Manuscripts, Politics and Oriental Studies

Life and Collections of Johann Gottfried Wetzstein (1815-1905) in Context
Erscheinungsjahr 2019
ISBN: 978-90-04-39019-5
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Deutsch, Band 19, 438 Seiten, Format (B × H): 159 mm x 241 mm, Gewicht: 1048 g

Reihe: Islamic Manuscripts and Books

Manuscripts, 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.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Weitere Mitwirkende

Liebrenz, Boris

Rauch, Christoph

Fachgebiete

• Interdisziplinäres Bibliothekswesen, Informationswissenschaften Bibliotheks- und Auskunftssdienste
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Naher & Mittlerer Osten
• Interdisziplinäres Bibliothekswesen, Informationswissenschaften Archivierung, Konservierung & Digitalisierung

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements
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

Über Autor(innen)

Boris Liebrenz is a researcher at the Saxon Academy of Science and member of the editorial board of the Journal of Islamic Manuscripts. His main interest is the history of manuscripts, libraries, and readers, also the topic of his Die Rifa'iya aus Damaskus (Brill 2016; awarded the Annemarie-Schimmel- Forschungspreis 2017).

Christoph Rauch is head of the Oriental Department at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin. He co-organized several conferences and exhibitions on manuscript collections and the history of Oriental studies. He is co-editor of The Yemeni Manuscript Tradition (Brill 2015) and The Diez Albums: Contexts and Contents (Brill 2016).