Description
Book SynopsisManuscripts, Politics and Oriental Studies commemorates the life and works of Johann Gottfried Wetzstein (1815-1905) as a scholar, manuscript collector, and consul in Berlin and Damascus. Beyond research into Wetzstein's own time, special attention is given to the impact his efforts to acquire manuscripts have had until this day. Several contributions also illustrate contemporary developments that give context to his own career as a scholar and diplomat. The particular focus of this volume allows to explore the history of Oriental scholarship not purely through the lens of academic posts and publications but encourages us to discover lifes such as Wetzstein's, without academic stardom yet laying the material foundations of textual work for generations. Contributors are Kaoukab Chebaro; François Déroche; Faustina Doufikar-Aerts; Alba Fedeli; Ludmila Hanisch †; Michaela Hoffmann-Ruf; Ingeborg Huhn; Robert Irwin; Boris Liebrenz; Astrid Meier; Samar El Mikati El Kaissi; Claudia Ott; Holger Preißler †; Christoph Rauch; Helga Rebhan; Anke Scharrahs; Jan Just Witkam.
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements List of Figures Notes on Contributors Note on Transliteration and Dates 1 Introduction Boris Liebrenz and Christoph Rauch Part 1 Berlin 2 Johann Gottfried Wetzstein als Forscher Holger Preißler † 3 Semitic Studies at the University of Berlin during Wetzstein’s Lifetime Ludmila Hanisch † 4 Growing Collections and Rising Expectations The Endeavour to Catalogue Manuscripts in Arabic Script at the Royal Library in Berlin Christoph Rauch Part 2 The Wetzstein Collections 5 The Wetzstein Collection at Tübingen University Library Its History, Content, and Reception in Oriental Studies Michaela Hoffmann-Ruf 6 The Quranic Collections Acquired by Wetzstein François Déroche 7 Johann Gottfried Wetzstein’s Manuscripts Containing Arabic Popular Stories Jan Just Witkam 8 The Consul and the King Wetzstein and Alexander Faustina Doufikar-Aerts 9 Wetzstein in Wonderland Arabian Epic Manuscripts in the Wetzstein Collections Claudia Ott 10 Arabic Manuscripts and Books from the Bequest of Wetzstein Boris Liebrenz and Christoph Rauch Part 3 Collecting Oriental Manuscripts 11 Collecting Islamic Manuscripts at the Munich Court Library in the Nineteenth Century An Acquisition History Helga Rebhan 12 Manuscript Acquisitions and their Later Movements A Further Note about the Case of the Lewis Quranic Manuscript Alba Fedeli 13 Manuscript Ownership and Readership at the American University of Beirut at the Turn of the Twentieth Century Kaoukab Chebaro and Samar El Mikati El Kaissi Part 4 Damascus 14 Looking at Man in the State of Nature Johann Gottfried Wetzstein on the Bedouin of the Syrian Steppe Astrid Meier 15 From Leipzig to Damascus Wetzstein as a Broker of Arabic Prints in Syria Boris Liebrenz 16 Ergänzungen zu den hinterlassenen Papieren Johann Gottfried Wetzsteins Ingeborg Huhn 17 Living in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Damascus Insights into the Urban Residences of Foreigners and Locals Anke Scharrahs 18 Arabist and Consul in Damascus Sir Richard Burton and the Problematic Nature of His Translation of The Thousand and One Nights Robert Irwin Index
