Oriental Essays | Potraits of seven Scholars

Oriental Essays: Portraits of Seven Scholars, published in 1960, is a masterful work by the renowned British Arabist and translator A.J. Arberry. In this book, Arberry steps away from his role as a technical translator to provide a deeply human and historical look at the men who “built the bridge” between the Islamic East and the Western world.

Book Description

The book is a collection of biographical and intellectual portraits of seven pioneers of Islamic and Middle Eastern studies. Arberry traces the evolution of “Orientalism” (in its classical, scholarly sense) through the lives of individuals who dedicated their lives to deciphering manuscripts, translating poetry, and explaining the “Eastern mind” to a European audience.

Arberry’s tone is one of profound respect and “professional kinship.” He uses these seven lives to tell a larger story: how Western scholarship moved from a place of colonial curiosity and religious polemic toward a more empathetic, rigorous, and spiritually aware understanding of the Islamic tradition.

Key Points

1. The Seven Scholars

The book profiles a “genealogy” of scholars, including:

• Simon Ockley: The 18th-century pioneer who wrote The History of the Saracens while often living in poverty.

• Sir William Jones: The polyglot who “discovered” the link between Sanskrit and European languages and translated Persian poetry.

• Edward William Lane: Famous for his monumental Arabic-English Lexicon and his immersion in Egyptian life.

• E.H. Palmer: The adventurous linguist and translator of the Quran.

• Edward Granville Browne: The great historian of Persian literature and champion of the Baha’i and Persian constitutional movements.

• Reynold A. Nicholson: The mentor of Arberry himself and the man who first brought the Mathnawi of Rumi to the English-speaking world in its entirety.

• A.J. Arberry (Self-Portrait): The final essay is a humble reflection on his own journey and his “farewell” to the classical era of Orientalism.

2. The Transition to Empathy

Arberry highlights a crucial shift in scholarship. Early scholars (like Ockley) often worked with limited resources and biased frameworks. By the time we reach Nicholson, the scholarship has become a “labor of love,” where the goal is no longer to “study an enemy” but to “encounter a friend.”

3. The “Discovery” of Sufism

A significant portion of the book deals with how these men—specifically Browne and Nicholson—unlocked the doors of Persian and Arabic mysticism for the West. Arberry credits them with identifying the “universal” value of Sufi metaphysics, paving the way for the modern interest in Rumi and Ibn al-Arabi.

4. The Heroism of Scholarship

Arberry depicts the life of the “Orientalist” as one of sacrifice. He describes the grueling work of Edward William Lane, who spent decades in Cairo living like a local to ensure every word in his dictionary was accurate, often at the cost of his health and financial stability.

5. The “Cambridge School” Legacy

As a Cambridge man himself, Arberry celebrates the “Cambridge lineage” (Palmer, Browne, Nicholson). He shows how a specific academic culture fostered a deep, philological rigor combined with a genuine poetic sensibility.

6. A Defense of the “Old School”

Written at a time when “Orientalism” was beginning to face political critique, Arberry’s essays serve as a defense of the humanistic value of these scholars. He argues that despite their flaws, these men were driven by a sincere desire to “translate” the beauty of the East for the benefit of all humanity.