It should be processed by a person with talent, creating an artwork in the same manner that a mine causes to create out in form of a diamond. We shall embark upon, in the following text, a German man’s life whose success in terms of language will surprise the reader. Friedrich Rückert was a German philologist, poet, philosopher and thinker. Named after Johann Michael Friedrich Rückert, Friedrich Rückert life span remained between last quarter of 18th century and the 1st quarter of 19th century. The son of a revered lawyer was born in central Germany in 1788, finished high school and primary school in his hometown and for legal studies, he went to Würzburg. At that time, Ruckert wrote his first poem, thereby beginning his career in the world of language whose first academic step towards success, ultimately defying Said’s notion of orientalism.
Ruckert’s works came out as the Hebrew language learning in which was included a letter written to Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall where Rückert demonstrated that he, at just the age of 18 years, he is beginning to learn Persian and Arabic. In no time, he became familiar in Italy during 1817 and it was when Rückert began to realize the Eastern winds (Berman). Despite his desire to return to his homeland Germany, he found himself an orientalist in Vienna alongside Joseph Freiherr von Hammer-Purgstall. The map of the global languages, after he saw Hammer-Purgstall, widened for him. He began comprehensive language studies after leaving Vienna in order to return to the family.
For the poet, positive results were yielded due to his earnest efforts for learning eastern languages. He then moved, for the publication of his most famous poems “Eastern Roses”, to Coburg to utilize the library of a well-known palace in 1822 whereby he also visited Salzburg, Tyrol and Munich. An artwork of six volumes namely “The Wisdoms of Brahmins” was published by him in 1839 and was rewarded for his great efforts and success by King Ludwig I. Rückert passed away on Jan. 31, 1866, in Neuses after executing very important works in art, literature and language (Berman).
Said’s analysis of orientalism is seen in the imperialist era in the 19th century. He considers orientalism in the imperialist era of the 19th century and also relates that to the beginning of orientalism that stemmed from the church council of Vienne in 1312. As per Said, this eventually resulted in the formation of language ‘chairs’ for Greek, Arabic, Syriac, and Hebrew (Berman). At the beginning of the book, Said states orientalism to be a corporate institution that dealt with orient that refers to making statements and views about ruling, teaching, and settling it. Eventually, orientalism, as a concept, is seen to become a western style that dominates, restructures and has authority over the orient.
When one speaks about orientalism that is to explain about the continuous concern that is seen in non-academic and academic readers with the transformative effect of Said’s orientalism. In many ways, Said’s text is seen as something of a challenge by historians in the society and in English literature. For many of the scholars who were known to Said’s orientalism views, it offered an entirely new field of inquiry to the relationship between colonial and European history as far as capitalism and cultural production was concerned.
This was also seen between the domination and enlightenment politics. One can also see that orientalism is a particular mode of interpretive methodology that eventually recycled the meaning of orientalism; this term was once used for interest and cultural appreciation, and to see the relationship of control, abuse, and mistrust. The following essay also looks at Said’s arguments that relate to European and colonial ties that were highly absorbed as ethical, intellectual, and political elements. Today, there is no serious relationship that is imaginable that is unaware of the formative element of European culture and history (Gaeffke). When one views Said’s work as a model of interpretative methodology, Said’ work is seen to be subjected to compelling pieces of criticism, particularly, by literary criticism in the 18th century.
To note, Said largely omitted parts before the Bonaparte expedition in Egypt in 1798 and provided an entirely hegemonic and monolithic version of orientalism as transportable to any given place and time. In a sense, there was an orientalist challenge where the 18th century scholars were given a broader scope of working in the history of the empire and in literary criticism. Such events allowed these scholars to have an 18th century literature view of orientalism and also another change to adapt and refine to the concept of orientalism to the place and time of the empire. One can go so far to say that when one reads European textual materials again but with an orientalist viewpoint, it allows one to have a collusive relationship with colonialism as a whole.
Essentially, the development of colonial history has allowed there to be a historical anthropologist viewpoint about insights about relationships between the English empire and literature. In many ways, orientalism gives an analytical viewpoint to view issues that relate to the transformation of Eastern texts as traveling between continents and countries was involved to promote or demolish these genres (Berman). Ruckert was a talented poet and translator who could converse in 44 languages. Moreover, he had an important place as far as translating the Quean was seen. This inspired some of the teachers of his philosopher Mawlana self. Though Rückert was a German poet and translator, he had a great influence on the way that oriental languages were taught. He was highly active in the 19th century, and the genre that he targeted was German poems in the spirit of oriental masters.
Before anything else, Rückert is a philologist. In so far as I think, Rückert was one of the most learned men in this field. He pursued language learning the whole of his life and believed language is common root for most men and that evolution of language into poetry and philosophy takes place. In the “Ideal Language”, he seems to compete philosophy and poetry. According to him, all language on the globe have one source language and East has to be the origin of such a language. Greek, according to his opinion, is not a language which has been missed or sought.
The origin of humankind, as he believes, is the Eastern world and the main source or universal language belonged to East. Before Rückert took to translation, there was, in Germany, only one translation of Quran. Rückert’s translation and the one made by Theodor Arnold in 1796 had important differences (Gaeffke). Arnold method was more of a direct translation whereas Rückert attempted to create a philosophical and more literal artwork. Also, he spent a lot of time engaging with Maulana Jalaludin Rumi who had influenced him very much.
The number of languages learnt, studied and translated by Rückert is 44. At first, you might be astonished to hear this number, but you can have an idea after you read a few stories on this topic. One of his students, Paul de Lagarde, narrates that: “A person approached Rückert and asked him to teach Tamil as he was heading to East India for an assignment upon whose inquisition Rückert apologized for not having understanding of the language, but promised him to teach soon. Rückert had no idea of Tamil in June, but he could speak Tamil fluently in October and educated that man the language for which he had promised.”
Let’s consider the texts which were translated by him from other languages, particularly those of Eastern languages. The most surprising effort put into translation can be seen in the German version of Quranic text which was made possible by him at about 20 years, according to sources. However, this fact is somewhat a disputed issue. He wrote to friend a letter in 1923 saying, “An entire winter was spent by me in translating Quran”. Despite knowing that the completion of translation could not have been pulled off, it took him about 40 years to finish this work. Indeed, Rückert had no intention to translate the whole Quranic text into German language. Nevertheless, 90% of the Islamic holy book, as per sources, were translated by him and the work was published 20 years before his death (Gaeffke).
Before Rückert took to translation, there was, in Germany, only one translation of Quran. Rückert’s translation and the one made by Theodor Arnold in 1796 had important differences. Arnold method was more of a direct translation whereas Rückert attempted to create a philosophical and more literal artwork (Berman).
He was influenced by Maulana Rumi and had engaged with him for a long time which appears from the translations from Mathnavi and Divan-i-Kebir. It is necessary to mention that the person who first applied the form of eulogy to German poetry was Rückert. He also maintained the aruz wezni (prosody). The people familiar with Aruz Wezni know the fact that it is very hard to write poems in German prosody. Apart from his deep interest in the Eastern literature, he also established “Language and Life Philosophy” in the mirror of Eastern literature.
Once a well-known poet put the remark. “Solemnity prevails ethics”. We can easily figure that the presence of the people like Rückert is too rare to be realized when we look to present circumstances and atmosphere prevailing in our social sciences and literature. What is important is to note that he became to be known right roughly after 150 years after he passed away. As a memory, he left a solid “solemnity” for us so we could realize our responsibility to preserve his solemnity and efforts. I hope that in our memory to Rückert, we commit the following verse of him as a sign of effort and solemnity: “The thing that I did not experience did not return to me as a song.
To study the Eastern values regarding women, European Artists such as Rückert had no source. Muslim women, in the 19th century lived privately and men could not access them, except the very close relations such as husbands, without the persons risking injury to themselves. Other renowned artists of the century such as Theodore Chasse Riau, Delacroix, Jean-Auguste Ingres, and Jean-Leon George had based their well-known drawings of oriental women on heresy and French models, in some cases. Jean-Auguste Ingres popular series of paintings depicting Odalisque, the eastern concubine of a Turkish Sultan was actually the painting of a French model named Madame Felix. Photographic images of the orients were tampered with. The advent of photography in early 1800, and the corresponding advances made by scientists in capturing real-life images had little or no effect to the modes of capturing oriental culture.
Ironically some images of the orients were taking but in most cases, photographers preferred to stage scenes rather than capture the reality of the East (Berman). According to photography scholar Nissan Perez, photographers chose to stage scenes so as to reinforce the West’s myopic view of the orients. Orientalist art was hugely popular in the 19th century. All over Europe – France, Britain, Italy etc. the fascination with the East led to the formation of art groups that placed their focus on explaining oriental culture through art. In 19th century France, 1893 to be precise, the Society of Orientalist Painters was founded and it’s honorary leader was Jean-Leon Gerome who visited Morocco just once but painted images of Turkey and Western Asia and claimed they were factual. On Jean-Leon Gerome’s only visit to Morocco, he wrote about his disillusionment with the fact that the subject matters of his paintings were not the reality on ground. The orients spurred a new wave of romanticism in art.
In the 20th century, criticism on the Oriental art took the trending. And over years, writers have denounced the false nature of oriental life demonstrated in 19th century drawings. What challenged the West’s perspective regarding Oriental women and culture was Said’s work “Orientalism” which was later on portrayed in famous artworks of the 19th century. Other famous critical works involve Howe’s Orientalism in French 19th Century, Passages of Western Art and Literature and Ruth Bernard Yeazell’ s Harems of the Mind. Much academic discourse, since the publication of “Orientalism” of Said in 1978, has started to make use of “Orientalism” term to imply general patronizing Western behaviors as to Middle East, North African and Asian societies.
The West, in Said’s analysis, essentializes these societies as undeveloped and static – thereby wrongly interpreting Orientalist culture which can be reproduced, depicted and studied. Said writer, implicit in this fabrication is the belief that Western society is superior, flexible, rational, and developed. To portray a pervasive Western convention – artistic and academic – of biased outsider-manifestation of the Eastern culture, Edward Said redevised the term Orientalism to affect this Western outlook that got roots in the 18th and 19th centuries (Berman). Antonio Gramsci’s theory of cultural hegemony is developed by the thesis of Orientalism. It also influenced the Michel Foucault’s theorization of discourse where he observes the relation between knowledge and power to criticize academic convention of Oriental research. Contemporary scholars were criticized by Said to show their disposition to perpetuate the convention of outsider-interpretation of Arabo-Islamic traditions, particularly Fouad Ajami and Bernard Lewis.
The question of whether and how it is practical to discuss the oriental without an orientalist cliché was inherited by the Exerts in Islamic Studies from Edward Said. A great number of German-speaking people have come to know the answer. Instead of studying different “Islams”, their feedback is to consistently prevent from sweeping essentialist assertions along the statements “Islam is…”, to let Islam speak for itself so far as possible, and to reflect their own research. Of Academic history, Edward Said would just be a slice and we should not be, for now, bothered to discuss his work.
Nevertheless, many single-focused studies were brought and overviewed by him since stressing his viewpoint more convincingly and precisely. When we reread, we experience Orientalism as an essay that is overflowing its banks, a little shoddy in its form, at times confused, a little premature in its judgements – which are rarely incorrect, but which one wish more cautiously derived. Where there is no need to be vulnerable, there Said opens up to attack. His lack of distance supplied a generation of Muslim fundamentalists with the forms for their no less efficient ‘Orientalist’ clichés.
It appears from the Said’s book that any and all assertions by Westerner as to the Middle East can be rejected as racist and worthless. Any feedback coming from a European as regards a range f topic from the Giza pyramids to the Sinbad the Sailor stories to the nature of Islamic art can be supposed from the scratch by the readers of Orientalism to be orientalist – or Islamophobic, latterly. Indeed, the very scholars and writers described by Said tell a different tale. The vast Description of Egypt is one of the first works on Orientalism discussed by him, researched by a team of French analysts, ordered by Napolean and whose work got published in 1828 in a series of monumental volumes.
Said quotes no more than a passage of its preface from this staggering work. He finds evidence in this one passage that the scholars of Napolean viewed Egypt as a theatre of colonial authority. Indeed, the passage is fairly anodyne itself and looks irrelevant the description is examined outright with its diligent drawing of snail shells and stingrays and cautious records of Engineering Machinery put to drag water from Nile River, costumes, and ploughing techniques (Berman).
Overall, when one talks about the relevance that Friedrich Ruckert has on Eastern Literature and the way that defies Said’s notion of orientalism, there were many factors that are considered, as discussed above. There was surely a sense of discrimination towards the knowledge of the Middle East in German societies and the way that the role of adaptations and translation were seen. Early on, translations from Persian, Arabic, and Turkish origins were highly popular among German authors including Ruckert. The implication of Friedrich Rückert’s adaptation towards learning foreign languages is seen in a different view as it defies the entire notion of orientalism that was common at the time. Ruckert was the first German to have introduced Arabic poetry in a Germany form.
Works Cited
Berman, Nina. German Literature on the Middle East: Discourses and Practices, 1000-1989. University of Michigan Press, 2011.
Gaeffke, Peter. “German Indology and the Orientalism Debate.” Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics 17 (1994): 1-2. (Berman Gaeffke)
