The little-known tale of a Devon man who was the first Briton to ever undertake the epic Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca has been told in a new book.

Joseph Pitts, of Exeter, went on the Hajj during the mid 1680s after being captured and sold into slavery. The young Christian sailor was caught by Algerian pirates on his first voyage in 1678. Sold as a slave in Algiers, he underwent forced conversion to Islam.

After being sold again, he accompanied his kindly third master on a pilgrimage to Mecca, so becoming the first Englishman known to have visited the Muslim Holy Places.

The hajj is the fifth pillar of Islam, a religious duty that must be carried out at least once in the lifetime of every able-bodied Muslim.

Paul Auchterlonie, at the University of Exeter, has now written a book about Pitt's fascinating life, Encountering Islam: Joseph Pitts: An English Slave in 17th-Century Algiers & Mecca.