The International Orientalist Congresses in Hamburg in 1902

Chapter 5 The International OrientalistCongresses in Hamburg in 1902and Copenhagenin1908. Celebrationsand Agendas of Politics and Scholarship 1Introduction In 1902and 1908 Friedrich Rosen headed the official Germandelegations to the week-longInternational Orientalist Congresses taking place in Hamburgand Co- penhagen. In the pre-WWI period these congresses werethe central venue of Ori- entalist congregation and included significant political participation. This chapter charts out these two congresses in the context of their local organisation, the themesofscholarship and the composition of participants. Rosen’sengagements and actions as apolitical representative and as ascholarare situated before the background of the role these congresses playedfor organisers and predominant- ly European governments, and what academic and other scholarlyparticipants soughttoachievebyparticipatingand presentingatthese international assem- blies. Each congress is embedded in aspecific genius loci, with the motivations and preparations of the conveners presented. This is complemented by an over- view of the demographics of participants, and asketch of the thematic sections into which the congresses weredivided. The sections that wereofrelevanceto Rosen are discussed in more detail. Afocus is placed on how scholars used the platformofthe congress to interest other scholars in their research and garner endorsements from the academic community for their projects.This support could be leveraged to harness political and financial support from governments and connected institutions.To demonstrate the agenda-setting platform the congresses offered, the presenta- tions on the Central Asian explorations at the turn of the century are discussed, which were in the form of the GermanTurfan picture show,the main attraction at the 1908 congress.Less prominent but equallytellingtothe approval mecha- nism of the congresses,the 1902participation of Rosen’sfriend Friedrich Carl Andreas and his talk on the non-Aryan background of Cyrus is discussed as an instance of the intertwiningofpolitical backing and academiccareer-seeking that took place in these fora. There wereother instances of academic lobbying with governments, often connected with encyclopaedia or dictionary projects, OpenAccess. ©2020 Friedrich Rosen, published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the CreativeCommons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 License. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110639544-007 1Introduction 257 for which scholars soughtfunding – duetonational conflicts or mere lack of political interest with mixedresults. Rosen took an interest in manyofthese endeavours and lent his active support to some.Thiswas part of the task he was supposedtofulfil, allowing him to report back to the Auswärtiges Amt and the Kaiser on relevant political matters. The main purpose, however,was for governmentalrepresentativeslike Rosen to personifytheir national government in its support of the search for Orientalist knowledge and to bask in the prestige accruingfrom such Orientalistknowledge production. Scholarship of the East was for manyEuropean governments amat- ter of pride, not least for the Germans since Kaiser Wilhelm II had travelled the Ottoman Empire in 1898 and took aprofound – often philanthropic – interest in excavations of ancient civilisations. Orientalistscholarship was alsoawayfor European governments to present themselvesinapositive,politically non-con- frontational light by association with their scholars. Particularlyduringthe congress at Copenhagen Rosen exemplified this comingtogetherofscholarshipand political representation in giving atalk – to considerable effect – on his studies of the world view of the eleventh century Persian philosopher Omar Khayyam. Both congresses werenot as harmonious as the manicured proceeding pub- lications suggest.AsFuchs and Rabault-Feuerhahn show,the Orientalist congresses were beset and sustained by political competition and confrontations from the first congress in Paris in 1873,where “the savants of Germany, in con- sequence of the recent war,were, however willing,yet prevented by the French national feelingfrom making theirappearance”.The participation of the German Orientalists promised to make the second congress in London in 1874 “one of the most strikingevents of the autumn” as the Britishjournal Nature reported.¹ Na- tionalist conceptions and governmental rationales werealso at playindesignat- ing French as the official languageofcommunication at the congresses, in de- ciding on hostingcountries,and the size of national delegations. “AFrench scientificcreation”,Germanywas initiallyopposedasacentrefor congregation by French scholars and officials alike. Berlin was eventuallychosen as host of the sixth congress in 1881. German officials exploited the notion that scence was neutral, but celebrated national success when Orientalistlectures were held in German, as Rabault-Feuerhahn shows. Fuchs and Rabault-Feuerhahn provide long-arching overviews of the institu- tion of the International Orientalists Congresses from Paris in 1873 to Athensin 1912.Fuchsdoes so in the context of scholarlycongresses as afunction and venue of the internationalisation of scholarship in the nineteenth century, “The International Congress of Orientalists,” Nature 10 (10 September 1874): 375–76. 258 Chapter 5. International OrientalistCongresses amid the material shortcoming of these congresses never being global, but mere- ly international in aNorth American-European geography. Rabault-Feuerhahn investigates “interculturality” in scientific and culturalexchanges at the congresses.The normative expectation of universality in the term “interculturality” she sees unfulfilled, due to rivalries and conflicts between the different national delegations and political actors on the one hand,and in line of theirEuro-centric geographyand de factoexclusion of significant participation of scholars from India, Iran or Egypt.The congresses duringthe first decade of the twentieth century are onlycovered in passing and neither of the analyses delve in detail into the congress proceedings.Inreadingtogether sixteen congresses in fourteen cit- ies and eleven countries over aperiod of forty years, these wide approaches run the danger of creating atemporal-institutional continuum, unaffected by circum- stances specific to each congress and missing significant details, such as the in- creasingparticipationofscholars from “Oriental” countries in the last years before the war, thatRyad has observed.² In the general literature on Orientalismthese congresses are largely ignored as sites of significant scholarlyand political exchange. Exogenous and endoge- nous conflicts – national, thematic, religious and professional – affected and rat- tled these gatherings, but even as clashes, animosities and rivalries flared up and endured, the congresses satisfiedthe need of scholars to socialise among their kin, learn, establish workingrelationships and gain recognition. The Indol- ogist-philosopher Paul Deussen explained his regular participation in the congresses as follows: Ichhabemeine Gründe sie zu schätzen. Dort werden wichtige wissenschaftliche Unterneh- mungenangeregt und in die Wege geleitet,dort hat man Gelegenheit,seine neuesten Ar- beiten sogleich dem Kreise, für den sie bestimmt sind, bekanntzugeben, und wenn auch die gehaltenenVorträgenicht alle aufgleicher Höhe stehen, so ist nichts wertvoller als die persönliche und freundschaftliche Berührung mit den Fachgenossen, welche der in den Schriften unvermeidlichen Polemik ihre Schärfe benimmt, so daß im Lager der Orien- talisten, wenigstens in dem der Sanskritisten, ein Tonherrscht,andem sich anderewissen- schaftliche Kreise wohlein Beispiel nehmen können.³ Fuchs, “The Politics of the Republic of Learning,” 216; Rabault-Feuerhahn, “Congrès des ori- entalistes,” 62;Ryad, “Aḥmad Zakī Pasha,” 131. “Ihavemyreasons to appreciate them. Important scholarlyenterprises arestirred and broughtontheir waythere, and thereyou have the opportunity to directlypresent your newest work to the intended circle, and even if some of the deliveredspeeches arenot all on the same height, there is nothingmorevaluable than the personal and friendlycoming in touch with the companions of our discipline, which takesthe edge of the in writinginevitable polemic, so much so that the atmosphere in the camp of the Orientalists, at least among the Sanskritists,issome- 2HamburgHosts the Thirteenth International OrientalistCongress 259 Assigning legitimacy to scholarship and international lobbying for financial support was just as important.Ifgovernments weretosupport research, national competition was agood incentive,but joint Orientalistresearch projects could also showcase international cooperation. The congresses at Hamburgand Co- penhagen exemplified these dynamics and the German governmentrepresenta- tive and OrientalistRosen was one of the manyactors pursuing their goals and ambitionsatthese formativecongresses between politics and philological scholarship. 2The Merchant City Hamburg Hoststhe Thirteenth International OrientalistCongressin1902 “Longlivethe Orientalists. Hooray, Hooray, Hooray!” shouted the sailing-crew of afour-master of the shipping companySiemers, when passing asteamship of the Hamburg-Amerika-Linie on the RiverElbe.The ship of the Hamburg-Amerika- Linie was packed with two hundred participants of the thirteenth International Orientalist Congress.⁴ Fullyflaggedgovernment buildingsand mansions on the banks of the Elbe and fireworks

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