The work is particularly valuable for its details of family life in the seraglio. This is one of the most important, if not the most important record of life in Tripoli of the eighteenth century. Tully's female relatives were on intimate terms with the Bashaw's family and were admitted into all the life of the seraglio, and according to the various editions of this work, it was written by the sister, or sister-in-law of Richard Tully, British Consul at Tripoli 1783-93.