Archiv f r Religionsgeschichte, 3.

Band, 2001,169-182

The Study of Islam in early modern Europe

A lastair Hamilton, Leiden

Islam was a dangerous subject with which to meddle in early modern Europe. When the
first Latin translation of tlie Quran ever to be priiited was published in Basel in 1543
the printer, Johannes Oporinus, was imprisoned, albeit briefly, despite the support of
Luther and Melanchthon.1 Over a Century later, in England in March 1649, there was
a similar occurrence when die English translation attributed to Alexander ROSS of Andre
du Ryer's French rendering of the Quran appeared in print. The bookseller, John Ste-
phenson, was arrested, copies of tlie book were seized, and, in the months foUowing the
actual publication (wliich was deferred for a month), the project was sharply attacked.2
As for Catholic Europe, possession of the Quran or any other work in Arabic had been
forbidden by the Spanish Inquisition in 1511. The Quran was soon placed on the in-
dexes - tlie Quran in any language on the Portuguese index of 1547, the Spanish index
of 1551 and the Venetian index in 1554, and the Basel edition specifically on the Ro-
man indexes of 1559 and 1564. But the support on wliich translations of the Quran
could count and the widespread interest they aroused - the French translation of 1647
was little less than a bestseller and was reprinted again and agaiii, while the English
version ran through two editions in a year - showed just how divided Europe was.
To translate the Quran could be justified by an age-old ideal, formulated at the time
of die Crusades by Ranion Llull and frequently revived later: the conversion of the
Muslims. A team of Christians with a sound knowledge of Arabic and well-acquainted
with Islamic beliefs and sources, could, it was hoped, confute these beliefs to tlie satis-
faction of their Muslim interlocutors and win them over to Christianity. It was this con-
viction which had produccd the early translations of the Quran. The translation by
Robert of Ketton. finally published in 1543 but made in 1143, was to serve such a pur-
pose. The later, and better, but unpublished translation by Marco de Toledo was also
intended for the same object, s were tlie efforts by Denys die Carthusian, Ricoldo da
Montecroce. Juan Andres and Guillaume Postel to translate the whole, or part of, the
Quran.
The study of Islam in the west. in short, has almost invariably been so surrounded by
prejudice that it is hard to separate the propaganda inspiring most works on the subject
from efforts to transmit a true knowledge and understanding of the Muslim faith. The

Cf. Carlos Cilly. Spanien und der Basier Buchdruck bis 1600. Kin Querschnitt durch die spanische
ltichtf aus der Sicht einer europ ischen uchdmckcrsladt (Basel 1985), pp. 16-20.
" G. J. Toomer, K stern H'utedome and f^carrnng. The. SUidy of Arabic in SrvenU'.cnlh-Cenlury
Irland (Oxford 1996), pp, 200-1.
' J. M. de Bujanda (<.*d). Index de Γ/nquisition portugaist* 1547. 1551, 7567, 7564, 75-.S7 [= Index
des Urrps interdiu vol. 4] (Sherhroke/Cerievp, 1995). p. 296: Index dt ΙΊηψιΙΜοη espagnole 7557,
755* 7559 [Index des tims ititerdiU vol. 5] (Sbcrbroke/Cerieve. 1984), p. 218: Index (Je l'vni** 75*9-
h'/iute et Mila/i 1554 [Index des livrcs inlerdits vol. 3] (Shcrl>rtikc/G<iricve 1987) p. 214; Index de liunw
755Γ . 7559. 7564 [= Index des livres interdit* voL 8] (Slierbroke/Gerievr 1990), pp. 362-4.
170 Archiv für Religionsgeschichte, 3. Band, 2001

insertion of Islam in an cschatological schcme, the applicaüon to it of passages in the

Bible seen äs prophesying its risc and, more important still, its fall, did little to promote
a true familiarity. And yet - and this is the subect of this essay - certain atternpts in
that direction were made. Prejudiced though their presentation may have been, Islamic
sources were gradually gathered, and, despite the missionary tones and an increasingly
eonfessionlized approach in the sixteentli centur)7, by 1700 the foundations had been
laid for the positive treatment of Islam which we occasionally encounter in the Enlight-
enment. The term "objective" should perhaps be avoided, since few of the known
sources of die time can be regarded äs such in the modern sense. At best we can say
that a fainiliarization with Islamic sources, however open to critidsin in themselves,
made it possible to appreciate the point of view of the Muslims.

From the Islamic conquests to the Reformation

The process of acquaintance with Islam may have been slow in die west, but it was rela-
tively swift in the east. The Byzantines were amongst die most immediate victims of the
Arab conquests in die Levant in the seventh Century, and it was consequendy in circles of
Syrian Christians that we find die ingredients of some of the derogatory legends concern-
ing the Prophet which it would take western students of L·!am almost a millennium to ex-
plode - die story of Zayd and his beautiful wife Zaynab, intendiiig to illustrate the
Prophet's lust and hypocrisy; the tale of the dove trained to pick seeds out of the
Prophet's eai·, supposed to demonstrate his fraudulence; die mydi of die Prophet's burial
in a magnetically suspended coffin, evidence of black magical practices, and many others.
In contrast with later writers from the west the Byzantine theologians had litde inter-
est in the conversion of the Muslims to Christianity, but were concenied mainly with
proving them to be heretics and forerunners of Antichrist. Nevertheless the Quran was
translated into Greek, and polemicists such äs John of Damascus in the eighdi Century
and Nicetas of Byzantium a hundred years later quoted passages in a generally accurate
translation. In die west we have to wait for many centuries - until the twelfdi Century
when Petrus Alfonsi, a converted Jew, devoted a chapter to Islam in his attack on die
Jews, and above all when, in the recently conquered city of Toledo, the abbot of Cluiiy,
Peter the Venerable, arranged for the Quran and other works about Islam to be trans-
lated into Latin in a declared attempt to combat the Muslims with spiritual weapons.5
The scholars who assembled in Toledo and contributed to die various parts of the
Corpus Toletanum were in daily contact widi Muslims and seem to have had a good
understanding of Islam, probably based on tafstr, die Muslim interpretations of the
Quran, äs well äs on the haditli or traditions concerning die Prophet. * And there is aiu-
ple evidence that many Islamic concepts which Christians found difficult not only to ac-
cept, but even to widerstand, had been correcdy perceived in the Middle Ages. James of

* For a more "objective" assessment of some of the avilable sources see Bernard Lewis, uGibbon on
Muhammad" in his Islam and the West (New York, 1993), pp. 85-98.
The development is well described by Hartmut Bobzin, Der Koran im Zeitalter der Reformation.
Studien zur Frühgeschichte derArabistik und Islamkunde in Europa (Beirut, 1995), pp. 38-60.
6
Cf. M. T. d'Aiverny, "Deux traduction latines du Coran au Moyen Age" in Archive* d'histoire
doctrinale et ütteraire du moyen-age (1947-8) 22-3, pp. 69-131, esp. p. 103; and J. Kritzeck, "Peter
the Venerable and tlic Toledan Collectiori" in G. Constable & J. Kritzeck (eds.)„ Petrus f'enerabilis
(1156-1956) (Rorne, 1956), pp. 176-201.
 A. Hamilton, The Study of Islam 171

Vitry and Ricoldo da Monte Croce, for example, seem to havc grasped fully the Islamic
idea of one religion in all ages and nations revealed by different prophets at clifferent
times, even if Matthew of Paris presented it äs a belief in a succession of three religions,
Judaism, Christianity, Islam, each one replacing the other - an inteq^retation which was
more coinprehensible, and tended to prevail, in the west. In contrast even to Robert of
Kelton, moreover, Marco de Toledo perfectly understood die actual sense of the word
"Islam'' äs meaning surrender.7
Such perceptions continue with little interruption. If we look forward to tlie lale fif-
teenth centiny we find Juan Andres, a Muslim convert to Christianity, producing a po-
lemical work against Islam (which has survived) and a translation of the Quran (which
has disappeared). Wliat is striking about die work of Andres is not so much the astonish-
ing accuracy of his translation of tliose passages of die Quran which have survived in liis
polemical work äs his familiarity with some of those very sources wliich were to play such
an important part in die study of Islam in the seventeenth Century: die tafsir of two major
commentators of the late eleventh and early twelfth Century, the Spaniard ihn 'Atiya and
the Mutazilite al-Zamakhshari, the author of Al-kashshäf'an haqälq al-tanzil.8
In tlie fourteenth Century, however, tlie map of the Islamic world was already
changing, and the consequences were considerable. The provisions for the teaching of
Arabic at the uiiiversities of Paris, Oxford, Bologna and Salamanca announced at tlie
Council of \rienne in 1311 and conceived in the sanie missionary spirit which prompted
most analyses of Islam, had remained a dead letter. Islam, previously associated with
the great Muslim transmitters of Greek thought and science, became the religion of the
advancing Mongole and of the Turks who were penetrating far deeper into Europe than
die Arabs had ever done. Even if the Turks would be admired in the west for their val-
our and their piety, neither they nor the Mongols were regarded äs the bearers of civili-
zation. Uiitil well into the modern period there was a marked reluctance in the west to
credit the Turks with any cultural acliievement. In 1621 a man generalJy acclaimed äs
an expert, Tliomas Erpenius. professor of Arabic at Leiden, could still proclaim: "Nor,
indeed. should my hearers think that the Arabs were anything like tliose who have now
gained power over matters in the Orient, tlie Turks - a tribe of Scythian barbailans who
took over power some three centuries ago when that famous kingdom of the Saracens
had been broken up. Tlie Turks neither were nor are lovers of learning."
Willi the development of humanism in the west, moreover, the growing study of
Greek and die attendant discovery of Greek manuscripts, a critical attitude developed
to the Arabic translatioris of tbe Greek classics wliich had an adverse effect on the study
of the language of the Quran and the culture of Islam. Rather than conveyors, trie Arabs
caine to be regarded äs distorters of die works of the ancients.10 Certainly, an interest
persisted in Arab scientists. Western scholars would collect manuscripts, and continue to
read the works. of Avicenna and othcr writers on inedicine into the seventeenth Century.

Tbe l*»st frtirvcy remain* Norman Daniel, Islam and tiw Wc&l. The Muking of an Image (rev.ed.
Oxford. 1993), pf >. 17-45.
:
Bobxin. UerKarati. pp. 77-9, 450. Cf. also Helmut ßobzui. ^Bemerkungen zu Juan Andres und zu
Beinern Buch Cnnfiuion de la secla Motionta/ica (Valencia 1515)^ in: M. Forstner (ed.)·, Festschrift für
//.-/{. Singer (Frankfurt-am-Main, 1991). pp. 529-48.
Rol>en Joneh, ~Thoma.s Erpenmü (1584-1624) on fhc Value of tJic Arabic Lunguagc",
Mwiiurript* off he Middie Eant. 1 (19Ä6), pp, 15-25. <*p. p. 18,
I<J
Felix KJ<·i^J·l·'uJ ke. Die klassische Antike in der Tradition de» Islam (Darmsladt 1980), pp. 17-52.
172 Archiv für Religionsgeschichte, 3. Band, 2001

But thc days when die Arabs wcre secn äs the saviours of a great (arid European) cuJ-
ture, and when their own achievements in numerous practical domains were recounted
admiringly by European visitors, were over.
The Turkish direat led to renewed calls for a crusade and these were again accompa-
nied by rnissionaiy endeavours to study Islamic texts which hardly vary in tone from
their medieval predecessors. Islam was viewed more than ever in the west äs a dark
menace.11 This ericouraged die circulation of the anti-Islamic legends concocted by the
Byzantines, and when die study of Islam truly resumed in the sixteenth Century it was
in veiy different circumstances from those of die Middle Ages.
An important place was held in this development by the Reformation. Islam was
draggcd into western interconfessional disputes mithin a few decades of Luthers break
with Ronie. Tue Catholics accused the Protestants of affinities with the Muslims, and
vice versa. Fraise of Islamic customs and institutions was almost invariably intended äs
an implicit criticism of the ecclesiastical Situation in Europe. The success of the Prophet
and die rise and spread of Islam, which had long been interpreted by Christians äs a
form of divine punishment, were presented äs an enduring warning of where religious
divisions might lead. Certain Calvinists believed that they could ally themselves with
die sultan to destroy Catholicism and subsequendy convert the Turks to Christianity.12
Descriptions of Islam were coloured - and distorted - accordingly.
The eschatological predictions fostered by the great rift in western Christendoni con-
tinued from the Middle Ages. The Standard ränge of identifications remained: the
Prophet seen äs Antichrist; the Turk or die Saracen regarded äs the "little hörn" of the
fourth beast in Daniel 7:8, äs one of die kings of the east in Revelation 15:12, or äs one
of the three heads of the eagle in the apocryphal 2 Esdras. In the end, however, die
Muslims would be converted. The words of St Matthew (24:14) continued to echo:
"And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all
nations, and dien shall the end come". This passage remained a constant Stimulus to
missionary activity and, however disappointing its results, resounded into the nine-
teenth Century when members of the clergy saw die spread of the European empires äs
die necessary condition for converting the Muslims. They applauded the increasing
knowledge of Islam which had been acquired since die sixteenth Century and at last
made it possible to debate with diem on an equal footing.13
Another factor wliich affected die study of Islam from die early sixteenth Century
onwards was the emergence of die Ottoman empire. The new power that swiftly ex-
tended its hold over the Arab world, from the eastern borders of Morocco to die western
fringes of Persia, was indeed seen äs ideologically hostile, but it was also regarded äs a
potential political ally and an important trading partner. Fraiigois I of France had
hoped to involve the sultan in an alliance against bis Habsburg neighbours, and from
dien on European powers were for ever courting the sultan in efforts to persuade h im to'
attack dieir enemies or to prevent him from attacking their friends. This led to the more
or less permanent diplomatic representation of nations which had previously had little
more than a tenuous foodiold in the east. The presence of ambassadors and consulates

11
R. W. Southeni, Western Views of Islam in the Middle Ages (Cambridge, Mass. 1978), pp. 67-109.
Cf. M. E. H. N. Mout, "Calvinoturcisme in de zeventiende eeuw. Comeiiius, Leidsc Orientalisten en
de Turkse bijbel" in Tijdschrift voorgeschieden!* 9l (1978) pp. 576-607.
u
Cf. Alastair Haniilton, "Western artitudes to Islam in die Enlightciurient", Middle Eastern
Lectures, 3 (1999), pp. 69-85.
 A. Hamilton. The Study of Islam 173

often entailed, in its turn, the attendance of European scholars, acting äs chaplains,
employed in coinmercial or diploinatic capacities, or simply dispatched äs collectors of
antiquities or äs die gatherers of scientific Information about the area.
Manuscripts were thus collected on an uiiprecedented scale., and previously unknown
material conceniing Islam arrived in Eiirope. As the seventeenth Century drew on this
material was classified and exploited systematically by students of Islam. Although
certain tafsir had unquestionably been used in the Middle Ages, allusions and quota-
tioiis tended to be either implicit or unclear. By the late seventeenth Century, on the
other hand, the tafsir were being quoted extensively, often both in Arabic and in Latin
translation. The more populär were recent and easy to obtain in the east. Such was the
case of the fifteendi-century Tafsir al-Jelälayn by the Egyptian Jaläl al-Din al-Mahalli
and his pupil Jaläl al-Din al-Suyüti, one of the best loved commentaries in die Islamic
world. The relative brevity and clarity of the works made it particularly desirable in
Europe. Arabic chroiiicles, acquired in manuscript in die Levant, were also published in
die original and in translation, and gradually modified the strictly eurocentric view of
the Arab conquests, the Crusades, and die advance of die Turks.

Parallel developments: the Protestant north

Despite the somewhat artificial distinction l propose to make between developments in
northern and Protestant Europe and those in southern and Catholic Europe the man re-
garded äs the founder of Arabic studies in nordiern Europe had a foot in both worlds.
Guillaume Postel was a Catholic and a Frenchman.14 He visited the Levant on two oc-
casions. availing himself each time of the presence of a French ambassador. Besides a
great many Cliristian Arabic manuscripts, Postel, who admired die qualities of die
Turks, also collected a considerable amount of Islamic material, such äs al-Bukhäri's
§aluh. one of the best known collections of hacKth. In 1542-3 he devoted a part of his
De orbis terrae concordia to a discussion of the Quran. Resting on Juan Andres, he
mentions. albeit in a somewhat garbled form, AJ-Zamakhshari and Ibn cAtfya. But he
also quotes. frora manuscripts of his own, Averroes' Tahäfut al-taliafut and the
Tadhkira of the thirteenth-century Quranic Interpreter al-Qurtiibi .
Quite apart from the quality of PostePs translation of large sections of the Quran, he
proved astonishingly sensitive to Islamic terminology and to certain distinctions of cru-
cial iinportance to Muslim thought. One of diese is based on a verse in the third sura,
nl-'lmran (3:7). and concerns the difference between those parts of the Quran which
are fixed (muhkamat) and those susccptible of Interpretation (miitashäbihat or, the
term Postel prefers. ghayr rnuhkamat). To this passage of the utmost signiiicance for
the Muiazilites and odier urationalr Interpreters of die text we shall return.
The principal objeciive of De orbis terrae concordia was to convcrt die Muslims to
Chrfctiaiiity. In the tradition of Ramon LluU and Nicholas of Cusa. Postel lioped to pre-
s<»nt the Muslims with certain irrofutable tenets of the Christian faith with which they

14
The liitrWy pwraptivc di»<xu5ion by Helmut ßobzin in Ucr Koran, pji. 365-497, ha.s rc-placed the
critii'iiiins nf Pohic! a?» an Arai>i.si of Hermann Förk, Die arabischen Sludutn in Ihm/ia bis an den
Anfang -s 20. Jahrhundert (i^ip^g 1955), pp. 47-53.
!>
G u Ü La u n R- Postel. D? orbis terrve concardia (Basel, 1544) p. 153. disciihwd by BobziiK Der Kornn^
pp. 473-4. Cf. fpiaz Qiid^ihcr. Ute Itictitungen der ixla/nijtc/u'ti Korartauxlrgnng (Leiden, 1970),
pp. 127-9 on tJw* itnporcatice «f the pa&hugf· for ihc Mutaxilitrs.
174 Archiv für Religionsgeschichte, 3. Band, 2001

would inevitably agree. At the same tirne, however, there was a distinct streak of anti-
Protestantism i his work. He was convinced that the Reformation contained the very
saine seeds of sedition which had once been sown by the Prophet and that the Protes-
tants might well yield to the same persuasive arguments äs the Muslims and return to
the bosorn of the single Church.
Postel spent the last eighteen years of his life, frorn 1563 to 1581. enclosed äs a luna-
tic in the convent of St Martin des Champs in Paris, Yet his lunacy was generally admit-
ted to be of a harmless nattire and he was free to correspond with the leading orientalists
in EuiOpe and to give tuition in Arabic. His pupils included the Compiler of the first Ara-
bic-Latin dictioriary to be printed, Franciscus Raphelengius, professor of Hebrew at the
uiiiversity of Leiden, and the chronologist Joseph Justus Scaliger. who also ended his
days at Leiden. Botli men had remarkable insights into the study of Arabic, and it is
more than likely that they owed some of them to their master in Paris.
It was the sight of the direction that Arabic studies in general were taking by the be-
ginning of tlie seventeenth Century that prompted Scaliger to make liis discreet and per-
ceptive remarks about tlie fruitlessness of the missionary ideal - a mere ploy, he said,
whch increased the suspicions of the Musüms talking to Christians and made reciprocal
understanding all the more difficult.16 Scaliger's interest in Arabic and in Islam was con-
nected with his studies on chronology. One result of a plan of research which began to
upset the accepted Biblical view of history was a profoiuid curiosity about history and
the qiiest for äs many sources äs possible. Although Scaliger's collection of Arabic manu-
scripts included a copy of tlie tafsir composed by al-Baydäwi in the tlürteenth Century,
Anwar al-tanzil wa asrar al-ta9wil (Leiden University Library, Cod. Or. 83), Scaliger
himself does not seem to have made any use of it - and indeed, it is doubtful whether his
Arabic was good enough to do so. But, with his insights not only into die futility of the
missionary objective but also into the dangers of studying Arabic in conjunction witli
Hebrew (äs most Europeans tended to do) and into tlie extreme importance of a good
understanding of the Quran, he prepared the way for the great Leiden Arabists of the
seventeenth Century - for his pupil Thomas Erpenius, professor of Arabic at Leiden from
1613 to his death in 1624, and Erpenius' pupil and successor Jacobus Golius.
Botli men, in their capacity äs professor of Arabic, were public figures who had to
prepare apologies for their subject. They needed to combat the same populär prejudice
which made the publication of the Quran so perilous and they needed to attract patrons
who might subsidize the acquisition of manuscripts and tlie publication of sources. In
his second oration of 1621 Erpenius consequently referred to die desirability of coii-
verting the Muslims.18 He also demonstrated his own piety in his application of Arabic
to Biblical studies and his edition of the Arabic New Testament. The actual direction his

Joseph Scaliger, Epistolae omnes (Leiden, 1628), Ep. 362, p. 640: cSed qiio ininus voti conipotcs
fiant, qui Arabismi Studio isthic resident, rnultas equidem causas adferre posseni. Duae tarnen liac
praecipuae sunt Prior, quod barbari illi suspicacissimi simt, et Christianos putant ea gratia taritiun
Arabica discere, ut legem Muharotnedis discere, et postea confutare possiiit..."
17
Scaliger's attitude is discussed in AJästair Hamilton, William Bedwell the Arabist J563-1632
(Leiden, 1985), pp. 83-5,151-2.
18
Jones, "Thomas Erpenius (1584-1624) on the Value of tlie Arabic Language·', p. 22: "Those of
you who are candidates in Sacrcd Theology, consider what it would be to learn this language without
the help of which your Sacred Language (and in my judgement you do not deserve to call it yours unlcss
you Jay claim to and acquirc Arabic) cannot be fully and perfectly understood, or the impious doctrincs
of the Muhaminadans be examined and beneficiallv refuted."
 A. Hamilton, The Study of Islam 175

studies took, however, suggests the same dispassionate curiosity of Scaliger. Besides ex-
ploding soine of the more fanciful myths about Islam, such äs the idea of the Prophet's
burial in a magnetically suspended coffin19 (a mytli revived äs recently äs 1601 by Wil-
liam Parry in a description of the Middle East which was highly influential in England,
A New andLarge Discourse on the Travels of Sir Anthony Sherley, Khight, by Sea and
over
Land to the Persian Empire), Erpenius, at the Start of his second oration, provided a
surprisingly impartial survey of the rise of Islam. It was based on his reading of die
diirteendi-century Coptic historian al-Makin, a part of whose vast chronicle,
al-Madjmu9 al-mubärak, he was preparing for tlie press on the basis of a manuscript
acquired in the east by Guillaume Postel and held at the Elector Palatine's library in
Heidelberg.
The importance of the edition, which was published shortly after Erpeiiius'' deatli by
Golius in 1625 with the title Historia saracenica, was that it was the first break in the
west with the Byzantine tradition of historiography. Until then rnost accounts of the
Arab conquest circulated in western Europe were, or were based on, Greek clironicles,
and these accounts, usually accompanied by prophecies of the fall of the Ottoman em-
pire, were highly prejudiced. Although al-Makni himself was a Christian, a Copt who
participated in the Coptic cultural renaissance of the thirteenth Century, he wrote for a
prevalently Muslim readersliip. Basing himself on the far earlier work of the Persiaii al-
Tabari. al-Makin, who was to be die main source of the later Muslim historian al-
Maqrizi, dealt with the Prophet and his triumph in a tone of respect.20
Erpenius had failed in his efforts to travel to die east. Even if he assembled what, by
the Standards of the time in northern Europe, was an impressive collection of Arabic
manuscripts. he was necessarily dependent on an agent in Istanbul for their acquisition.
His pupil. Jacobus Golius. on the other band, made long visits to the Arab world,
availing himself on each occasion of some diplomatic representation/1 First, in 1622, he
went to Morocco. Later, in 1625, he travelled to the Middle East, and stayed first in the
Dutch consulate in Aleppo and then in die embassy in Istanbul. This enabled him to as-
semble a far larger collection of manuscripts than Erpenius, to benefit from the advice
of a network of Muslim and other scholars in the Arab world, stretchirig from Morocco
to Syria, and to gather an unprecedented amount of Quranic material.22 Just äs Er-
penius had mentioned die missionary objective in his oration, so Golius expressed his
desire for a general conversion to Christianity in the introduction to his great Arabic-

ULi p. 17: ~Our authorities who say that hc invaded Syria and capturcd Damoscus are in fact
wrongr. a* are those who maintain that his body was placed in an iron coffiri and supported in the sky at
Meeca by mcans of inagnetism. In fact he was buried at Medina in the house of his wife, Alsha. This
was» Jäter n lade a shrine. and tliat tomb survives to tJiis day."
""' On al-Makin ^ec Georg Graf, Geschichte der christHeften arabischen Literatur., vol. 2 (Citta dcl
\ atkrano. 1947). pp. 348-51.
"'' Cf. \V. M. C. Juynholl. Zepcnucndf^eeuu'jsche beotfenaars ran lief Arubixc/ in Nrdcrland (Utrecht,
1931 j.pp. m-83.'
""' Part of i he corrcapondencc of die Lei<lcii Araliintf» was publibhed by M.Tli.I iouUsma, u lJit de
i>osix*rwhe airreÄfioiideniic van Th.K^>enius, Jac. Golius cn I^cv. Wanjer. Ernc bijdrage toi de
van de b<ioefeniug der oostersche Jeitereii in Nederlaiur in l'erhand. * Acad. ran
ScIt.. Afd. lj>tieri;.* 17/3 {Aau»lercJajfi. 1887). Dr Jan Schmidt i.s now preparing a furtlier
instahiient. due to appear In ManuscripU vfthe Middle East.
176 Archiv für Religionsgeschichte, 3. Band, 2001

Latin dictionary of 1653.23 Yet we may doubt the extent to which the two scholars, so
Imbucd wilh die spirit of Scaliger, actually believecl in it.
The tradition of research into historical sources launched by Scaliger, Erpenius and
Colius, was pursued by Golius1 Swiss pupil Johann Heinrich Hottinger. Hottinger, who
studied under iMattliias Pasor in Groningen in 1639 and under Golius at Leider» in
1640-1, taught first in his native Zürich and then, from 1655 to 1661, in Heidelberg.
Whether he was a worthy disciple of Golius remains debatable, but he had an exception-
ally wide knowledge of Arabic sources. This was fully apparent in his Promtuarium of
1658."4 It also emerged from his most influential work, the Historia orientalis first pub-
lished in Zürich in 1651 (witli the Arabic quotations transcribed in Hebrew characters)
and reprinted in an expanded version in 1660 (with the Arabic printed in Arabic).
The work has been rightly criticized, both at the tüne and since. The fiercest contem-
porary critic was Abraham Ecchellensis or Ibrahim al-Häqiläni, a learned Maronite who
had taught oriental languages in Pisa, Rome and Paris, and was involved in editing the
Paris Polyglot Bible.25 After liis final retum to Rome in 1661 he published his confuta-
tion of John Seiden, Eutychius patriarchus alexandrinus vindicatus, the last two hun-
dred pages of which are directed against Hottinger. He deplored Hottinger's ignorance of
the Arabic language, advancing an impressive list of mistakes. While stressing liis own
detestation of die Quran,26 Ecchellensis was particularly critical of Hottinger's treatment
of Islam, and scored a good point when he showed that Hottinger had described the legal
schools or madhahib äs heretical religious sects. Admittedly, even good Arabists, such äs
Edward Pococke, were to have difficulty translating madhab into Latin, and used the
word secta for lack of anything better, but Hottinger, in contrast to Pococke, seerned
quite unaware of the legal, rather than die religious, significance of the tenn."'
A further drawback of Hottinger's Historia orientalis is that, unlike the studies pro-
duced in Leiden, it is markedly confessional, inspired by an aggressive Calvinisin and
violent in its anti-Islamicism and anti-Catholicism. Tliis does much to undermine the
qualities of the book. And qualities it has, for besides the chronicle of al-Maküi, Hot-
tinger used the biographical dictionary of Dbii Khallikan (which had been discovered in
the west by Golius), al-Bukhäri's Sahih, and the account of die lives of the prophets by
the eleventh-century al-Kisä'i, an important guide to the Muslim Interpretation of the
figure of Christ. He principal drew on a number of the tafsir, on al-Zamakhshari, and
above all on al-Baydäwi, giving sizeable excerpts in Arabic followed by a translation.
Hottinger was thus a most useful source. Lancelot Addison would rely on him in his life

"" Jacobus Golius, Lexicon arabico-latinum (Leiden, 1653), sig. *5r.: "Faxdt Deus ter OptJMax. ut
quom linguam tot gentibus extra Christianuin orbem, et quasi omnibus literatis, coinmuncm esse voluit,
ea utrinque interpres et spiritualis coniniercii instrumentum fiat. qua eaedem gentes orbi Christiano
impertiaDt quicquid bonae raentis et virtutis habent; lüc vero illis salutiferani Evangelii lucem ac vim
refundat, ut taridem solus dominetur et universis iinperet, qui lux mundi et dominus omniuni est, Jesus
Christus."
24
On Hottinger see Toomer, fZastern Wisdom and Learning, p. 37; Johann Fück, Die arabischen
Studien, pp. 91-2.
25
On Ecchellensis see Georg Graf, Geschichte der christlichen arabischen Literatur, vol. 3 (Cittä del
Vaticano, 1949), pp. 354-9.
26
Abrahaiuus Ecchellensis, Eutychins patriarcha alexandrinus vindicatus (Rocna, 1661), ii, p. 382:
"AJcoranus itaque est omniura rerum obscoenanun prostibuliun, et cloaca, labularum colluvies,
copiosissiina mendaciorum bibliotheca, uno verbo impietatum omniuni Epitonie, et ßre\"iariuin."
27
Ibid., ii, pp. 378-446. Cf. J.H. Hottinger, Historia orientalis (Zürich, 1551), pp. 340-73.
 A. Hamilton, The Study of Islam 177

of tlie Prophet, bis First State of Mahwnedism which came out in 1678, in order to sub-
stantiate bis claims that he was basing liimself chiefly on Arab sources. So did Hum-
pbrey Prideaux who made mucb of al-Baydäwi in liis best-selling True Nature oflm-
posturv fully disptay'd in the Life ofMahomet of 1697. But Hottinger was also used, äs
we shall see, by one of the greatest of the Italian Arabists, Ludovico Marracci.
The otlier eminent Nordlern European Arabist of the mid-seventeenth centuiy who
added to the knowledge of Islam, the Englishman Edward Pococke, was of a far supe-
rior caübre to Hottinger.28 Pococke had acquired bis training independently of the
school of Scaliger. True, he had had bis first Arabic lessons from William Bedwell in
London, who had also briefly given instruction to Erpenius on Scaliger's recommenda-
tion. But although he was to be in correspondence with Dutch scholars such äs Grotius,
and met Golius in Syria, Pococke owed bis knowledge of Arabic and bis approach to
Arabic culture to Muslims he met after bis appointment in 1629 äs chaplain to the
English Levant Company in Aleppo.
A rnember of the clergy, chaplain to the English merchants in Aleppo, a pious sup-
porter of the Anglican church who suffered for bis convictions at the time of the Civil
War, Pococke would seem to have confirmed lu's commitment to Christianity, and to its
propagation in die Musüm world, with bis translation into Arabic of Grotius' De veri-
tate religionis christianae and of the Anglican catechism. Yet Pococke, like Golius, re-
mained in touch with bis Muslim friends well after his return to England and bis ap-
poinünent äs Laudian professor of Arabic at Oxford. His main work in the field of Is-
lamic studies was. by contemporary Standards, a model of impartiality.
This was the Specimen Historiae Arabum, an edition of a brief text on early Islamic
history by Bar Hebraeus. or Abu Cl-Faraj, the thirteenth-century Jacobite historian, like
al-Makin a Christian, but a Christian writing for a Muslim äs well äs a Christian reader-
ship.2Q Of the various informed works on Islam published in die seventeenth Century - it
came out in 1650. a year beiore Hottinger's Historia -.this was undoubtedly the inost
populär, quoted and paraphrased throughout tlie eighteenth Century, and republished
by Joseph White, professor of Arabic at Oxford, in 1806. It was not so much tlie few
pages by Bar Hebraeus that made it important - Pococke would follow it up with the
complete text of his entire history, the Historia compendiosa dynastiarum. in 1663 - äs
the huge critical apparatus attached by Pococke, based on an unprecedented study of
Islamic sources many of which were included in the manuscript collection which he had
assembled and which found its way into the Bodleian.
Bar Hebraeus" text provided Information about the religions in Arabia at the time of
tbe birth of tlie Prophet, about the life of the Prophet, die sects into which Islam was
soon divided and the legal schools. In his notes Pococke, in the tradition of Erpenius,
exploded the anti-Islamic legends, not only die suspended coffin but also the dove
picking seeds from the Prophets ear. He quoted from a vast varicty of poets, philoso-
phers, lexicographers, topographers and historians. These included Ibn Khalb'kän and
die two Ibn al- Athir brodiers writirig at the turn of the twelfth and die thirtcenth Cen-
tury. Majdaddin^ and above all al-Shaybäni, die author of the Kitäb al-kämil 7-
tarikh. He used al-Jelälayn, the tafstr of al-Zamakhshan, al-Bay<Jäwj and provided an
uiipw-edemed amount of data on die Mulazüiies, derived chiefly from his copy of the

26
For Pooocke »«.i 'I'ooKocr. Kastern H'liscdome and Ijearrüng. pp. 116-26.. 134-6, 145-6, 155-67,
212-26.271-9.
*" Cf. Graf. Geschichte d<?r christlidu-n arabischen Literanin vol. 2. pp. 272-81.
178 Archiv für Religionsgeschichte, 3. Band, 2001

work on sects, (he KUäb al-rnilal wa 'l-nifyal completed by al-Shahrastäni In 1127

(Bodleian Library, Oxford, MS. Cod. Poe. 83).
Pococke rnay havc bccn extraneous to the direct line of teaching descending from
Scaliger, but liis Specimen was obviously in that tradition. It resultcd from a concern
with expanding the available sources in order to reach a greater understanding of the
events attending Üie Arab conquests and the spread of Islam. But while this develop-
merit was taking place in the Protestant north, a parallel but somewhat different proc-
ess was occurring in the Roman Catholic south of Europe. Admittedly the first seven-
teenth-century printed edition of die Quran in Arabic - the sixteenth-century one had
been produced in Italy - was die work of a German Protestant, the Lutheran Abraham
Hinckelmann in Hamburg. But, even if bis Al-Coranus, which came out in 1694. con-
tained a long introduction, it lacked not only a translation but any form of commentary
to Üie actual text that went beyoncl a few pages which depended on Pococke and on the
Prodromus of Ludovico Marracci that had appeared in 1691. It was thus quickly sur-
passed by the work of the Italian school of Arabists.

Parallel developments: the Catholic south

If we compare the growth of Arabic stiidies in northern and southern Europe we are in-
evitably struck by die advantages with which the south started out. When the northern
European libraries held hardly a single Arabic text, the southern libraries already had
sizeable collections. The Vatican had had a respectable collection of Arabic manu-
scripts, which included certain Islamic texts, ever since the foundation of the library in
the late fifteenth Century.30 Eastern delegates to the Council of Florence had brought
Codices with them, and envoys to the eastern churches returned also carrying manu-
scripts, albeit mainly Christian ones. The military cainpaigns of the sixteenth Century -
Charles V's occupation of Tunis, the batde of Lepanto, and mrmerous skirmishes - pro-
vided manuscripts amongst die loot, and so, in the course of the sixteenth Century, the
Vatican collection grew. At the same time private collectors, such äs Diego Hurtado de
Mendoza, assembled Arabic manuscripts, and, in the case of Mendoza, these would
swell the huge collection housed in the Escorial. By the early seventeentli Century other
Italian libraries were competing with the Vatican - the Medici collection in Florence,
the collections in Venice, the Ambrosian library in Milan, äs well äs numerous srnaller
libraries in Rome itself. On die whole die emphasis tended to be on Christian works, but
a considerable and varied amount of Islamic \\Titings were also included.
Theri there was the presence of Arabic-speaking Christians. There had becn a con-
stant trickle of Copts, Jacobit.es and Maronites making tlieir way to Rome tliroughout
the sixteenth Century. This increased widi the foundation by Gregory XIII of Colleges -.
for the Greeks in 1576, for the Armenians and the Neophytes in 1577, and, above all,
for the Maronites in 1584. The Catholic world could consequently benefit from die arri-
val of men who, besides a good command of Arabic, had an iiilbnned and direct knowl-
edge of Islam. One example was the Maronite Abraham Ecchellensis who criticized
Hottinger's Historia Orientalin so sevferely.

30
Aiialysed in some detail by Giorgio Levi della Vida, Ricerche sullafonnaziom del piu anticofondo
dei maniuscritti orientali della Biblioteca yaticana (Citta del Vaticano, 1939).
'" BrauJio Justel Calabozo, La Real Biblioteca de El Escorial y sus manuscritos arabes (iMadrid
1978).
 A. Hamilton, The Study of Islam 179

The intensification of the Catolic interest in Islam in the course of the seventeenth
Century iimst be seen äs part of a growing missionary activity. It should be cormected
with the plans, in France, of Charles de Gonzague, Pere Joseph and Cardinal Richelieu;
the expansion of the Capucins and the Jesuits in the Middle East and die foundation in
Rome of the Sacra congregatio de propaganda fide in 1622. The missionary objective,
which was constantly present, was to lead less to a concern widi a careful reconstruction
of early Arab history than to a proper understanding of the Quran essential for com-
bating Islani. It is tlius among the Catholics that we find a particularly thorough use of
tlie tafsir.
Andre du Ryer, the man who was to fanüliarize European readers with the tafsir, was
die first Orientalist to nndertake a translation of the whole of the Quran into French,
ha\nng it published in 1647. About his background we know next to nothing. He first
appears äs French consul in Egypt, a post which he occupied, with questionable suc-
cess. froni 1623 to 1626. We meet liim next, in the early 1630s, äs Interpreter
to the French anibassador in Istanbul and äs ambassador extraordinary of the sultan in
Paris. Du Ryer was involved, either directly or indirecdy, in the vast missionary move-
ment that irradiated from France. His first protector, the former French ambassador in
Istanbul Frangois Savary de Breves, had himself published an influential little work on
tlie impoitance of wooing the eastern Cliristians into an alliance against the Muslims.
Later ambassadors whom Du Ryer senred were coniiected with tlie missionary plans of
Pere Joseph and assisted the Capucins in their endeavours to form missions in Persia
and the Ottoman empire. The various works Du Ryer produced - his Turkish grammar
(published) and dictionaiy (unpublished), äs weU äs his Quran translation - contained
prefaces stressing their importance to missionaries, and he dedicated them to figures
such äs Richelieu known to favour the conversion of the Muslims.
\\Tien Du Ryer was in the Levant - and his remarkable command of Turkish sug-
gests that he was there for some time before, and for some time after, his appointment
äs consul in EgypU he too collected inanuscripts. They included tlie Tafsir al-Jelälayn
and the Tanwir fi al-tafsir of al-Righi al-Tünisi who died in 1315 (in fact an abridged
version of ihe Tafsir al-kabir written by Fakhr al-Dinal-Räzi a Century earlier), the taf-
slr of al-Baydäwi, and the Turkish iafsir entitled Anfs joaliir!^ These are die works
which he names so ostentatiously in the margins of his translation, even if he never ex-
plains to die reader what tafslr actually were.
Du Ryer seems to have made his translation of the Quran on his return to Paris,
where he had been appointed royal Interpreter and gentleman of the royal chamber.
Although his object was to produce a far more literal version than the paraphrase of
Robert of Ketton. the result was in fact inore literary than literal - a flucnt and readable
text. which, in accuracy. often falls behind the medicval translations and does not sug-
gesi diät Du Ryer made much use of the manuscript of Marco de Toledo avaiJable in
Paris."" Nor - and this is a morc serious consideration - docs Du Ryer seem to have un-
demood die various iafsir quoted in die margins. He does, from time to time, adopt

s
" Many of the rnanuscript.% bftlongin«; Du Ryer eiitcrod tJi<» lil)nir\· of Picrni Si'guicr. Louis XllfV
€*hancellor and Du Ryer's patron, aiuJ subsequcnüy thal of Sfiguicr^ sun-in-Jaw Coisliri. Thi?)' an*, now in
üic Biiiliodicquc Nationale <k Francs Paris.
' M. T. d'AKwiy. "Deux craduLtüifu» laii/us» du Coran au Moyeri A*»er. p[>. 116-20. MiggesLs üiat Du
Rytr niiglit have usf^tl a niaiiasciipt of Marco de Toledo'h mtn^hiiJoii, Judpng früiii thv copy fum* ai tho Biblio-
th^qi»4 Ma/ariiu* üi l>ariä (MB 780). . fk* TolwJo WÄÜ far morc aixiuratp lioih licit· JUK! rlht
180 Archiv für Religionsgeschichte, 3. Band, 2001

somc of t he simpler explanations of Ai-Jelälayn, but even here his mistranslations show
(hat he was uriable to grasp the more complicated passages.
A telling example of Du Ryer's approach is his treatment of the iniportant verse in
the tliird sura (3:8) about how the Quran should be interpreted, a passage which, äs we
saw, was discussed by Postel. An acceptable English translation of the text is: ~He [Al-
lah] it is who has sent down to thee the Book; in it therc are verses that are decisive in
meaning - they are the basis of the Book - and there are others that are susceptible of
different interpetations. ßut those in whose hearts is perversity pursue such thereof äs
are susceptible of different interpretations, seeking discord and seeking interpretations
of it. And none knows its Interpretation except Allah and those who are firmly grounded
in knowledge..." Du Ryer translates: '"c'est lui qui t'envoie le livre duquel les preceptes
sont tres-necessaires; ils sont Torigine et le fondement de la loi, semblable en purete les
uns aux autres, et saus contradiction. Ceux qui en leur coeur inclinent a s'eloigner de la
verite, ensuivent souvent leur mclination desireux de sedition et de savoir Texplication
de PAlcoran; mais personne ne sait son explication que Dien et ceux qui sont profonds
en doctrine.'34 The contrast between mutashäbihat, susceptible of different Interpreta-
tion, and muhkamäti decisive and fixed in meaning, has been lost. Du Ryer failed to
appreciate the far superior rendering of Robert of Ketton30 (or iiideed of Marco de
Toledo). He was unaware of the discussion by Postel and seems to have overlooked the
interpretations of the passage in die tafsir.
Du Ryer's marginal references to the tafsir were interpreted by an uncritical public äs
signs of lüs erudition, and he must go down to history äs the first scholar to publicize
tlie works in print and tlius to draw attention to their relevance. His translation, moreo-
ver, was remarkably successful. Not only did it go tlirough numerous editions in France,
but it was translated, in its turn, into English, Dutch and German. The English version
was reprinted in 1806 äs the first translation of the Quran to appear in America.
The great step taken in the Roman Catholic world after Du Ryer's translation of the
Quran was of such magnitude that it must be regarded äs a leap. This was the critical
edition of the Quran - the Arabic text, a Latin translation, arid extensive notes - pub-
lished by Ludovico Marracci in 1698. Marracci was a self-taught Arabist who never set
foot in the east. At one time tlie confessor of the fiercely conservative pope Innocent XI,
Marracci, besides his role in the Sacra congregatio de propaganda ßde, was active in
the organization of the Index, took a leading role in the campaign against Miguel de
Molinos and the Quietists, and, in his last publication, attacked the Jews.3' This austere

34
L'Alcoran de Mahomet (La Haye, 1685), p. 39.
3
Machitmetis Alcoranum (Basel, 1550), p. 21: "Isteque continet verba quaedam finnissima, et infrin-
gibilia, quae sunt libri scilicet mater, ac materia: quaedani vero contra ria, quae riutantis penrersique
corclis hoiniues ad controversiara caeteris inferendam, et ad expositionis suae notitiam exequuntur." Cf.
Marracci's translation, Alcorani textus unwersalis (Padua, 1698), p. 105: "ipse est, qui desccndere fecit
super te Librum, ex eo sunt aliqui versus sapienter dispositi, ipsi sunt inater Libri: alii vero assiimlati Ulis.
illi, in quorum cordibus est declinatio (a vcritate) sectabuntur, quotl est assinülatiun his ob
desiderium scliismati."
His treatment of the sura also warrants Marracci's criticisms. When comparing Du Ryer's trans-
lation with that of Robert of Ketton he admits: "Haec raagis inhaeret verbis, et fidelius expriniit sensus/
but then goes on: C4Sed in hac quoque non raro Auctor caespitat, vel liallucinatur; credo. quia Arabicae
ipse linguae ignarus, interpretes non ita peritos, vel fidos invenit..."'(/l/cora/it textus universalist^ p. 7).
On Marracci see Giorgio Levi della V^ida, Aneddoü e svaghi arabi e non arabi (Milan, 1959),
pp. 139-210.
 A. Hamilton, The Stucly of Islam 181

and committed servant of the Clmrch tlius had the perfect credentials for undertaking
so polemical a task äs the translation and editing of die Quran. The lengthy Prodromus,
which originally appeared in 1691 and preceded bis translation, was a confutation of
Islam, and his translation and notes to each siira were follovved by further confutations.
Elated by the Ottoman defeat at the gates of Vienna in 1683 and by the progressive
Cliristian advance into Ottoman territory, Marracci was avowedly working for mission-
aries, but in fact some of his less guarded Statements, such äs his admission that Islam
might seem more rational than Christianity, äs well äs his extraordinary use of
sources, were to be invaluable Instruments in the hands of the eighteeiidi-centiuy sym-
pathizers witli Islam.
Marracci exploited to the füll the existing printed sources. He made abundant use of
Pococke's Specimen; he even plundered Hottinger's Historia orientalis for quotations
from tafsir. Availing himself also of the growing collections in the Roman libraries, he
procured manuscripts of the tafsir of al-Baydäwi, al-Zamakhshari, al-Hamdäiu and the
Spanish commentator of the tentli Century, Ihn Abu Zamänin. His favourite was the
Tafsir al-Djelalayn. This was the one he quoted most frequentiy, going so far äs to in-
sert some of al-SuyutTs identifications into his actual translation of the text. To works
which had been used by Hottinger and Pococke Marracci added others. He was the first
European to use the tafsir of the higlily ortliodox Ihn Taymiyyah of the thirteenth Cen-
tury and of the eleventh-century al-Tha'labi. Marracci's Alcorani textus universalis
can thus be regarded äs the riebest collection of Islamic sources (which he quotes in
Arabic and in Latin translation) to have appeared to that date.
The niain criticism which a modern Student of Islam might make is that Marracci,
like his predecessors and indeed many of liis successors, seems to have been unaware of
the varying ideologies beliind the tafsir he quoted. Although be knew about the Muta-
zilites. and altliough Pococke had already pointed out that al-Zaniakhshari was a Mu-
tazilite, Marracci never uses the tafsir of al-Zamakhshari äs an Illustration of the Muta-
zilite point of view and leaves uncommented those pa.ssages in the Quran - on the free-
dom of will and other matters - which were of particular significance for the movement.
He seems also to have overlooked the relationship between the various tafsir - the fact,
for example, that al-Baydawi based his own interpretations on al-Zamakhshari, but
tried to purge them of all Mutazilite bias.
Another inevitable weakness of the seventeenth-century Arabists is their inability to
asscss the actual value of their sources. By and large the material on which tliey drew
was late. At best the historians whose works they studied and edited based their own
histories on far earlier works, al-Makin drawing in his chronicle on tbe historical ^Th-
ings of al-Tabari, dating from the late ninth and early tentli Century. Much the same
can be said of the available tafsir. Just äs he occupies a central position in Islamic lüsto-

Alcoram textet* wiwerstdU. p. 4 (Praefatio): "Habet nirniruni haec superstitio quidquid plausibilc,
ac probabilf in Cliristiana Rcligionc rcpcritur. et qiiae naturae legi, UV luniini coru>entauca videntur.
M\>ti*ria illö ficlei *, quac priino aspertu incredibilia, et hnpossibilia appareni; t-1 praccipüc, quae
lüniin ardua humanae iiaturae ceiiMtnrur^ penitas exdudit. Hinc moderni ldo)ümin rultorcs, fadlius ac
proinptiu» Saröcenktarn. qyam Evangeiiram li?g«n nnipleriuntur: <tl in postXTuni ainplc^icnlur. nisi a
Mi^Monariis nofitrih. hi->. quai» «p;o mtso o[Htri- fKiiio. argunimttis praveniantur, ac praornujiiamur.*
Viarn*w.i"f> !Miura*.s iiavc bwrn btudk*d by (Jarlo AJfonMi Naliino, ~]jt· fonri ariibc rriaiioNcriiic
deHOp^ra di Ludoviro Manracci sul f>orafior in Racrolta tu scritti cditi t i/tediti. voJ. 2 (Koma. 1940),
. 90-1. . Für Ihn Tayiuiyyah w^ Gcildzilier. liicliiungim, pp, 338-40.
182 Archiv für Religionsgeschichte, 3. Band, 2001

riography, so al-Taban cornposed an iniportant commentary on the Quran from which

many later fafsir would bc derived. It was not rediscovered and edited. however. until
the first years of the twentieth Century.40 The study of Islam had undoubtedly pro-
grcssed in depth thanks to the systematic collection and use of Islamic sources by the
seventeenth-century Arabists, but diese sources still had to be sifted and assessed. and
that would be the work of later scholars.

Conclusion
The republication of Pococke's Specimen in die early nineteenth-century is one of many
indications that, in the field of Islamic history, äs in the fields of grammar and lexicog-
raphy, the achievements of the seventeenth-century Arabists remained unsurpassed for
almost three hundred years. Despite the progress marked by die publications of Adriaan
Reland in Holland and by Johann Jakob Reiske in Germany, despite the work of schol-
ars such äs Ockley, Säle, Gagnier and others, the eighteenth Century was above all a pe-
riod in which material gathered earlier was studied. "Le XVfle et le XIXe inventent, le
XVIIIe illustre, accumule et prepare". The words of Pierre Chauriu certainly hold true
where the study of Islam was concerned. Few new Arabic manuscripts entered the
Europeaii collections. Few new Arabic texts were published. Travellers (or European
residente) in the Islamic world did indeed publish accounts of their experiences and
thus brought die daily life of Muslims closer to the European imagination - the Russell
brodiers, with dieir Natural History ofAleppo, are an example - but students of Islam
in quest of original sources still relied mainly on die work of Erpenius, Pococke, Hot-
tinger and Marracci. When he published his English translation of die Quran George
Säle provided a synthesis of developments which had previously been discrete, one
southem and one northern. To a translation heavily indebted to Marracci, Säle added a
historical introduction which owed much to Pococke.

1
Coldzüicr, Richtungen^ pp. 86-98.
Pierre Chaunu, La cwilisation de l'Europe des Iwnieres (Paris, 1982), p. 210.