Chapter 4. Traveling the Middle East
2023; Volume: 112; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/tap.2023.a919380
ISSN2325-9264
Autores Tópico(s)Middle East Politics and Society
ResumoChapter 4. Traveling the Middle East Sabine Schmidtke (bio) Pforta granted Strothmann an extended, partly paid leave during the spring of 1913 (January through mid-May), which he spent at the German Protestant Institute of Archeology (Deutsches Evangelisches Institut für Altertumswissenschaft des Heiligen Landes) in Jerusalem; this was Strothmann’s very first trip to the Middle East.1 On his way [End Page 65] to Jerusalem, Strothmann passed through Milan, where he met Griffini on 24 December 1912 and where he consulted some manuscripts at the Ambrosiana, the most important of which was the majmūʿ al-fiqh attributed to Zayd b. ʿAlī; this visit was followed by a brief stay of about a month (end of December 1912 through end of January 1913) in Cairo.2 Strothmann later related that he visited the library of al-Azhar during his sojourn in Cairo,3 and it can be assumed that he engaged with local Egyptian scholars to the extent possible. It is likely that Strothmann was also in contact with some of the members of the vibrant German community in Cairo. This community included Enno Littmann, who, between 1906 and 1914, taught alternately in Straßburg and in Cairo;4 Max-Meyerhof (b. 1874, d. 1945), who had practised in Cairo as an ophthalmologist since 1903 and was engaged in the study of the history of Islamic medicine and science, particularly ophthalmology;5 the Egyptologist Ludwig Borchardt (b. 1863, [End Page 66] d. 1938), since 1907 director of the Kaiserlich Deutsches Institut für ägyptische Altertumskunde; the Swiss Arabist and Egyptologist Johann-Jacob [Jean-Jaques] Hess (b. 1866, d. 1949);6 the German diplomat Curt Prüfer (b. 1881, d. 1959), who served the German mission as dragoman between February 1907 and November 1913;7 and many others. Strothmann may have attended some of their regular social gatherings, such as the daily “deutscher Stammtisch,” held in the close vicinity of the renowned Shepheard’s Hotel, which was attended by German residents as well as by German visitors to Cairo and at which he may have made new acquaintances.8 During the same trip, possibly on his return to Germany, Strothmann also visited Syria and Constantinople.9 Shortly-after [End Page 67] his sojourn in the Holy Land, Strothmann joined the German Society for the Exploration of Palestine (Deutscher Verein zur Erforschung Palästinas [DVEP]).10 Some sixteen years later, on 18 September 1929, Strothmann embarked on his second trip to the Middle East, during which he traveled to Sarajevo, Montenegro, Albania, Greece, Turkey, Syria, Lebonon, Jordan, Palestine, Egypt, Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, Eritrea, and Yemen, the final and principal destination of his journey. He returned to Hamburg on 10 May 1930, nearly eight months after his departure. The trip is documented in three detailed reports Strothmann sent to Becker on 19 December 1929, 10 March 1930, and 8 May 1930,11 as well as in Strothmann’s partly extant travel diary, which covers about two-thirds of his trip, from 7 January (when he arrived in Jerash, Jordan) until 10 May 1930 (with some lacunae).12 It may have been during his sojourn in Syria and Lebanon that Strothmann encountered some of the Druze manuscripts he mentions briefly in his 1939 publication “Drusen-Antwort auf Nuṣairī-Angriff.”13 Moreover, while in Cairo Strothmann spent much time with Gotthelf Bergsträßer (b. 1886, d. 1933), with whom he attended sessions of Qurʾān recitation.14 He also met Arent Jan Wensinck (b. 1882, d. 1939), [End Page 68] Adolf Grohmann (b. 1887, d. 1977), Arthur Jeffery (b. 1892, d. 1959), Ṭāhā Ḥusayn (b. 1889, d. 1973), Thomas W. Arnold (b. 1864, d. 1930), Meyerhof, and others during his stay in the city. Whenever the opportunity arose, especially in Anatolia, Albania, Syria, Lebanon, Eritrea, and Egypt, Strothmann sought to learn about the current circumstances of Eastern Christianity,15 and many of his observations and personal communications are mentioned in his 1932 monograph Die Koptische Kirche in der Neuzeit16 and other pertinent publications (Figure 4.1). On 24 February 1930, Strothmann reached the port of al-Ḥudayda, where he spent some eleven days waiting to receive permission to travel to...
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