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European Modernity and the Arab Mediterranean: Toward a New Philology and a Counter-Orientalism PDF

320 Pages·2010·1.872 MB·English
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European Modernity and the Arab Mediterranean Unauthenticated Download Date | 6/27/16 6:31 PM .................17658$ $$FM 03-18-1009:08:27 PS PAGEi Unauthenticated Download Date | 6/27/16 6:31 PM .................17658$ $$FM 03-18-1009:08:27 PS PAGEii European Modernity and the Arab Mediterranean Toward a New Philology and a Counter-Orientalism Karla Mallette university of pennsylvania press philadelphia . oxford Unauthenticated Download Date | 6/27/16 6:31 PM .................17658$ $$FM 03-18-1009:08:28 PS PAGEiii Copyright(cid:2)2010UniversityofPennsylvaniaPress Allrightsreserved.Exceptforbriefquotationsusedfor purposesofrevieworscholarlycitation,noneofthisbookmay bereproducedinanyformbyanymeanswithoutwritten permissionfromthepublisher. Publishedby UniversityofPennsylvaniaPress Philadelphia,Pennsylvania19104-4112 PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmericaonacid-freepaper 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Mallette,Karla. EuropeanmodernityandtheArabMediterranean:toward anewphilologyandacounter-orientalism/KarlaMallette. p.cm. Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN978-0-8122-4241-6(hardcover:alk.paper) 1.Arabicphilology—History—19thcentury. 2.Arabic philology—History—20thcentury. 3.Islamiccivilization. 4.Europe—Civilization—Arabinfluences. 5.Scheherazade (Legendarycharacter). I.Title. PJ6057.M35 2010 492.709—dc22 2009049134 Unauthenticated Download Date | 6/27/16 6:31 PM .................17658$ $$FM 03-18-1009:08:28 PS PAGEiv Once again, this book is for Evangeline Unauthenticated Download Date | 6/27/16 6:31 PM .................17658$ $$FM 03-18-1009:08:29 PS PAGEv Unauthenticated Download Date | 6/27/16 6:31 PM .................17658$ $$FM 03-18-1009:08:29 PS PAGEvi contents Chapter1.ScheherazadeamongthePhilologists(Paris,1704) 1 Chapter2.Metempsychosis:Dante,Petrarch,andtheArabMiddle Ages 34 Chapter3.InostriSaracini:WritingtheHistoryoftheArabs ofSicily 65 Chapter4.TheRampartsofEurope:TheInventionoftheMaltese Language 100 Chapter5.TheLifeandTimesofEnricoCerulli 132 Chapter6.Amalgams:EmilioGarc´ıaGo´mez(s.xx),Alvarus(s.ix),and PhilologyaftertheNation 162 Chapter7.ScheherazadeatHome(Baghdad,a.d.803;Londonand Hollywood,1939) 198 Notes 235 Bibliography 281 Index 305 Acknowledgments 311 Unauthenticated Download Date | 6/27/16 6:31 PM .................17658$ CNTS 03-18-1009:08:33 PS PAGEvii Unauthenticated Download Date | 6/27/16 6:31 PM .................17658$ CNTS 03-18-1009:08:34 PS PAGEviii 1 Chapter Scheherazade among the Philologists 1704 (Paris, ) Ilgiudiziosoprafacilita`odifficolta`diunalezionesara`tantopiu` sicura,quantomeglioilgiudiceconoscera`leconsuetudinidilinguag- gioedipensierodelleeta`chel’hannotrasmessa,chepuo`averlaconi- ata.Ilmigliorcriticodiuntestogrecoditradizionebizantinasara` quelloche,oltreaessereunperfettogrecista,siaancheperfettobizan- tinista.Ilmiglioreditorediunautorelatinotrasmessoincodici medievaliopostmedievalisara`coluiche,quantoilsuoautoreela sualinguaeisuoitempielalinguadeisuoitempi,altrettantobene conoscailMedioevool’umanesimo.Uncriticosiffattoe`unideale chenessunopuo` incarnareinse`perfettamente,maalqualeognuno haildoveredicercarediavvicinarsi. —GiorgioPasquali,Storiadellatradizioneecriticadeltesto [Ajudgmentconcerningthefacilityordifficultyofareadingwillbe thatmuchsureriftheonejudgingknowsthehabitsoflanguageand ofthoughtoftheagethathastransmittedthereading,andthatmay havecreatedit.ThebestcriticofaGreektexttransmittedthrough theByzantinetraditionwillbetheonewho,besidesbeingaperfect Greekscholar,isalsoaperfectByzantinist.ThebesteditorofaLatin authortransmittedinmedievalorpostmedievalcodiceswillbethe onewho,alongwithhisauthorandhisauthor’slanguageandtimes andthelanguageofhisowntimes,willknowjustaswelltheMiddle Agesandhumanism.Suchacriticisanidealthatnoonecanincar- Unauthenticated Download Date | 6/27/16 6:28 PM .................17658$ $CH1 03-18-1009:08:36 PS PAGE1 2 chapter 1 nateperfectlyinhimself,butwhicheachhastheobligationtotryto approach.] I begin this bookbyposingaseriesofquestionsthatIwillnotattemptto answer until the final chapters. In these pages I will describe the stages by which modern scholars proposed and defended a historical narrative that contradicts accepted histories of the origins of the European nations. The Orientalists whose work I survey traced a modern European national genius to a spark kindled by the Arabs who occupied the territory of the modern nation during the medieval past. They argued that European modernity, in all its splendor, emerged when Christian Europe coaxed this spark into a roaring bonfire: when Christians acquired a rational science from Islamic translations of Aristotle, for instance, or when they learned from the Arabs tosingpoetryaboutthespiritoflovebetweenmenandwomenanditscarnal celebration. This version of medieval history contains a germ of truth, to be sure;thescholarswhoseworkIreadheredidagoodjobofsubstantiatingit, and elements of it are widely accepted today by historians. Yet because it challenges the standard genealogy of the intellectual patrimony of modern Europe—from Greek and Roman antiquity, by way of the Italian Renais- sance—ithasnotwonuniversalacceptance. The scholars who argued the centrality of the Arab Mediterranean to European modernity used a scholarly methodology that, although it is of ancient vintage, was decanted into sparkling new bottles during the nine- teenth century. They produced philology-powered readings of national his- tory—the history ofa modern European nation as writtenby Orientalists, a storythatlayunreadforcenturiesbecauseitwashiddeninArabictexts.And their narratives acquired an unprecedented power from the startling claims that philologists began to make about the scientism of their reading practice duringthenineteenthcentury,asphilologyabsorbedthedeductivemethod- ologiesand theself-assurance ofthemodern sciences.Thephilological read- ing asserted that its scientific standards granted it a unique authority: it and it alone could interpret the truths concealed in historical texts. At the same time, during the nineteenth century, philology came to support and to rely upon historicism. It no longer saw itself as a primarily aesthetic strategy of reading whosepurpose was tountangle thelinguistic difficulties ofthe great books of antiquity and reveal their literary genius. Rather it became both handmaiden to and mistress of the science of history. It assumed that only Unauthenticated Download Date | 6/27/16 6:28 PM .................17658$ $CH1 03-18-1009:08:37 PS PAGE2

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