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

320 Pages·2010·1.872 MB·English

by  Karla Mallette

European Modernity
and the Arab Mediterranean
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European Modernity
and the Arab Mediterranean
Toward a New Philology
and a Counter-Orientalism
Karla Mallette
university of pennsylvania press
philadelphia . oxford
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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
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Once again, this book is for Evangeline
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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
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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-
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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
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