Encounters with the Orient in Early Modern European Scholarship

This project aimed to document the scholarly European encounter with Oriental culture of c.1500–1800.

This momentous cultural encounter, initiated and driven by religious and scholarly interests, resulted in a profound transformation of European values. ‘Orient’ is used to refer to the religious area of Islam, Eastern Judaism and Christianity. This project explores how the Orient changed from being a source for Christian truths to being an object of cultural studies.

The three main project objectives were to:

• describe the scholarly and religious incentives for this encounter between Europe and the Orient
• document the exchange of knowledge, ideas, values and material objects this encounter stimulated in the early modern period
• explore the institutional, conceptual and religious transformations which the encounter initiated in:
  • theology and biblical studies
  • the teaching and learning of Arabic and other Oriental languages
  • literature and poetry
  • historical and anthropological thinking in general

The different parts of this project, and resulting projects, have been shared publicly through:

• the project website
• conferences and workshops
• an interactive map
• an online anthology
• a catalogue of the opening exhibition
• blog posts
• public lectures