Ex Oriente Lux et Veritas: Yale, Salisbury and Early Orientalism [Paperback]

This book presents expanded versions of the papers delivered at a symposium held during the 175th anniversary celebration of Yale's 1841 appointment of Edward Elbridge Salisbury as America's first professor of Arabic and Sanskrit. Often drawing on original archival research, the articles place Salisbury in the context of 19th-century Orientalism, with particular attention to the interconnected growth of Assyriology in northern Europe and the U.S. Hitherto unheralded, Salisbury emerges as a founding figure in the development of ancient Near Eastern, Arabic, and Sanskrit studies, as well as in the rise of the American liberal arts university.The essays in this book place Edward Elbridge Salisbury in the context of 19th-century Orientalism, with emphasis on the interconnected growth of Assyriology in Northern Europe and America. Salisbury was a founding figure in the development of ancient Near Eastern, Arabic, and Sanskrit studies. 3 colour and 4 b&w illustrations.Acknowledgments About the Cover Salisbury and Yale (Karen Polinger Foster) Orientalism's Lonely Years: The Case of Edward Salisbury (Suzanne Marchand) Edward Salisbury and A. I. Silvestre de Sacy (Benjamin R. Foster) Assyriological Peripheries: Early Mesopotamian Studies in Scandinavia (Gojko Barmamovic) Between Microphilology, Academic Politics, and the Aryan Jesus: Paul Haupt, Hermann Hilprecht, and the Birth of American Assyriology (Eckart Frahm) Appendix I: Salisbury's Letter of Appointment Appendix II: Salisbury's Seals, 160 Years Later: Two Neo-Assyrian Cylinders from AOS to YBC (Agnete Wisti Lassen) Notes on Contributors.