Goethe und die deutschen Aufklärer

Persia in German Baroque literature—Sa‘dī’s Rose Garden and Adam Olearius’s embassy to Persia

“…The concept of world literature, however, only makes sense if we widen our viewpoint and include fruitful exchanges amongst poets, translators, travelers, journalists, researchers and others throughout time, hence not only since the nineteenth century 2 . Although Goethe is quoted many times in this context, we need to go beyond his somewhat far‐reaching, probably amorphous ideals of the original, Greek sources (Strich, 1957; Birus, 1995; Manger, 2003). In fact, the early modern world had already witnessed major efforts to reach out to other cultures well beyond the European confines.…”