MA MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES THESIS 2021 THOMAS STEIN Standing on the Shoulders of Giants Thomas Stein S2984520 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MA MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES Leiden University, Faculty of Humanities 30th June 2021 Course Code: 5854VTMES Number of EC: 20 20 932 words Supervisor: Dr Hans Theunissen Contents: INTRODUCTION 2 CHAPTER 1: MAPPING OUT STRUCTURES 11 CHAPTER 2: MEETING THE STRUCTURES 19 CHAPTER 3: FINDING THE STRUCTURES 24 CONCLUSION 36 BIBLIOGRAPHY 39 1 Introduction In 1798 Napoleon invaded Egypt. The invasion ended in September of 1801 with the capitulation of the French administration in Egypt. Geographically speaking, the direct effects of the invasion were minimal, since the French withdrew after three years without acquiring any permanent additions to the Empire. However, the French invasion force was accompanied by a group of scientists whose research is believed to have been influential, contrary to the French military incursion. These scientists wrote down almost everything they saw in the at that moment to them still largely unknown lands. The major scientific breakthrough for the Europeans in Egypt was made possible not by a scientist, however, but by a soldier. In July of 1799 a French officer named Pierre-François Bouchard (1771-1822) stumbled upon a stone when he was working on the foundation of a fort near the Egyptian town Rashid (Rosetta).1 After the French defeat in Egypt, the stone became British possession under the terms of the Treaty of Alexandria (1801). The stone, which is still on display in the British Museum, is inscribed in three languages with a decree of king Ptolemy V (r. 204-181 BC). The importance of the discovery of the stone lies in the fact that it was inscribed in Ancient Greek, Demotic and hieroglyphic writing. This fact helped Thomas Young (1773-1829) and Jean-François Champollion (1790-1832) decipher the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic writing, a major step towards learning more about ancient Egypt. The Napoleonic invasion of Egypt is often seen as the starting sign of European academic interest in the Middle East. Earlier European interest in the Middle East is often said to be only theological in nature.2 Franz Babinger (1891-1967) also claims that ‘Napoleon’s expedition to Egypt started the westernization’3. With this, Babinger means that the invasion of Egypt by Napoleon started an exchange in ideas between Europe and the Middle East which resulted in the Middle East copying many ‘western’ cultural elements. This process Babinger calls ‘westernization’. This thesis further researches the first notion put forward by Babinger. Namely that the 1798 invasion started the European non-theological academic interest in the Middle East. I will look at one of the earlier European scholars on the Middle East, Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall (1774-1856), and at the influence of earlier work in the field of Middle Eastern studies on the rise of Middle Eastern studies after 1798. Another influence which is, according to me, a factor in the rise of Middle Eastern studies after 1798 is the emergence of historicism in the field of humanities.4 Historicism provided a new way of looking at history throughout the humanities. Its goal within the field of history was to provide a more ‘objective’ view of the past, or as Leopold von Ranke put it: ‘Only say how it actually was’5. To get a good view of what is and what is not new in the field in which I am navigating this thesis, I will first give an overview of the literature which has been written on the subject. This literature review will be divided into three parts, the first part dealing with the rise of Middle Eastern studies after 1798, the second part dealing with the emergence of historicism and the third part dealing with the earlier work done by European translators in the Middle East. 1 “Everything you ever wanted to know about the Rosetta Stone” British Museum, accessed April 12, 2021, https://blog.britishmuseum.org/everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-the-rosetta-stone/. 2 Franz Babinger, Die Geschichtsschreiber Der Osmanen und Ihre Werke, (Leipzig 1927), 198. 3 Ibidem 198, translation by author. 4 Nina Athanassoglou-Kallmyer, ‘Romanticism: Breaking the Canon’, Art Journal 52, no. 2 (Summer 1993) 18-21, there 18. 5 Leopold von Ranke, Geschichten der romanischen und germanischen Völker: von 1494 bis 1535 (Berlin 1824), IV. 2 Literature review The development of the fields of which the Middle Eastern studies are comprised have been studied a lot, but these works are mostly dedicated to a single field, like the development of the study of the Arabic language. Most of the works dedicated to the development of the field are confined to the study of a single language or area within the Middle East. Since the central question of this thesis deals with the development of Middle Eastern studies as a whole, I will be using works from various fields in the literature review. All of these works deal with the development of these fields. The focus of the thesis itself will be on a western historian who writes on the history of the Ottoman Empire. I have chosen to do this because the research in the thesis would otherwise become too broad. I will be analyzing the works in chronological order of publication in order to show the developments in the literature over the last hundred years. The first work I want to discuss is Die Türkischen Studien in Europa bis zum auftreten Josef von Hammer-Purgstalls by Franz Babinger.6 It is an article from 1919, published in the renowned German magazine on the Middle East, Welt des Islams. Babinger gives an overview of the development of the study of the Turkish language within the German-speaking world. His overview starts with Hans Schiltberger, at the end of the fourteenth century, and ends with Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall. Babinger manages to give a comprehensive overview of the development of the study of the Turkish language in 27 pages. The conclusion of the article is that the interest in the Turkish language as a subject of study was mostly due to the necessity of translators which spoke Turkish in Europe. He sees that this eventually develops into a field of study, equal to the fields of Arabic and Persian studies. An important factor for him in this process is the work written by Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall. Von Hammer-Purgstall ensures, according to Babinger, that the study of Turkish in Europe is able to shake off the shackles of the theology. It becomes a field of study in which the researcher should do his research without the eventual theological implications in mind. The second work I want to discuss is Die Arabischen Studien in Europa bis den Anfang des 20. Jahrhunderts by Johann Fück (1894-1974). 7 The book was published in 1955 and attempts to give an overview of the development of the study of Arabic until the turn of the twentieth century. It gives an incredibly detailed overview of the developments of the study of Arab texts in the German-speaking world. Fück works very systematically, explaining larger developments in the study humanities and following the explanation of these developments, he gives examples within the works of individual writers and professors. Fück states that, during the 17th century, most of the German research into the Middle East was theological in nature.8 This claim is grounded in the same belief as the aforementioned statement that Orientalism until 1798 was mostly theological in nature. He reenforces this statement by introducing Albert Schultens, a Dutch theologist, in his chapter on Orientalism during the Enlightenment.9 The Enlightenment is seen as a period in which most sciences tried to free themselves from the shackles of religion which bound them to a dogmatic worldview. Fück believes that Orientalism underwent this same transformation, but it took more time for the field to grow. Fück credits Johann Jakob Reiske (1716-1774) for this development. According to Fück, he was the first German speaking Arabist who tried to look at the Arab texts like ‘a spectator in the theatre’.10 Fück sees the same development in the Arabic studies as Babinger sees in the Turkish studies, but he sees that it is happening earlier, already in the 18th century. 6 Franz Babinger, ‘Die türkischen Studien in Europa bis zum Auftreten Josef von Hammer-Purgstalls’, Die Welt des Islams 7 (Dec. 31, 1919) 4, 103-129. 7 Johann Fück, Die arabischen Studien in Europa bis in den AnFang des 20. Jahrhunderts (Leipzig 1955). 8 Ibidem 90. 9 Ibidem 105 10 Ibidem 123, translation by author. 3 The third work I want to review is Orientalism by Edward Said (1935-2003).11 Writing about the Middle East without naming this groundbreaking 1978 work by Edward Wadie Said has become almost impossible. The publication has sent shockwaves throughout the field of Middle Eastern studies. This is because his work laid bare a broad issue within the academic world of Middle Eastern studies. Said analyzes academic and non-academic works from France and England. The main theory put forward by Said is that the power-relations between Europe and the Middle East, which had shifted in favor of Europe in the twentieth century, influenced the way people thought about the Middle East. Said sees this same unintentional playing out of power-relations in the European academic works on the Middle East. A crucial factor within this theory is, according to Said, that a nation had colonies in the Middle East. Only then the power-relations could really have an effect.