Week-9-Thursday: Michael Fisher’s account of Dean Mahomet

Sheikh Din Muhamud, or, as he himself spelt it Sake Dean Mahomet, was born in the East Indian colony of Bengal shortly after it was acquired by the EIC around 1759. We know very little about his life in India other than what is included in his biography, written as a series of letters, rather than in a convention autobiographical form (this is available online: )

Relatively unknown, Mahomet’s life has become a subject of interest since it was republished in an annotated version by Prof. Michael Fisher. According to his own writing Dean Mahomet joined the East Indian Company’s Army as the personal servant of Godfrey Baker around the time he was 10-11. Other historians such as Chatterjee disagree with Fisher’s acceptance of Mahomet’s account, pointing out that Mahomet himself recalls that this was the time of a dire famine and it is likely that the boy was sold to the English officer by his family. Mahomet, however, claims that he wanted to be in the service of the EIC and also presents his family as one of the nobility. Thus, Chatterjee’s reading of this memoir is very different from that of Fisher.

In 1782 Godfrey Barker was accused of corruption and resigned from the Army. He would return to England and Dean Mahomet followed him there. For the rest of his life Dean Mahomet would try to re-invent himself in Ireland and England as a businessman. He first tried creating an Indian restaurant The Hindoostanee Coffee House and later a spa that introduced steam baths and massages or “shampoo” to the English. The spa was very successful and was patronized by Kings George the IV and William IV. Gradually, however this business also folded.

Mahomet’s Travels was written in 1794 before some the spa was established in Brighton—around the time the author was in his mid-30s. It follows many of the literary conventions of the time period, including the formula of using letters as a means of structuring the narrative. Scholarly analysis indicates that many of the travel accounts were plagiarized from other well-known works about India. It should be noted that both in Indian and in England such copying was not uncommon as the concept of “copyright” and originality had not yet become fully formed. As you read Fisher’s article try to get a sense both of how Fisher reads Mahomet’s work, as well as the kind of narrative Mahomet was trying to produce.

Questions

  1. Why does Fisher think Mahomet’s work is an important historical source? How does he use the author’s background and self-representation to support this idea?
  2. What is different about the way in which Chatterjee (see last week, p. 60-61) and Fisher approach Dean Mahomet’s narrative? What might be useful or problematic about each scholar’s work?
  3. In what ways does Mahomet’s choice of narrative style, arguments, and language inform us about his intended audience and motives for writing? Examine both Fisher’s understanding of this as well as other possible approaches.
  4. How does Fisher’s understanding of the context in which Mahomet is writing shape his analysis? What do you think works well or is lacking in this approach?
  5. Compare and contrast the kinds of self-representation that the memoirs of Dean Mahomet and Tahmas Miskin represent. How do they help us better understand this period?