In sci.lang Raymond Roy <belamiNoSpam@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in
<40e4a509.1790952@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>:
: Hi everyone!
: It is a know fact that the first European translation of the 'Thousand
: and One Nights' (in French at least) was done by Antoine Galland in
: 1704-1711. Three hundred years back.
: My question is: where did one go or what did one do at that time if one
: was a Westerner willing to learn the Arabic language, at least in its
: classical form?
there were earlier european medieval works on arabic from spain and late
medieval sicily under the normans for a while remianed a center of arabic
scholar****p.
trade contacts between muslim lands (Morocco, Ottoman Empire) were plenty
and europeans not infrequently took up residence in these lands.
classical arabic could be learned through the intermediary of vernaculars
(colloq. arabic, turkish; but also probably through greek intermediaries)
and above all dragomans. there was also travel from east to west.
Enc of Islam II lists under "Kamus" (qa:mu:s - "dictionary") Jacob
Golius's Lexicon Arabico-Latinum (with a reverse index), Leiden 1653
and also Meninski, Thesaurus Vienna 1680 which was revised as Lexicon
turco-arabico-persi*** Vienna 1780.
it adds that many works were published before.
: Even in 2004, three hundred years later, and in spite of the relative
: abundance of resources (textbooks, radio and television programs,
: newspapers, university courses, institutes, frequent contacts with
: emigrants, Internet, etc.), it is still quite a feat to master Arabic
: enough to be able to understand the classical literature (never mind
: translate it properly). But back then, how could one manage to learn
: Arabic? Given the relative complexity of the Arabic grammar and the
: almost absolute lack of lexical resemblance with Western languages of
: the language, a sojourn abroad alone cannot have been enough to learn
: it, even for an enlightened, brilliant and curious mind. For instance,
: how could one gain an understanding of the ten (or twelve or fifteen)
: form system of the Arabic verb without any kind of theoretical
: explanation?
: I thought that the first opening of the West to the East dated back to
: Napoleon's invasion of Egypt in 1798 (then again, this 'opening' was a
: mere military action). Nonetheless, hundred years before that
: expedition, Galland must already have been learning Arabic. How did he
: do?
: It is also a very well know fact that the Arabs manifested interest for
: the European culture a long time ago (for instance medieval translations
: of Greek classical authors and philosophers), but are there any examples
: of early interest of the Europeans for the Arabic culture? For that
: matter, are there any examples of *recent* interest of the Westerners
: for the Arabic culture?
: In other words, does a 'History of the teaching/learning of the Arabic
: language in the West (Europe)' exist?
: Thanks.
: Raymond
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