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.