Introduction: Scholarly Personae in the History of Orientalism, 1870-1930

Abstract

In 1884, the Lebanese philologist Ibrahim al-Yaziji filed a harsh complaint about Arabic studies in Europe when he reproached the then just-deceased Reinhart Pieter Anne Dozy (1820-1883) for never having visited the Middle East. How could Dozy or any of his colleagues in Europe claim Arabic expertise without ever having heard the language spoken on the street or sought the opportunity to meet and learn from native speakers? Al-Yaziji dissociated himself from generations of European Arabists when he concluded:In spite of all research proficiency, in spite of the high ambitions, in spite of all patience in observing and writing, the man [Dozy] lacked the best means for understanding the Arabic language, the classical and the modern alike, because, to our knowledge, he has never traveled to one of the Arabic-speaking countries, such as Egypt or Syria, and conversed orally with only few Arabs, but learned the language solely from books, with the help of people among his fellow-countrymen whom are called Orientalists. 1 By the late nineteenth century, such complaints were voiced not only in the Middle East, but also among younger European Orientalists such as Ignác Goldziher and Martin