A Christian Turn'd Turk was entered into the Stationers' Register on 1 February 1612 (new style) and was published in quarto format later that year by the bookseller William Barrenger.

[5] Ward would later make an agreement with the Turks to use Tunis as a base for his piratical operations and would attack Christian ships in an attempt to steal their lucrative cargo.

[6] However, his conversion to Islam and assumption of the name Yusuf Reis was considered scandalous, and his relentless and indiscriminate attacks on sailing vessels caused concerns about the amount of money England was losing as a result of his piracy.

Dansiker's reform is complicated by the reluctance of the French merchants he's robbed to accept him—until he returns to Tunis to apprehend the renegade Jew, Benwash.

(This was a large leap of dramatic license on Daborne's part, since the real Ward would die eleven years after the play was written.

The head of Mahomet, a common prop of the period, was used to emphasise the religious nature of the scene but also to highlight Islam's status as a pagan faith.

[14] An extract of Robert Daborne's A Christian Turn'd Turk was performed as part of a special Read Not Dead event at Shakespeare's Globe in the newly constructed Sam Wanamaker Playhouse.