Manuscripts, Politics and Oriental Studies : Life and Collections of Johann Gottfried Wetzstein (1815-1905) in context /
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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.
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Collects papers originally presented at the symposium Studies on Johann Gottfried Wetzstein (1815-1905): Manuscripts, Politics and Oriental Studies, presented by the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin in cooperation with Orientalisches Institut der Unversität Leipzig, Feb. 19-21, 2015. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004393141 :
1877-9964 ;
Reconstructing Erpenius' Library : The First Collection of Oriental Manuscripts at Cambridge University Library /
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This volume is the first comprehensive study of one of the most important collections of oriental manuscripts in early modern Europe which belonged to Thomas Erpenius (d. 1624), the renowned Dutch Arabist, orientalist and the first Chair of Arabic Studies at Leiden University. It reconstructs his personal library which was the center of scholarly debates for centuries, full of rare and sometimes unique materials. Widely known as a rich source of Muslim literature and Asian languages, the collection was purchased by George Villiers, the 1st Duke of Buckingham (d. 1628) and ultimately donated by his widow, Katherine Villiers, to Cambridge University Library in June 1632. This volume provides detail on Erpenius' life and career, his manuscript collections and their reception and preservation in Cambridge. Furthermore, the author challenges the idea of European orientalism by redefining the role of Erpenius in in shaping academic study of the Orient and 'organic' orientalism in the West.
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1 online resource (215 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004712607
The Bakhshālī Manuscript : An Ancient Indian Mathematical Treatise /
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The Bakhshālī Manuscript is an old birch-bark manuscript which treats mathematics in Sanskrit. It was unearthed by a farmer in AD 1881 at the small village of Bakhshālī, about eighty kilometers north-east of Peshawar, one of the important trading centers of the ancient Gandhāra district (now Pakistan). It was studied by eminent Indologists and historians of mathematics of the time, yet a number of mathematical rules and examples in it were either left undeciphered or misunderstood due to the fragmentary nature of the manuscript, the irregularities of the language, and the fact that the study of the history of Indian mathematics was in an early stage. The dating of the manuscript as well as of the work in it has also been long a matter of controversy. The dates estimated range from the early centuries of the Christian era to the twelfth century. The situation has been much improved, however, by quite a few studies on Indian mathematics that appeared after those pioneering works, and by the publication of two Sanskrit works, Bhāskara's commentary on the Aryabhaṭīya and Srīdhara's Paṭīgaṇita with an old commentary, which have greatly enhanced our knowledge of Indian mathematics of the seventh and eighth centuries. This book offers a fresh translation of the manuscript, the first English translation of the whole text based on a systematic study of linguistic peculiarities, and a mathematical commentary based on a comparative study of the Bakhshālī work and other Sanskrit mathematical texts, including the two mentioned above. The Introduction attempts to locate the Bakhshālī work properly within the history of Indian mathematics.
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Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004646643