Republic of Arabic Letters - Alexander Bevilacqua

A Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year
A Longman-History Today Book Prize Finalist
Winner of the Thomas J. Wilson Memorial Prize

"Fascinating, eloquent, and learned, The Republic of Arabic Letters reveals a world later lost, in which European scholars studied Islam with a sense of affinity and respect...A powerful reminder of the ability of scholarship to transcend cultural divides, and the capacity of human minds to accept differences without denouncing them."
-Maya Jasanoff

"A closely researched and engrossing study of...those scholars who, having learned Arabic, used their mastery of that difficult language to interpret the Quran, study the career of Muhammad...and introduce Europeans to the masterpieces of Arabic literature."
-Robert Irwin, Wall Street Journal

"[A] tour de force...Bevilacqua's extraordinary book provides the first true glimpse into this story...It has taken until now for a book to tell the history of the origins of the Western study of Islam...Few have his linguistic and cultural expertise. He, like the tradition he describes, is a rarity."
-New Republic

"What makes his study so groundbreaking, and such a joy to read, is the connection he makes between intellectual history and the material history of books."
-Financial Times

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, a pioneering community of Western scholars laid the groundwork for the modern understanding of Islamic civilization. They produced the first accurate translation of the Qur'an, mapped Islamic arts and sciences, and wrote Muslim history using Arabic sources. The Republic of Arabic Letters is the first account of this riveting lost period of cultural exchange, revealing the profound influence of Catholic and Protestant intellectuals on the Enlightenment understanding of Islam.