Chapter 14 Looking at Man in the State of Nature
Johann Gottfried Wetzstein on the Bedouin of the Syrian Steppe
In: Manuscripts, Politics and Oriental StudiesSearch for other papers by Astrid Meier in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Purchase instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Abstract
Johann Gottfried Wetzstein (1815–1905), best-known for serving as Prussian consul in Damascus from 1849 to 1861, was a prominent scholar of Oriental languages and biblical criticism as well as an expert of the politics of mid-19th century Ottoman Syria. He led several expeditions into the open lands of the Syrian Steppe, in particular in the Hauran region. Interested in geology, toponymy, philology, archaeology, history and ethnography, the results of his investigations were published in a monograph and various articles, but only few of them were translated into languages other than German. This contribution explores Wetzstein’s motivations, the reasons why not even his long travelogue was translated into English and why his writings on the Syrian Steppe remain of interest to historians today.