Eastern wisedome and learning : the study of Arabic in seventeenth-century England / G.J. Toomer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Toomer, G. J.

Contributor:

Louis A. Duhring Fund.

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Library (University of Pennsylvania)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Arabic language--Study and teaching (Higher)--Great Britain--History--17th century.

Arabic language.

Arabists--Great Britain--History--17th century.

Arabists.

History.

Arabic language--Study and teaching (Higher).

Great Britain.

Physical Description:

xi, 381 pages ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Clarendon Press ; New York : Oxford University Press, 1996.

Summary:

This book narrates the extraordinary growth in the study of Arabic in England from the late sixteenth century, when it was almost non-existent, to the end of the seventeenth. By its high point around 1666, England was preeminent among European countries in the study of Arabic. Permanent chairs of Arabic had been established at Oxford and Cambridge, and specialized presses in Oxford and London had produced important Arabic works. In this masterly and original study, Professor Toomer gives the first detailed account of this process, set against the religious and political background in England and in Europe. He shows how trade with the Ottoman Empire and mistrust of Islam influenced the study of Arabic. Finally, he traces the course and causes of the drastic decline in Arabic studies towards the end of the century.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [315]-343) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Louis A. Duhring Fund.

ISBN:

0198202911

OCLC:

32890934