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Hidden Heritage
A vital new perspective on British history from award-winning broadcaster Fatima Manji"This is such an important, brave book that sheds a calm, bright light on the complexity of history at a time when simplistic assumptions have become the norm. It is truly brilliant" Elif ShafakWhy was there a Turkish mosque adorning Britain's most famous botanic garden in in the eighteenth century And more importantly, why is it no longer there How did one of the great symbols of an Indian king's power, a pair of Persian-inscribed cannon, end up in rural Wales And who is the Moroccan man that stole British hearts depicted in a long forgotten portrait hanging in a west London stately home Throughout Britain's galleries and museums, civic buildings and stately homes, relics can be found that beg these questions and more. They point to a more complex national history than is commonly remembered. These objects, lost, concealed or simply overlooked, expose the diversity of pre-twentieth-century Britain and the misconceptions around modern immigration narratives. Hidden Heritage powerfully recontextualises the relationship between Britain and the people and societies of the Orient. In her journey across Britain exploring cultural landmarks, Fatima Manji searches for a richer and more honest story of a nation struggling with identity and the legacy of empire. "A timely, brilliant and very brave book" Jerry Brotton, author of This Orient Elizabethan England and the Islamic World"A compelling read about a history of Britain rarely cited and one that enriches an understanding of our complex, intriguing and wonderful past" Daljit Nagra
288 pages, Hardcover
Published August 12, 2021
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July 26, 2022Excellent idea: a look at some aspects of British history and how it's engaged with the Middle East/Ottomans/India ("the Orient") going back, fascinatingly, to Elizabethan times, and a backwater country desperately courting the sophisticated powerful states and hungry for all the science and innovation it could borrow, learn, or steal.
Excellent idea to use works of art and architecture as jumping off points for the story, especially as many of them are still there: I now have a list of things I want to see.
It's a strongly political book, with powerful opinions on how British history has been distorted and whitewashed to the glory of white Brits (and to obliterate the crimes of Empire because God forfend we should face up to how much of our prosperity, both material or intellectual, was stolen).
Excellent read: wish there was a TV series to go with as I wanted to see everything.
Excellent idea to use works of art and architecture as jumping off points for the story, especially as many of them are still there: I now have a list of things I want to see.
It's a strongly political book, with powerful opinions on how British history has been distorted and whitewashed to the glory of white Brits (and to obliterate the crimes of Empire because God forfend we should face up to how much of our prosperity, both material or intellectual, was stolen).
Excellent read: wish there was a TV series to go with as I wanted to see everything.
November 14, 2021
A thought provoking book which shaped my perspective and understanding of British History. By telling the story of different, less-known personalities and events that helped shape Britain into what it is today, this book cleverly weaves together historic truths that are not usually told. A book that will leave me thinking and questioning, long after I have put it down.
December 21, 2021
The historical narrative we spin of the fair island nation that is Britain is one that, as we’d expect, paints us in a good light. It depicts heroic little England/Britain (in England the two are often conflated, although at times the ‘Scottish Enlightenment’ is granted space) bringing civilisation, schools and railways to so much of the world that it was never devoid of daylight. There is a fantasy of enslavement where heroic England/Britain and its navy was instrumental in its abolition, forgetting that that same navy along with merchants played a vital, if not the main, role in the kidnapping of 10-12 million people from Africa. When pressed though many will admit that Britain didn’t exactly cover itself in glory when it came to the slave trade…. but when it comes to stately homes and the heritage industry, that will really get a whole bunch of people going, as we saw when the National Trust explicitly linked a bunch of its properties to the slave trade or when commentators and practitioners such as Dan Hicks unpack the history of plunder that fills those homes and Britain’s museums.
Fatima Manji, in this engaging, highly readable, crisply argued case, takes a slightly different approach. Although she grounds much of the discussion in those histories of plunder, her concern is less with those events than what the long standing obvious engagement with ‘The East’ tells us about Britain’s history and culture. Her opening gambit is simple, and reflects something I suspect many of us feel or experience when visiting stately homes and museums: we spot something skipped over by guides and guidebooks that seems likely to have an intriguing back story – a person of colour in a painting, an artefact laden with what looks like out-of-place script or some other thing about which, as Manji notes in her second paragraph, it is hard to find more information. Quizzical journalist as she is (she is a fairly well-known figure in UK television news, if only as the first regular news reader who wears a hijab), she set out to find out things. The story she tells is one of a long engagement with ‘the Orient’ from Moroccans visiting the court of Elizabeth 1 through the plunder of Srirangapathan by the East India Company to South Asian troops fighting in World War 1 and their memorials and graveyards in Surrey and Hampshire.
Some of her cases are moderately well-known, most notably the case of Tipu Sultan’s tiger throne broken up and pillaged at Srirangapathan, while others such as the Georgian mosque built in Kew Gardens (now long gone) alongside a pagoda (remaining and recently restored) are almost unknown. Inspiration comes from paintings such as those of the Elizabethan Moroccan ambassador or of Indian craftspeople done for Victoria at Osborne House, artefacts, institutions of the state (the Durbar Court at the Foreign Office) and archival traces – but all relate to existing if not always accessible heritage sites. She opens each of the six chapters exploring the artefact, painting or site, moves on to explore its historical contextualisation or the stories it allows us to tell, before reflecting in the final few pages of each chapter on the contemporary significance of the subject and the silences that surround it.
Throughout she paints a picture of a Britain deeply engaged with ‘the Orient’, while admitting her discomfort with the label despite its historical suitability – it was a label that was used into the second half of the 20th century (although admittedly sometimes as ‘The East’). Initially, Britain is very much the junior partner, attempting with only limited success to build links with the Moroccans and Ottomans in an unexpected Islamic-Protestant anti-Catholic alliance through to dominance in an Empire where thousands of Islamic, Sikh and Hindu troops joined the British war effort in Europe and West Asia during WW1. Along the way we see jealous members of Victoria’s household conspiring to marginalise her Indian advisor Abdul Karim, while also reminding us that even a monarch’s friendship and her criticism of racist attitudes in her circle is not enough counteract the systemic racism that sustains and shores up Empire.
The case comes together where she argues that “Our heritage sites, as the gatekeepers of national memory and stewards of the perimeters of history, should be at the forefront of reimagining our national story….[but they] are not performing this task.” (pp 225-6) This is a compelling case for those stories to be told and heard. What’s more, it’s an elegant production – good quality paper, well-illustrated (although the monochrome images in places needed better treatment to highlight contrasts, with several hard to make much of), and Manji (and her editor) have produced a text that both drew me in and kept my attention. In doing so we have been given a text that blends history and contemporary analysis with a critical journalist’s eye for the telling piece of evidence that allows for an unravelling of a bigger, richer and more complex past and present.
This has, no doubt, barely scratched the surface to the material at hand to reimagine that national history and in doing so allow us to reimagine contemporary Britain. It deserves to be widely read, and has tempted me to off-my-beaten-track sites.
Fatima Manji, in this engaging, highly readable, crisply argued case, takes a slightly different approach. Although she grounds much of the discussion in those histories of plunder, her concern is less with those events than what the long standing obvious engagement with ‘The East’ tells us about Britain’s history and culture. Her opening gambit is simple, and reflects something I suspect many of us feel or experience when visiting stately homes and museums: we spot something skipped over by guides and guidebooks that seems likely to have an intriguing back story – a person of colour in a painting, an artefact laden with what looks like out-of-place script or some other thing about which, as Manji notes in her second paragraph, it is hard to find more information. Quizzical journalist as she is (she is a fairly well-known figure in UK television news, if only as the first regular news reader who wears a hijab), she set out to find out things. The story she tells is one of a long engagement with ‘the Orient’ from Moroccans visiting the court of Elizabeth 1 through the plunder of Srirangapathan by the East India Company to South Asian troops fighting in World War 1 and their memorials and graveyards in Surrey and Hampshire.
Some of her cases are moderately well-known, most notably the case of Tipu Sultan’s tiger throne broken up and pillaged at Srirangapathan, while others such as the Georgian mosque built in Kew Gardens (now long gone) alongside a pagoda (remaining and recently restored) are almost unknown. Inspiration comes from paintings such as those of the Elizabethan Moroccan ambassador or of Indian craftspeople done for Victoria at Osborne House, artefacts, institutions of the state (the Durbar Court at the Foreign Office) and archival traces – but all relate to existing if not always accessible heritage sites. She opens each of the six chapters exploring the artefact, painting or site, moves on to explore its historical contextualisation or the stories it allows us to tell, before reflecting in the final few pages of each chapter on the contemporary significance of the subject and the silences that surround it.
Throughout she paints a picture of a Britain deeply engaged with ‘the Orient’, while admitting her discomfort with the label despite its historical suitability – it was a label that was used into the second half of the 20th century (although admittedly sometimes as ‘The East’). Initially, Britain is very much the junior partner, attempting with only limited success to build links with the Moroccans and Ottomans in an unexpected Islamic-Protestant anti-Catholic alliance through to dominance in an Empire where thousands of Islamic, Sikh and Hindu troops joined the British war effort in Europe and West Asia during WW1. Along the way we see jealous members of Victoria’s household conspiring to marginalise her Indian advisor Abdul Karim, while also reminding us that even a monarch’s friendship and her criticism of racist attitudes in her circle is not enough counteract the systemic racism that sustains and shores up Empire.
The case comes together where she argues that “Our heritage sites, as the gatekeepers of national memory and stewards of the perimeters of history, should be at the forefront of reimagining our national story….[but they] are not performing this task.” (pp 225-6) This is a compelling case for those stories to be told and heard. What’s more, it’s an elegant production – good quality paper, well-illustrated (although the monochrome images in places needed better treatment to highlight contrasts, with several hard to make much of), and Manji (and her editor) have produced a text that both drew me in and kept my attention. In doing so we have been given a text that blends history and contemporary analysis with a critical journalist’s eye for the telling piece of evidence that allows for an unravelling of a bigger, richer and more complex past and present.
This has, no doubt, barely scratched the surface to the material at hand to reimagine that national history and in doing so allow us to reimagine contemporary Britain. It deserves to be widely read, and has tempted me to off-my-beaten-track sites.
May 21, 2022
In summary:
British history is made up of propaganda by British people to make us forget we, *shockingly*, plundered and tried to subjugate every country we ever set foot in.
Fatima does provide the beginnings of such history which was fascinating as when I’ve read other books on the subject (such as the East India Company) other authors fail to discuss such things. She also provides ideas of how to bring the facts to the forefront and bring the real history into the light.
British history is made up of propaganda by British people to make us forget we, *shockingly*, plundered and tried to subjugate every country we ever set foot in.
Fatima does provide the beginnings of such history which was fascinating as when I’ve read other books on the subject (such as the East India Company) other authors fail to discuss such things. She also provides ideas of how to bring the facts to the forefront and bring the real history into the light.
April 5, 2024
Really great way of challenging the way we view how museum artefacts are presented to us and the hidden stories behind how they came to be here.
August 5, 2024
Extremely readable. Manji recounts extremely interesting (and anger-inducing) history. A very relevant read after a weekend of far-right riots which completely misunderstand British history.
"Visitors or potential visitors to heritage sites who have their own Oriental heritage should not be seen as grateful guests who need to be taught the ways and myths of 'native' Britons. By choice and by bondage, we made these islands too".
I was particularly surprised by the story of Abdul Karim, a trusted confidant to Queen Victoria. He's the subject of a movie, but importantly, after he died, King Edward "endeavoured to expunge his memory from the national memory, ordering letters between and photographs of his mother and her _Munshi_ to be burnt". This was an organised forgetting, only recovered as his diary was found by one of his relatives.
I also found the story of Tipu Sultan, who ruled in southern India in the late 1700s and who was killed and pillaged by the British, and whose two sons were kidnapped in a State-sanctioned move, shocking. Much of his stuff is at the V&A now.
"Visitors or potential visitors to heritage sites who have their own Oriental heritage should not be seen as grateful guests who need to be taught the ways and myths of 'native' Britons. By choice and by bondage, we made these islands too".
I was particularly surprised by the story of Abdul Karim, a trusted confidant to Queen Victoria. He's the subject of a movie, but importantly, after he died, King Edward "endeavoured to expunge his memory from the national memory, ordering letters between and photographs of his mother and her _Munshi_ to be burnt". This was an organised forgetting, only recovered as his diary was found by one of his relatives.
I also found the story of Tipu Sultan, who ruled in southern India in the late 1700s and who was killed and pillaged by the British, and whose two sons were kidnapped in a State-sanctioned move, shocking. Much of his stuff is at the V&A now.
February 2, 2023
This is for any who wants to:
1) Change the way they see museums and places that house artefacts of the past. You will go from passively acknowledging the artefacts to daring to ask questions about how it ended up there, who made it, what is the name and story of that one brown person in the painting and so on.
2) Understand Britain's love, fascination and fears for the so called Orient way before it became a colonial enterprise. Each individual chapter here is a journey, that takes you from India, to Morocco, to Turkey and back.
3) Rekindle your love for history, and understand that history is very relevant to the past. Past narratives being forgotten from the public mind are a big reason why policies suffer from xenophobia and a myopic world view. The truth is we are all interconnected in ways more than propaganda has to believe.
I deeply respect how the author was true and neutral in her approach. Opinions weren't disguised as facts here, it was pure journalism meets easy reading about history and modern day predicaments like the other-ification of Muslims, brown skinned people and non-westerners in general. I look forward to taking the inquisitive attitude of Fatima Manji and looking at the world around me more critically.
1) Change the way they see museums and places that house artefacts of the past. You will go from passively acknowledging the artefacts to daring to ask questions about how it ended up there, who made it, what is the name and story of that one brown person in the painting and so on.
2) Understand Britain's love, fascination and fears for the so called Orient way before it became a colonial enterprise. Each individual chapter here is a journey, that takes you from India, to Morocco, to Turkey and back.
3) Rekindle your love for history, and understand that history is very relevant to the past. Past narratives being forgotten from the public mind are a big reason why policies suffer from xenophobia and a myopic world view. The truth is we are all interconnected in ways more than propaganda has to believe.
I deeply respect how the author was true and neutral in her approach. Opinions weren't disguised as facts here, it was pure journalism meets easy reading about history and modern day predicaments like the other-ification of Muslims, brown skinned people and non-westerners in general. I look forward to taking the inquisitive attitude of Fatima Manji and looking at the world around me more critically.
February 11, 2022
Am earnest and well researched book that looks at Britain’s long fascination with the east, from the Ottoman Empire to its empire in Britain. It restores the hidden histories of the orient in Britain. Fantastic read.
April 25, 2024
A shared, factual history, rather than an isolated one,
Actual inclusion and diversity rather than just lip-service,
Realizing and amalgamating differences of culture, history and faith.
The book narrates a shared history from the Orient to the Imperial through iconography of architecture. It narrates through objects, the non object, their history and roles played in shaping Britain as it is now. It reiterates acknowledging the efforts and contribution of Orient and South Asians, rather than de-radicalizing or integration of descendants of the Orient today, which is disrespect and a disservice of contribution of individuals from a diverse background, and an attempt at flattening of history. Manji's penmanship, a lesson through heritage and debate on diversity/inclusion offers an in-depth and interesting insight in a way vey few writers have explored.
Actual inclusion and diversity rather than just lip-service,
Realizing and amalgamating differences of culture, history and faith.
The book narrates a shared history from the Orient to the Imperial through iconography of architecture. It narrates through objects, the non object, their history and roles played in shaping Britain as it is now. It reiterates acknowledging the efforts and contribution of Orient and South Asians, rather than de-radicalizing or integration of descendants of the Orient today, which is disrespect and a disservice of contribution of individuals from a diverse background, and an attempt at flattening of history. Manji's penmanship, a lesson through heritage and debate on diversity/inclusion offers an in-depth and interesting insight in a way vey few writers have explored.
October 9, 2022
A well thought-out account of what British history truly entails and encompasses, let down a little by a slightly convoluted method of writing.
But don’t let that deter you from opening a book that will hopefully, as the author also wishes, become a platform for further insight into & the seeking of clearer lines around those parts of history that we aren’t taught. These isles are built upon the backs of subjects of Empire - why then should we not seek to reconnect with this past, especially when it is on display in our most popular museums (albeit erased of its true history).
But don’t let that deter you from opening a book that will hopefully, as the author also wishes, become a platform for further insight into & the seeking of clearer lines around those parts of history that we aren’t taught. These isles are built upon the backs of subjects of Empire - why then should we not seek to reconnect with this past, especially when it is on display in our most popular museums (albeit erased of its true history).
December 2, 2025
Books like this should be mandatory reading for anyone who has gone through British schools and been taught the half-truths, lies and purposeful omissions of our history.
Information on how both previous monarchs and members of the public in centuries past have reacted to people from ‘the Orient’ (as this book defines), as well as the ~1 million of their soldiers who assisted us in WWI is incredibly important.
I implore anyone, particularly British readers, who wishes to learn snippets of real and likely deliberately ‘forgotten’ history to read this.
Information on how both previous monarchs and members of the public in centuries past have reacted to people from ‘the Orient’ (as this book defines), as well as the ~1 million of their soldiers who assisted us in WWI is incredibly important.
I implore anyone, particularly British readers, who wishes to learn snippets of real and likely deliberately ‘forgotten’ history to read this.
September 21, 2022
Six buildings and objects are explored in detail to recover lost aspects of Britain's past. Manji skilfully brings together historical evidence, multiple time periods, and modern questions to offer new and intriguing perspectives.
October 25, 2022
Incredibly informative and eye opening - as well as inspiring. The writing style was also had a nice flow; being formal & descriptive without the heaviness that much academic scholarship has. I really appreciated the vast amount of history covered too, from the Elizabethan era up to WW1
January 13, 2025
By far one of the most accessible and informative piece(s) of history I have read. From her beautiful descriptions of relics and historical sights, to her incredibly well researched discussions, Fatima gives a thoroughly thought provoking insight into the hidden heritage of Britain.
November 4, 2025
What an absolute triumph of a book. Engaging, informative, emotive. This is one I am going to have to buy a copy of because I desperately want to get highlighting. And also visiting all of the sites mentioned.
June 11, 2022
Excellent, thought- provoking book. Well-written and full of fascinating, 'hidden' stories.
October 1, 2022
Very interesting.
December 17, 2024
Must read . An eye opener to our true history.
December 28, 2022
Almost like a companion piece to 'The First Firangis', written from a British perspective (with immigrant roots) it tells about the more cosmopoliton nature of the 16th century where the presence of a Turk and the infusion of Coffee in British culture caused an uproar and much later when Britain became the colonial power that it was, their appropriation of art from their colonies, majorly India, which leads to a hall in a government office being called Durbar and decorated as such. A must read for peeling of a layer of history less talked about.
September 7, 2024
3.5 stars. So much interesting information about the history of Muslims in Britain and the relationship Britain had with the Muslim world that differs so much from what we see today. Eye opening
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