Barthélemy de'Herbelot and his “Oriental Library”
Subject Areas : The Journal of Islamic History and Civilisation
عباس احمدوند
1
(ندارد)
امیر مؤمنی هزاوه
2
(ندارد)
Keywords: Barthélemy de'Herbelot, Bibliothèqueorientale /Orienta, orientalism, French Orientalism,
Abstract :
Barthélemy d'Herbelot de Molainville was a French Orientalist. Hehad a great impact on the development of Orientalism in France andalso he was the author of “Bibliothèque Orientale = Oriental Library”which was, for a while, the only reference book for westernorientalists. However, it was influenced by some political events suchas the Ottomans attack to Europe .The author was related to the courtsof Florence and Paris and also supported by the politicians like Jean-Baptiste Colbert. He was also teaching in Royal College (later collegede France).So, the book was written with superficial approaches andpolitical aims. Despite the important position of Herbelot in orientalstudies and related fields, today, his character and book OrientalLibrary is not well known for the Orientalists and especially forIranian studies researchers. Therefore, this paper tries to reflect a clearpicture of his character and position in Orientalism. Giving a shortbiography, short description of his life, the way of writing OrientalLibrary, the methods and approaches of its author and the influence ofthe book on western scholars and Orientalists will be discussed in thepresent paper.