Joseph Pitts (1663–1735?) was an Englishman who was taken into slavery by Barbary pirates in Algiers, Algeria in 1678 at the age of fourteen or fifteen. During his time in captivity, Pitts went through three masters over the course of more than fifteen years, with whom he travelled to Cairo and Alexandria. Though he escaped between the years 1693 and 1694, it was not until 1704 that Pitts first published his account. Pitts's A True and Faithful Account of the Religion and Manners of the Mohammetans, includes descriptions of his capture and captivity, including some of the first English descriptions of Islamic rituals. Converting to Islam while a slave, Pitts was the first Englishman to record the proceedings of the hajj. Pitts also describes the people of seventeenth-century North Africa in detail, providing particulars on their manner of eating and dressing, the customs of their religion and marriage, and their economic and slave systems. Pitts's narrative was the first and most detailed description of Islam and the manners of Muslims written by a European during the seventeenth century.
Pilgrimage to Mecca
During Pitts's time with his last master that he made his journey to Mecca to complete the hajj. Having converted to Islam under his second master, Ibrahim, Pitts departed for the hajj with his third master around 1685. His account described many aspects of the Islamic pilgrimage including the hajj caravans, the rites at Mecca, and the customary visit to Medina.
Initial rites
As a pilgrim, Pitts participated in the initial rites upon arriving in Mecca. This time is filled with the pilgrims' first tawaf, cleansing and drinking at the Zamzam Well, and completion of the sa'i. Today the sa'i is completed within the mosque in Mecca called Masjid al-Haram. During Pitts's time, and up until the 1950s, this was completed on the street.
Mount Arafat
In chapter 7, Pitts says that they leave Mecca to visit “a certain hill called Gibbel el orphat (or el-Arafat), i.e., the Mountain of Knowledge.” Here he witnesses the pilgrims perform wuquf at Arafat. It is the “how, when, and where [pilgrims] receive this honorable title of hajji for which they are at all this pains and expense," Pitts states. He describes the times that the pilgrims perform their preparations for the prayers and rites to be completed while at the hill, and how "they [beg] earnestly for the remission of their sins and [promise] newness of life using a form of penitential expressions and thus continuing for the space of four or five hours."
Sexuality, women, and slavery in Pitts's narrative
Pitts does not often mention women in his writings and it appears there were very few opportunities for him to be around women. Pitts encounters violence against women several times in his account, most notably when describing the Imperial Turkish camps where he wrote that the soldiers are "apt to drink, and are abominably rude, insomuch that it is very dangerous for any woman to walk in any by-place but more dangerous for boys, for they are extremely given to sodomy…"
In his discussion of marriage, Pitts describes how the marriage agreement takes place between the groom and the father of the bride. The woman's possible feelings or misgiving about the union are not mentioned at all. Pitts appears to perceive women as having little to no power in their relationships with men. He also discusses the idea of divorce and of Muslim men having multiple wives. According to Pitts, divorce is fairly common in the Islamic world and both parties are free to remarry afterwards. Multiple wives are not as common though; Pitts reports that very few men have multiple wives except out in the rural areas. Pitts touches on female power, but only from his perspective of interactions with the elite, and his background from England.