It was Southerne's first play and was written in the context of the recent Exclusion Crisis and the Popish Plot from a Tory viewpoint.

Two characters are thinly disguised versions of contemporary figures, the heroic Tachmas is James, Duke of York and the villain is the Whig politician the Earl of Shaftesbury.

[1] It was staged at a time when the growing Tory Reaction had swung power away from the Whigs trying to exclude the Catholic York from the throne.

The original Drury Lane cast included Cardell Goodman as Seliman, Thomas Clark as Tachmas, Michael Mohun as Ismael, Philip Griffin as Arbanes, Richard Saunders as Osman, Katherine Corey as Begona, Sarah Cooke as Semanthe and Anne Marshall as Sunamire.

[2] The published play was dedicated to the Duke of Richmond, Master of the Horse and illegitimate son of Charles II.