Robert Jones, Thomas Erpenius
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ThomasErpenius (t l84-16r+) on the Value of the Arabic Langu age Translatedfrom tlte Latin fu RobertJones Translator'.stlote'. Thomas Erpenius( 1584- 162,1) taught Ara- On the point of revertingto regularlectures after this bic in the university of Leidenfrom l6l3 until his untimely long break away from my duties, [40] I thought it death of the plague at the age of forty. He is chiefl1' would be worth my while before embarking on the rememberedas the author of a grammar book ll,hich r.vas matter itself if I were to say a few words to you about to introduce the rudiments of Arabic to generations of the subject of which I am professor, that is the Europeans.Indeed his realisticapproach to his responsibi- languageof the Arabs. as well as about litiesas a teacheris still exernplary.But from his manuscript the study of Arabic and how it collection (now housed for the most part in Cambridge should be taught. I have decidedto Universitl, Library). his correspondence.and his publi- treat these in thar order which I think will be both cations we know that his interestsand abilities as an useful and welcome to you. So give me your ac- orientalistwere extraordinarilv advanced. Erpenius publish- cusiomedattention. ed this secondoration on the value of Arabic at Leiden in In order that you may better understanclthe nature 162l, togetherwith his first oration on Arabic and another of the Arabic languagea few preliminary remarks on on Hebrew. That inaugural addresson Arabic had already Arabia and its inhabitantsare in order. been published separatelyin 1613.The argumentshe put forward on that occasionin favour of Arabic as a serious Arabia, the most renowned peninsula in Asia, is subjectfor study are repeatedin his secondoration, which surrounded on three sidesby the persian,Indian and givesin addition an increasedemphasis on the importanceof Red Seas:its other side borderson Syria. Its area is Arabic histoncal texts. the announcementof an ambitious equivalent to. or even greater than, that of Spain, publishingprogramme. an exampleof how Arabic cognates France.Germany'and Italy. It is divided,at any rateby may elucidateHebrew, and further information on Oriental our o\\'nauthorities. into threeparts. [41] one of which and European collectionsof Arabic manuscripts. is calledPetraea. the other Deserta.and the third Felix. My thanks are due to the organisersof the 6th MELCOM From earliestantiquity. however,the Arabs themselves InternationalConference. held at Leiden on l5-l8th April divided it into five provinces,which are Tihàma, Nejd, 1984,who allowedme to castthe participantsin the role of Ar[d and Yamáma. These Erpenius'students while I deliveredpart of mv r,'ersionof his flijaz, were so wellguarded by their inhabitants- oration to celebratethe 400th anniversarvof his birth: and some of whom descendfrom to ProfessorJ. B. Trapp, Director of London University's Seba, the descendantof Noah and after whom the Warburg Institute. who kindiy gave his rime to amend and province of Sabaeawas named long ago. and others refine my original draught. The literal style of the final from Ishmael, the son of the patriarch Abraham by version is. however,my own choice.The pagination of the Hagar - that they were never subjugated by other onginal Latin publication of 1621is given in squarebrack- peoples.They maintained the independenceof their ets. states without interruption and they kept their own rulers,with whom eventhe Romans werenot ashamed to ally themselves.The most distinguisheclIshmaelite state was that of the Quraysh, which had its capital [42] at Mecca, a market-town the size of our Amster- THonlesERpEtrtrus 'l- oN THEVeluu dam where,in about 580A.D., Muhammad Abn oF-THE Anesrc L,qNcuacr Qásim was born of Ishmaelitestock from parentsof no mean standing,according to our authorities. [39] The sec'ondoration on the Arabic language git.cn At on 5th Itlovemberin the year 1620 y'hen,on reíurn.from the ageof thirty, Muhammad beganin earnestto force his his set'oncljourney to France, he resunteclhis resular way to prominence and, in the name of a lecÍures. religion which he had newly fashioned from Chris- tianity, Judaism and Arianism, to gain authority for Noble and studious men vouns ! himself.He had alreadybeen extending his sectsecretly Manuscriptsol the Middle East I ( I 986) Ter O Lugt Press.Donkersreeg 19.2312 HA Leiclen.Netherlands. 1986. ISSN 0920_0.10t 16 MANUSC]RIPTS OF THE MIDDLE EAST I (1986) Thomas Erpenius(1584-1624), professor of Arabic and Oriental languagesin the University of Leiden from l6l3 till his death.Anonymous portrait of l6l4 or earlier.Oil on panel49.5 x 39cm. LeidenUniversity Library (SeeIcones Leidenses, Leiden 1973,No.69). 11 JONES: ERPENIUS ON THE ARABIC LANGUAGE for a whole decade,when the leadersof the stategained tals that excludes females from successionto the an inkling of his trickery and set about capturing him throne, his authority could not devolve on her. That and destroyinghis endeavour.But towards eveningon eminencewas therefore conferred by a ballot on his Friday the sixteenthof July in the year 622A.D. [a3] he decrepit friend, one of his fathers-in-law,Abu Bakr. stole away and fled with a few of his followers to He was followed by other friends and relatives of Medina, a small town ten days' journey from Mecca, Mutrammad in a long successionof fifty-eight Caliphs 'Deputies'), not far from Mount Sinai. It is from this flight that his (i.e. [47] so-calledbecause they were the partisans,the followers of his religion, are accustomed deputiesof Muhammad in the same way that he had to calculatetheir calendar in the same way that the said he was the deputy of God; and they were also Romans did from the foundation of the City, the called JÈ:Ji '1r""1,Commanders of the Faithful. Greeks from the first Olympiad, the Jews from the With great effort and application they endeavoured creation of the world. and the Christians.for the most to expand and consolidatethe kingdom that Muham- part, from the nativity of the Messiah,Oeav0pónog. mad had founded.They achievedthis very successfully The reasonfor this was that when he had escapedfrom but, alas! with great damageto Christians.What I am the city he was no longer subjectto its authority and about to say will seemastonishing, even unbelievable, calledhimself, and wishedto be considered,a supreme to my audience.It is neverthelessquite true. In the leader,who was dependentin matters of state and of spaceof sixty years they subjugated which means religion on God alone as well as being the represen- they tore from the Christians and added to Muham- tative and deputy of God on earth. He was honourably mad's devilishkingdom - Palestine.Syria. and both receivedby the Medinese, whose leadershe had [44] Armenias; the whole of Asia Minor, Persia,India, already attracted to his faction and beliefsat Mecca: Egypt, Numidia. the entire Barbary coast right up to and with bold enterprise he prepared himself for the Niger river: [,18]Lusitania. Spain, a largepart of waging war againstthe Meccans.sayin-u that he was Italy'as far as the ver.vgates of the City of Rome; underGod's ordersto influenceand compelthose who Sicily'.Crete. Cy'prusI and the other islands of the were unwilling to yield to him and to beiievein him. MediterraneanSea. Thel' acquiredas much in a few not with words and miracles but r.l'ith suords and years as perhaps any absoluteruler ever possessed spears. beforethem. This is the reasonwhy the very celebrated Without delayhe preparedan army and attackedthe 'Fourth JeanBodin Ílnds the title of Monarchy' more city to no avail at first and with considerableloss of appropriateto them than to the Romans. Their realm menl but not long after the outcomewas most success- lastedfor some650 yearsuntil gradually,by reasonof ful. He capturedit without bloodshedand subduedit, the valour of the Christiansbut also of their own civil not in an oppressiveway, but rather - which was discordsand wars, it was greatly weakenedand then cunning - by making all his greatestenemies indebted divided and torn into innumerableparts as the Roman to him, by showingthem not only unexpectedkindness Empire had been.I hope you will seethis more clearly but also great favours. and by repaying them with in the future in that Historia Saracenicawhich I goodwill so that he utterly convinced those he had [49] shall shortly be publishing in Arabic and Latin. fearedbefore to becomehis most faithful helpers. [45] In a few words, mv learnedhearers. we have made To be brief, in the spaceof a decadehe managed,as clear who the Arabs were.It is now the moment for us much through his wisdorn and ability as by force and to turn to their language.Right from the origin and arms, to subjugatesuccessfully those towns, provinces diversificationof language as well known to you all and statesof Arabia that had most bravely resistedhis as it is to me - Arabic was confined to the Arabs campaignsand to establishhimself as the first absolute themselveswithin the borders of Arabia. Those who ruler of Arabia. But when he becamemore ambitious think that the Punic languagewas Arabic are wrong. and decidedto go beyond the boundariesof Arabia, in Later their rule wearied of such narrow confines and the eleventhyear of Íhe hijra (i.e. his flight) he passed beganto disperseitself far and wide in Asia. Africa and away. Our authorities who say that he invaded Syria Europe. Disseminatedby the Arabs and established and capturedDamascus are in fact wrong, as are those through colonies in many places, Arabic was then who maintain that his body was placed in an iron adopted [50] and developedin beauty and eleganceby coffin and supportedin the sky at Mecca by meansof almost every peoplethat they had subjugated. magnetism. In fact he was buried at Medina in the 'Á'isha.