
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
Prof. Charles Burnett
Project Leader
University of London
United Kingdom
Project Partners
Prof. Charles Burnett
Project Leader
University of London
United Kingdom
Dr Jan Loop
The University of Kent
United Kingdom
Prof. Outi Merisalo
University of Jyväskylä
Finland
Prof. Martin Muslow
University of Erfurt
Germany
Prof. Bernd Roling
Free University of Berlin
Germany
Prof. Gerard Wiegers
University of Amsterdam
Netherlands