turban. He was reported to have been murdered.[5]

References

  1. [1]
    Maclean, G. (2007-09-05). Looking East: English Writing and the Ottoman Empire Before 1800. Springer. ISBN 9780230591844.
  2. [2]
    "The first Muslims in England - BBC News". BBC News. 20 March 2016. Retrieved 2016-03-21.
  3. [3]
    Matar, Nabil (1998-10-13). Islam in Britain, 1558-1685. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521622332.
  4. [4]
    Das, Nandini. "Richard Hakluyt and Early English Travel". The Public Domain Review. Retrieved 9 May 2018.
  5. [5]
    Bamford, Daniel. "The life & death of Samson Rowlie, alias Hassan Agha. London, Nov. 2016". Academia.edu. Retrieved 9 May 2018.
Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Samson_Rowlie, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.