Acknowledgements
The contents of this book were submitted for postgraduate degrees at the University of London during the 1980s. Part 1 contains my doctoral thesis, Learning Arabic in Renaissance Europe (1505–1624), supervised at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) by the musicologist and grammarian Professor Owen Wright; and Part 2 contains most of my earlier master’s dissertation, The Arabic and Persian Studies of Giovanni Battista Raimondi (c.1536–1614), written at the Warburg Institute under the supervision of its director, the late Professor J.B. Trapp. That these studies should be published in their original form so long after they were written came at the welcome suggestion of the editors of this series, Professor Alastair Hamilton and Professor Jan Loop. Since the 1980s, but especially in the 21st century, the story of Arabic studies in early modern Europe has been receiving the attention of a growing number of dedicated scholars. Nonetheless, despite the publication of detailed studies of many aspects of this subject, the editors of this book felt that the basic premises of my findings have not been substantially altered and that, in particular, the technical work on grammar has stood the test of time. I am grateful, therefore, to both of the editors and to Dr Maurits van den Boogert of Brill for offering to produce this book.
It is almost fifty years since I was introduced to the Islamic Arabic grammatical tradition by the historian of Arabic lexicography, musicologist and grammarian John A. Haywood. He took as his text the Kitāb al-Mufaṣṣal by the rationalist theologian Abu ’l-Qāsim Maḥmūd ibn ʿUmar al-Zamakhsharī of Khwarezm (d. 1144). To better understand the Arabic grammatical terms and rules, we undergraduates at Durham University’s School of Oriental Studies turned to the work of a British colonial lawyer, Mortimer Sloper Howell, whose Arabic grammar ‘from the works of the most approved native or naturalized authorities’ was published at Allahabad between 1880 and 1911. This stood me in good stead. In 1979, during a long conversation with the late Professor Michael Baxandall that turned out to be my acceptance on the Warburg Institute’s MPhil course, he immediately saw the attraction of exploring Arabic language learning during the Renaissance. ‘But what do I do with these manuscripts? How do I tell their story?’ I asked him later after deciding to visit Florence to examine the documentary legacy of the 16th-century Medici Oriental Press. ‘You’ll know what to do’, came the laconic reply. Perhaps the readers of this book, and experts in the history of grammar, may find that what I did with this material is still both useful and interesting. Certainly, I well remember the excitement I felt on holding in my hands the evidence for the work and thinking of an Italian orientalist who lived over 400 years ago.
In addition to the formal supervision provided by Joe Trapp and Owen Wright, there were others I could consult whose knowledge and experience helped me to advance my research, including Dr R.M. (Mike) Burrell, Peter Colvin, Professor Victor L. Ménage, Professor H.T. (Harry) Norris, Professor John Wansbrough, and my fellow doctoral student Professor Geoffrey Khan – all of whom were at SOAS; Professor Charles Burnett, Dr W.F. (Will) Ryan and Dr Charles Schmitt at the Warburg Institute; Professor L.P. (Pat) Harvey at King’s College London; Colin Wakefield at the Bodleian Library Oxford, Dr Geoffrey Roper of Cambridge University Library, Dr Raymond Mercier of Southampton University, and Dr Yasin Safadi at the British Library. Abroad there were meetings and conversations with the independent Irish pilot and scholar, Captain Philip Russell; Professor Angelo M. Piemontese of the University of Rome; Gérard Duverdier of the Collège de France, and Annie Berthier and Francis Richard of the Bibliothèque nationale de France; Professor Jos Hermans at Groningen University Library, Professor Jan Brugman and Professor H.J. (Henk) de Jonge at Leiden University, Dr Ronald Breugelmans and Professor Jan Just Witkam at Leiden University Library, Professor Remke Kruk at Utrecht and Leiden Universities, and Rijk Smitskamp of Brill’s antiquarian department; Professor Owen Gingerich of Harvard University, and Miroslav Krek at Bradeis University, Massachusetts. I recall with gratitude the generous help of all those mentioned above, some of whom now hold different positions, while others are in retirement or have sadly departed this life.
Two papers that I gave at conferences of the European Association of Middle East Librarians (MELCom International), at Leiden in 1984 and at Hammamet in Tunisia in 1987, were instantly accepted for publication in the first two volumes of the journal Manuscripts of the Middle East published by Professor Jan Just Witkam at Ter Lugt Press, Leiden. One was my English version of Thomas Erpenius’s second oration De dignitate linguae arabicae; the other was entitled ‘Piracy, War and the Acquisition of Arabic Manuscripts in Renaissance Europe’. I am grateful to Professor Witkam for his permission to republish in this book extracts from the first and a version of the second, renamed here ‘The Spoils of War’. I also acknowledge with thanks the access I was given to the holdings of all the libraries mentioned in this book and the permissions granted to publish photographs of material in Groningen University Library, Leiden University Library, the Bodleian Library at Oxford, the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek in Vienna, and the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris. Khalid Chakor Alami and François Wyn deserve special praise for their kindness and professionalism expediting my late request for colour images of manuscripts in the oriental holdings of the BnF.
My career in antiquarian bookselling began while I was writing my doctoral thesis. Favourable conditions granted by my employer, the late Lord Parmoor (Milo Cripps), 4th Baron, enabled me to establish a Middle Eastern department at Bernard Quaritch while at the same time completing the research for this book. His generous material and moral support was wonderful; seductive too. And so I was drawn to the market place where I found collectors who shared and inspired my fascination for the history of European knowledge of the Arab and Islamic world. Here I should recognise with special gratitude Sheikha Hussa Al-Sabah of the Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah in Kuwait, Jasim Homaizi, Shaikh Hamad Ebrahim Al-Khalifa, Shaikh Hassan M.A. Al-Thani of the Heritage Library in Doha, and that inveterate Maecenas with his genius for ‘dynamic cultural variety’ for whom, with countless unsung heroes, I built the Arcadian Library. That trade and scholarship could go hand in hand at Quaritch and with these collectors provided a wonderful opportunity to explore the far wider context of European appreciation and experience of the Arab and Islamic world from the dawn of printing to T.E. Lawrence. Foremost among scholars I consulted on manuscript material, Tim Stanley could always be relied upon. He also gave careful consideration to my doctoral thesis at an earlier stage, as did Jan Loop in the preparation and bringing up-to-date of this book. I am most grateful to both of them for their friendship and acumen, and to Professor Joanna Weinberg for drawing my attention to recent work in the field of Hebrew language studies of the Renaissance. Franca de Kort and Pieter te Velde of Brill are to be thanked for their practical contributions to the production of this publication. And I thank the ever-watchful, ever-present Professor Phil Cleaver and his team at et al design consultants who tweaked the pseudo-kufic in Appendix 7 and advised on the cover. But it is Alastair Hamilton, above all, who has consistently ensured that my work with European books, whether scholarly or commercial, received an exceptional level of professional support and friendship for which I shall forever be grateful. How fruitful our collaboration could be is clear from the exhibition catalogues and studies, in many cases written by him, that we published for the Arcadian Library in association with Oxford University Press. His dedication has been uncompromising. And it is no more evident than in his tireless editorial contribution to this book, without which my youthful foray into academia could never have reached a publishable state. Ultimately, however, any lapses that exist are those of a scholar-bookseller, who wishes only that by finally going into print, he may stimulate others to re-examine the technical and bibliographical aspects of Arabic (and Persian) grammatical studies in early modern Europe.
London, 2020