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Terrible Turks, Bedouin Poets, and Prussian Prophets: The Shifting Place of Islam in Herder'sThoughtAuthor(s): Ian AlmondSource: PMLA, Vol. 123, No. 1 (Jan., 2008), pp. 57-75Published by: Modern Language AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25501827 .

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12

3-1

I

Terrible Turks, Bedouin Poets, and Prussian

Prophets:

The

Shifting

Place

of

Islam

in

Herder's

Thought

IAN ALMOND

IAN

LMOND

teaches

part-time

at

the

Cen

tre

for

Languages, Europa-Universitat

Via

drina

Frankfurt

(Oder),

and

at

the

John

F.

Kennedy

Institute,

Freie

Universitat

Ber

lin. He

is the author

of

three

books:

Su

fi

m

and

Deconstruction:

A

Comparative

Study

of

Derrida and Ibn

'Arabi

Routledge,

2004),

The

New

Orientalists: Postmodern

Representations of

Islam

from

Foucault

to

Baudrillard

(I.B.Tauris,

2007),

and

a

popu

lar

history

of Muslim-Christian

alliances,

Two

Faiths,

One

Banner

(I.B.Tauris,

forth

coming 2008).

He

is

also

the

author

of

over

forty

rticles in

variety

of

journals,

such

as

New

Literary

History,

the Harvard

Theological

Review,

and

the

British

jour

nal

Radical

Philosophy.

He

is

working

on a

book-length

study

of

the

Bengali

thinker

Nirad

C

Chaudhuri.

Alas,

the claims

Kalligone

had

to

struggle

with

unjustly ...

This

stuff

owa

days

is

called

in

so

many

journals

Kritik,

and

is

theorder

ofthe

day.

All the

young

Kantians,

Fichtians,

Schellingians,

etc.,

etc.,

recite this

Koran,

sent

from

heaven and

whispered

into

the

Prophet's

ear.

Au

wehl

mit

welchen

Behauptungen

musste

[Kalligone]

unwiirdig

streiten.

. ..

Dies

Zeug heifit

jetzt

in

so

viel

Journalen

Kritik,

u.

ist

Ordnung

des

Tages.

Allejunge

Kantianer,

Fichtianer,

Schellingianer,

etc.

etc. recensiren

nach die

sem

Koran,

vom

Himmelgesandt

u.

dem

Prophet

ins

Ohrgeblasen.

?Herder

to

Gleim,

13

June

1800

FOR

ALL

ITS

MUSEMENT,

ERDER'S

MAGEF

KANT S

A

FALSE

Prophet,

seducing

a

younger

generation

of

followers with his

critical

revelations,

carries

with

it

a

certain

sadness

(Briefe

[1979]

8:

137).

The

picture

it

presents

ofthe resentful

fifty-six-year

old

philosopher,

who,

in

his lifetime

at

least,

never

managed

to

outdo

his

former

teacher,

strikes

a

melancholy

note.

Nietzsche's "sore

and

unfree

thinker,"

who

never

felt he

could

"sit

at

the

banquet

of

the

actual

creators"

(qtd.

in

Behler

247

[from

Nietzches

Human,

All Too

Human]), springs

most

immediately

to

mind when

we

read Herder's

self-righteous picture

of

Kant

as

a

Prussian

Muhammad

establishing

a new

creed of

Vernunft

with

his

Koran

of

Pure

Reason.

In

observing

his

former

professors rising

star,

Herder

clearly

felt

that

a

new

religion

was

about

to

bloom.

Kant,

it

should

be

said,

was

not

the

only

person

in

Herder

s

letters

to

be

credited

with

the

status

of

Muhammad.

At

various

points

during

his

correspondence,

Herder

em

ployed

the

metaphor

to

describe

his

wife;

his

friend

Johann

Kaspar

Lava

ter;

the

poet

Friedrich

Gottlieb

Klopstock,

whose odes

had

"an

almost

Muhammadan

boldness"

about them

("einige

fast

Mahomedanische

? 2008 BY THE MODERN

LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION OF

AMERICA

57

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58

Terrible

urks,

edouin

Poets,

nd Prussian

rophets:

he

Shifting

lace of Islam

n

Herder's

hought

PMLA

Kuhnheiten";

Briefe

[1979]

1: 295

[letter

to

Hesse,

Jan.

1771]);

and,

most

significantly,

Jo

hann

Georg

Hamann.

"Old,

pure

Prophet,"

he

writes to

his

mentor in

1784,

read

[my

Ideen]

with

patience

and

care

...

reward

me

with

a

response,

however

it

may

be,

from

your

dear breast ... You'll

say your

thoughts

to

me,

and that will

move me nearer

to

you

and also

give

me

some

aid.

...

Mu

hammad

starts

a sura

in

his

Koran:

Praised

be theMerciful

God;

he has

given

the feather

pen

to

mankind;

may

he

give

it

to

you

too

Lesen

Sie

also,

alter

reiner

Prophet,

mit Ge

duld u. Schonung... belohnen u. ermuntern

Sie

mich

mit

einem

Nachhall,

er

sei wie

er

wolle,

aus

Ihrer lieben

Brust.

...

Aber

Sie

werden

mir Ihre

Gedanken

sagen

u.

das

wird

mich

zu

Ihnen riicken

u.

mir

auch auf

den

Verfolg

Winke

geben.

Mahomed

fangt

eine

Sura

seines Korans

an:

Lob

dem

Barmherzi

gen

Gott;

er

hat die

Schreibfeder

dem

Men

schen

gegeben;

er

gebe

sie

auch

Ihnen

(Briefe

[1979]

5:

43

[to

Hamann,

May

1784])

The young Herder, as iswell known, had

been

a

student of both

Kant

and

Hamann

at

Konigsberg,

and

a

significant

amount

of schol

arship

has

been devoted

to

determining

which

ofthe

two

stars?that

ofthe

Enlightenment

or

Sturm

und

Drang?exerted

the

greater

influ

ence

on

Herder's

planetary

course.1

This

jux

taposition

of

two

Muhammads,

however?one

a

cunning

deceiver,

the other

a

pure

source

of aid and

inspiration?is

not

merely

of

bio

graphical

interest,

another

handy

reference

forHerder scholars

to

use

in

coloring

the his

tory

of

a

familiar

rivalry.

Herder's

two

proph

ets

point

the

way

to

something

more

serious

and

more

complex

in

the

thinker's

attitudes

toward Islam

and

the

peoples

and

cultures

he

understood

to

be

"Muhammadan."

My

essay attempts

to

understand

the

complexity

in

Herder's

approach

to

Islam

through

the

delineation of

four

separate

though

often

jarring

voices

in

his

work:

an

essentially

Christian

identity,

one that for

ever

saw

Islam

as a

fundamentally

mistaken,

aggressive

version

of the

Christian

faith;

a

more

specifically

Protestant

identity,

one

that

harbored

reservations

toward Islam

yet

nev

ertheless

employed

it as a

positive point

of

reference with

regard

to

the

idolatry

and

cru

sades

of

papism;

an

aesthetic

register,

which

appeared

whenever Herder wanted

to

down

play

the

falsity

ofMuhammadanism and

view

its rise

as

a

morally

beneficial

exercise

in

sub

limity;

and,

perhaps

most

interestingly,

a

po

litical

vocabulary

that

interpreted

the role of

the Koran

in

the birth of Islam

as

an

impor

tant

precedent

for the

role

of

Sprache

in

the

task of nation building but that also saw Eu

rope's

nearest

Muslim

neighbors

(the

Turks)

as

a

barbaric

horde and

an

abiding

threat

to

civilization.

What follows

is

a

brief

attempt

to

understand

the

dissonance,

complications,

and

paradoxes

arising

from the

coexistence

of

these

four

identities

in

Herder's

oeuvre.

The ebb

and flow ofHerder's

critical

recep

tion,

from

his obscure

status

as

Kant's

pupil

and Goethe's correspondent, themyth of his

abhorrence

for

the

Enlightenment,

and

the

abuses

his

writings

suffered

at

the

hands

of

a

variety

of

German

nationalist

thinkers

to

the

gradual

recovery

(thanks

in

no

small

part

to

Isaiah

Berlin's

influential

study)

and

recogni

tion

of

his

status

as

an

early

thinker

of

toler

ance,

pluralism,

and

ethnic

identity?such

a

volatile

critical

heritage

has culminated

in

an

almost

postmodern

resurrection

ofthe

alleged

father of

nationalism

as

a

prescient

critic

of

Eurocentrism and

an

affirmer of

nonuniver

sal,

relatively

valid

value

systems.2

Even

those

scholars

who

stop

short

of

comparing

Herder

with

Lyotard

and

Derrida

appear

to

agree

on a

figure

who

"abhorred

all

forms

of cultural

chau

vinism"

(Beiser

189),

whose

impulse

to write

history

was

driven

by

"a love

of humankind"

(Knoll

129),

and whose

writings

constitute "an

oasis of tolerance

and

humanity"

(Adler

391).

There

is

certainly

nothing

false

about

such

descriptions.

Herder's

early

critique

of



8/9/2019 25501827.pdf

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123.1

Ian

Almond

59

European

self-congratulation

("Why

should

the

western

corner

of

our

northern

hemi

sphere

alone

possess

culture?"

["Warum

sollte

der

westliche Winkel

unsres

Nord-Hemispars

die Kultur allein besitzen? und besitzet er sie

allein?"])

is

indeed

remarkable,3

as are

his

at

tacks

on

imperialism

and clannish

provin

cialism;

unlike

Leibniz,

Herder

never

desired

an

Egyptian plan,

not

from the

Portuguese

or

anyone

else.

Yet

themuch-vaunted claims

for

his

humanity, pluralism,

and

(arguably)

prescient

cultural

relativism

require

some

important

qualifications.

Most

scholars

are

happy

to

remind

us

how Herder

chastised

Jo

hann JoachimWinckelmann and the earl of

Shaftesbury

for

judging Egyptian

culture

by

Greek

or

European

standards

instead of

Egyp

tian

ones?few,

however,

dwell

on

exactly

how

he

expressed

this

opinion

("The

boy's

coat

is

certainly

too

short

for

the

giant "

["Der

Rock

des Knabens

ist

allerdings

fiir

den

Riesen

zu

kurz"]).4

Herder's

emphasis

on

the

childish

ness

of

the

Oriental;

his

negative

representa

tion,

at

times

demonization,

of

the

Turk;

his

Protestant reservations toward not only Islam

but also

"the

barbary

of

papism"

("die

Ba-'ba

rei

des

Papismus")

serve

to

remind

us

that

we

are

dealing

with

not

a

single,

magically

coher

ent

human

being

but

a

varied

and

inconsistent

collection of

texts

(Samtliche

Werke

32:

143).

Herder's

ambiguous

attitude

toward

Islam

will

play

a

crucial role

in

this

problematization

of

the

place

of

the

non-European

in

his

work.

Like

Kant,

Herder

was

a

voracious

reader

of

travelogues

and

orientalia,

even

if

critics

have

rightly

acknowledged

the

difficulty

of

exactly

ascertaining

the

sources

for his

under

standing

of

Islam

(Hardiyanto

102).

The

lively

and

varied context

of his

writings,

set

against

the

unfolding

developments

in

Arabic

and

Persian

studies ofthe

second half

of

the

Ger

man

eighteenth

century,

presents

his

somewhat

sympathetic

treatment

ofthe

Muslim

Orient

as

unusual

but

by

no

means

without

precedent.

The

travelogues

Herder

had

to

rely

on

ranged

widely,

from the

blatantly

biased traveler's

tale

to

the

more

measured

account

that,

if

not

free

from

a

European perspective,

at

least

at

tempted

some

form

of

objectivity.

On the

one

hand,

there

was

Thomas

Shaw's

Travels

(1738),

an Anglican chaplain's account ofNorth Africa

and

Arabia

that,

for

all

the

interest

and

merit

of

its

physical

descriptions,

essentially

saw

Arabs

as

thieves

("there

is

no

name

peculiar

to

any

body

of

them,

they

being

all

the

same,

and

have

all

the like

inclinations... of

robbing,

stripping

and

murdering"

[viii]);

Herder had read and

reviewed

a

German

translation of

the

text

fa

vorably

in

the

1770s. On

the other

hand,

there

were

slightly

more

thoughtful

observations

from figures such as Herder's correspondent

Carsten

Niebuhr,

whose

Descriptions

of

Ara

bia

(1772)

at

least allowed for

the

possibility

of

Eurocentric

generalization

("I

cannot

draw

conclusions

about

the

mentality

of

a

whole

na

tion

from the

behavior of

a

few

bad

people"

[28]).

William

Jones's

positive

remarks

on

the

Arab

in

his

1787

essay

("their

eyes

are

full

of

vi

vacity,

their

speech

voluble

and

articulate,

their

deportment

manly

and

dignified"

[50])

most

likey appeared around the same time as Her

der's

own

idealizations

ofthe

Arab.

Travelogues

apart,

Herder's

writings

also

came

onto

the

scene

in

the

aftermath

of

a

particularly

crucial

debate

among

German

orientalists

concerning

the

status

ofArabic.

Scholars

such

as

the bril

liant

Leipzig Byzantinist

Johann

Jacob

Reiske

had

been

attacking

the

essentially

pristine

and

unchanging

language

proposed

by

philologists

such

as

Albert Schultens

and

Johann

David

Michaelis

(who

had written

ofthe

difficulty

of

finding

"a

Volk

whose

customs

have

remained

unchanged

so

long

as

the

Arabs"

[qtd.

in

Loop

71]).

Throughout

the

1750s,

Reiske

had

demon

strated

a

remarkable

awareness

of

the

dangers

and

blindnesses involved

in

the

European

in

terpretation

of

Arabic

texts,

particularly

those

ofthe Koran:

"What would

we

say

to

a

Muham

madan

who

without

knowing

our

theology

in

its

widest

extent

made

a

translation

ofthe New

Testament

and then

poured

his

philosophi

cal

sludge

over it?"Men such as

Reiske,

for all



8/9/2019 25501827.pdf

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6o Terrible

Turks,

Bedouin

Poets,

and

Prussian

Prophets:

The

Shifting

Place of Islam

in

Herder's

Thought

PMLA

their

flaws,

were

remarkably

aware

of

how

eas

ily

European

Arabists

might

end

up

reading

something

that,

ultimately,

was

nothing

more

than

a

"Christian Koran"

(qtd.

in

Loop

80).

In

deed, Herder's hermeneutic

approach

owes no

small

part

to

the

radical,

context-

and culture

sensitive

methodology

of

Reiske,

whom Herder

cites

repeatedly

in

theAdrastea.

Our

investigation

into the

place

of Islam

in

Herder's work

also

offers

some

parallels

to,

and

consequences

for,

debate about the

rela

tion

between Herder and

Judaism.

In

both

cases,

contradictory

remarks

proliferate.

The

critic

Emil

Adler shows

most

clearly

the

va

riety of references to Jews inHerder's work,

from

Herder's

description

of them

as

"para

sitic

plants"

("die

parasitische

Pflanze")

to

his

modern

disgust

at

their

persecution

(383).

Her

der's

positive

acknowledgment

ofthe

Hebrew

contribution

to

world

culture,

as

Amy

New

man

points

out,

in

particular

his

crediting

the

Jews

with the

"transition from

primitive

superstition

to

rational

religion"

(459),

also

freezes

Judaism

in

a

Protestant

time

frame.

In

much the same way, Islam will be accorded an

initial,

praiseworthy

yet

immutable

stage

in

the

gradual

evolution of world

history.

Both

Jews

and

Muslims,

it

could

be

said,

emerge

in

this

approach

as

positive

though

somewhat

anachronistic

components,

peoples

and

cul

tures

that

long

since

served

their

purpose.

Herder's

references

to

Islam

sprawl.

Aside

from the few

places

in

his

oeuvre

where

Is

lam takes

center

stage?the

middle

chapters

on

Arabia

and

the

Crusades

in

the

Ideen,

the

small

1792

essay

on

Saadi,

and

an

extended

section

on

Arab

culture

in

On the

Effect

of

Poetry?we

see

a

dizzying

array

of references

to

the

Muslim

Orient,

ranging

from

a

passing

mention

of

Turkish

tragedies

(1765;

Sdmtli

che

Werke

32:

142)

to

a

footnote

on

the

Arab

origins

of

European

love

poetry

in

the

post

humous

Adrastea

(1804;

24:

252).

The

register

also

varies

widely.

Sometimes

Herder

is

dry

and academic:

a

comment

on

how

"Turks

and Saracens"

copied

Greek

philosophy

and

thereby

lost their

spirit,

for

example,

or

a

ref

erence

to

the

Arab

lexicographer

who

counted

four

hundred words for

misery.5

Sometimes

he

is

self-mocking

and

lighthearted?as

when

he calls himself a Turkish camel driver in a

letter

to

Hamann

(Briefe

[1979]

1:

38

[Feb.

1765])

or

addresses

the orientalist Niebuhr

in

another letter

as

his "Hadschi"

(fellow

Mus

lim

pilgrim;

6:

24

[Aug.

1788]).

At

other

times

Herder

can

sound

conventionally

Christian

(in

Die

Ausgiessung

des

Geistes,

we

learn

how "Muhammad converted

through

sword

and fire"

["Mahomet

bekehrte

mit Feuer

und

Schwert";

Sdmtliche

Werke

1:

58])

or

passion

ate and Romantic in themost secular sense?

there

are

numerous

positive

references

to

Muhammad's

dreams,

imagination,

inspira

tion,

or

stories where the

Prophet gives

life

to

leafless

trees

(2:265).

The cultural constitution

of Islam also

varies

from reference

to

refer

ence

in

Herder.

Although

it is

predominantly

seen as

an

Arabian

phenomenon,

he

some

times

blends Turks

and Arabs:

in

Auch

eine

Philosophie

the Arabs

who

allegedly

burned

the library atAlexandria, the tenth-century

Arabs who reintroduced Greek

philosophy

to

the

West,

and the

Turks who

conquered

Con

stantinople

are

all

lumped

together

as

"the

same

barbarians"

("eben

dieselbe

. ..

Bar

baren").6

Sometimes

he

even

produces

such

phrases

as

"the

Koran

ofthe

Turks"

("mit

dem

Koran

der

Tiirken";

Briefe

[1979]

2:

84).

Scholars

looking

for

some

form

of chron

ological

development

in all this

will be frus

trated. To

a

limited

extent,

one

could

argue

for

a

gradual

refining

of

Herder's

view

of

the

Koran?if

in

1766 it is

a

"mishmash"

("Misch

masch")

of

different

religions

(Sdmtliche

Werke

1:

58),

by

the

time

ofthe

Ideen

(1786)

it

has become

merely

"a

peculiar

mixture"

("eine

sonderbare

Mischung";

2:

420).

Such

a

pattern

is

undermined,

however,

by

difficulties:

Her

der's

positive

account

of

Muhammad

and the

rise

of

Islam

in

On

the

Effect

of

Poetry

(1778),

where

the

Koran

is

described

as

being

full

of

"divine

places"

("erhabne

...

Stellen";

Sdmt



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12

3-1

Ian

Almond

61

licheWerke 8:

360),

is

much less

ambiguous

than

his

treatment

of

it

in

the Ideen

eight

years

later.

Moreover,

the

simple

contiguity

of

Her

der's

positive

and

negative

references

to

"Mu

hammadans"

("Mohammedaner")?in

the

same

decade,

sometimes

in

the

same

year?

discourages

the

attempt

to

chart

any

form of

progression

in

his

ideas. The fact

that

his

ear

liest reference

to

Islam

(1765)

is

a

complaint

about

the

present,

didactic

state

of German

drama,

obsessed

with

Christian

caricatures

of

Muhammad,

while

one

of his

last letters

ends,

"I

write

as a

profaner,

a

blind

pagan,

and

a

Turk"

("schreibe

ich

ganz

als

ein

Profaner,

als ein stockblinder Heide und Turke"; Briefe

[1979]

:

356

[to

chroder,

ay

1803]),

uickly

sinks

any

notion of

a

gradually maturing

re

sponse

to

Islam

in

his

work.

Instead

of

sim

ply

asking,

What did

the historical

personage

Herder

really

think

about Islam?

we

might

more

pertinently

ask,

What

voices

did

Herder

use

when he

wrote

about

the

Muslim Orient?

What

kind

of

vocabularies

did

these differ

ent

voices

employ?

How

far did

these

various

vocabularies overlap with one another? What

manner

of

conflicts

did

they

create?

Herder the

Pastor and

the

Enemies

of

Religion

Whoever

knows

ofthe

blindness nd

misery

of

the

pa

gans,

even

if

only

through

travelers'

reports

and

old

tales,

will

realize

with

deep

respect

what

a

blessing

the

Christian

religion

is

for

the

state

and

sciences,

for

the

good

ofthe

citizen

and the

heart

of

men.

Wer

die

Blindheit und das

Elend

der

Heiden,

auch

nur

aus

Alterthumern oder

Reisebeschreibungen

kennet;

wird

es

mit

der

tiefsten

Berehrung

erkennen,

was

die

Christliche

Religion fiir

den

Staat und

fur

die

Wiftenschaften,fur

as

Wohl

der

Burger

und

fur

das

Herz der

Menschenfur

eine

Gliickseligkeit

ein.

?Herder,

Die

Ausgiessung

des

Geistes

(Samtliche

Werke

1:

58)

It

would be

wrong

to

try

isolating

Herder's

Christian faith or to

pretend

it

lies

in a non

porous

part

of

his

psyche,

detached

and

inde

pendent

from the

rest

of his

person.

Herder's

Protestant

Christianity,

far from

being

a

side

lined,

closet

identity,

constitutes

the kernel of

his

thought:

it

expresses

itself in his nation

alism

in

his

essay

on

Luther

as

teacher

ofthe

German

nation,

in

his

philology

in

his

work

on

biblical

hermeneutics,

in

his understand

ing

of

history

as

"the

great

book

of

God which

transcends worlds and

times"

("dem

grossen

Buche

Gottes,

das

uber

Welten

und

Zeiten

ge

net";

Philosophical

Writings

357;

Auch

eine

Phi

losophic

110),

and

in

his

reservations

about

the

Enlightenment

as

"our

century

which hates

nothingmore thanwhat ismiraculous and hid

den"

("Jahrhunderts,

der

nichts mehr als

Wun

derbares

und

Verborgenes

hasset";

273;

5).

With

regard

to

Islam,

however,

Herder returned

to

a

number of

objections

again

and

again, objec

tions that

even

in

moments

of

praise

and

vin

dication

he

did

not

relinquish.

They

are

three

in

number:

the

deception

and

self-deception

of

Muhammad,

the

violent

nature

of

Islam,

and

the

faith's

origins

in

Christianity.

In

an

early

passage (Herder isbarely twenty-one), we see

the

most

explicit

expression

of

these

famil

iar

objections.

Between

Islam

and

Christian

ity,

rites

Herder,

lies

"a

difference

as

wide

as

heaven"

("ein

Himmelbreiter

Unterschied"):

When the enemies

of

religion

set

the

quick

expansion

of

Muhammad's

teaching

against

the

spread

of

our

own

church,

it

is

clear

to

us

they

prefer

to

remain

blind.

Muhammad

con

verted

by

the

sword

and

with

fire;

the

Apos

tles notwith human weapons but by proof

ofthe

spirit

and

its

[holy]

power.

The

former

made

his

religion

into

a

mishmash of all

reli

gions,

so

he

could

pitch

it

at

everyone....

Wenn

die

Feinde

der

Religion

die

schnelle

Fortpflanzung

der Lehre

Mahomets,

der Aus

breitung

unsrer

Kirche

entgegen

setzen:

so

sieht

jeder,

dafi

sie

blind

seyn

wollen.

Maho

met

bekehrte

mit

Feuer

und

Schwert:

die

Apo

stel

nicht

mit

Menschlichen

Waffen,

sondern

mit

Beweisung

des

Geistes

und der

Kraft:

je

ner

machte seine

Religion

zum

Mischmasch



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62 Terrible

Turks,

Bedouin

Poets,

and Prussian

Prophets:

The

Shifting

Place of Islam

in

Herder's

Thought

PMLA

aller

Religionen,

um

sie

bei

einer

jeden

einzu

betteln_

(Sdmtliche

Werke

1:

58)

We

have

to

wonder

if

the

phrase

"the

en

emies of religion,"written at least a decade be

fore

the

Arabs

become

a

Volk

of

poetry

lovers

and

a

model

for

national

consciousness,

ever

really

went

away

forHerder.

His

later

appre

ciation

for the

creativity

of

Muhammad

and

for the

nation-gathering

tone

ofMuhammad's

achievement

forced Herder

to

tread

a

difficult

path

between

the condemnation

of

a

false

creed and

a

spectacular

act

of

political,

and of

course

poetic, imagination.

In the above

pas

sage, the term "mishmash" indicates a lack of

imagination

on

Muhammad's

part,

or

at

best

a

sterile

act

of

cunning.

The remark underlines

a

predictable

belief

Herder

held all his

life,

that

Islam,

in

particular

its

"subtler

aspect[s]"

("das

Feinere";

Auch

eine

Philosophic

53),

was

a

faith indebted

to

Christianity

and thatwith

out

Christianity

it

would

never

have

existed

in

the first

place (Philosophical

Writings

311;

Ideen

2:

312).

Twelve

years

later,

in

On the

Ef

fect ofPoetry (1778), we find a description of

the

Koran

almost

completely

stripped

of

any

explicit

Christian

commentary,

so

engaged

does

the

pastor

from

Riga

become

in

the rela

tion

between

politics

and aesthetics:

His

Koran

made

such

an

impression

on

[the

Arabs]

because

it

contained

so

many

sublime

places;

it

could

not,

therefore,

have been

any

thing

other than

heaven-sent.

Muhammad

appointed

himself

on

this

basis and

chal

lenged

all

to

competition:

because

he

excelled

[all

around

him]

in

poetry,

he also became

triumphant

in

religion,

so

strong

was

his be

lief

in

the

divinity

of

poetry....

Sein Koran

machte solch

einen

Eindruck

auf

sie,

weil

er so

erhabne

Poetische

Stellen

[hatte]:

er

konnte

also

nicht

anders

als

vom

Himmel

stammen.

Mahomed

berief sich

da

rauf und

foderte

sie

zum

Wettkampf

heraus:

weil

er

sie

in

der

Poesie

iiberwand,

ward

er

auch inder

Religion

ihr

Sieger.

So starkwar

in

ihnen der Glaube

an

das

Gottliche

der

Dichtkunst_

(Samtliche

Werke

8:

360;

interpolation

in

Ger.

in

orig.)

Of course, the Christian subtext is still there:

the Koran

is

an

untruth,

but

now

a

wonder

fully

poetic

and

politically

effective

untruth.

The absence

of

any

reference

to

deception

or

mishmash, however,

deserves

attention,

de

spite

a

perceptible

use

of

reported

speech.

In

an

essay

concerned with

the

primarily

socio

political

question

of

how

poetry

can

affect

and

inspire

consciousness

and

morality

in

different

cultures,

Herder

downplays

any

pos

sible Christian interjections in order to focus

on

his

main

point:

the

political

effectiveness

of

Muhammad's

aesthetics. There

even

lurks

a

half

legitimation

ofMuhammad's

success

in

Herder's reference

to

the

Prophet's

convic

tion that

Dichtkunst

was

godly.

What

enabled

Herder

to

override

his

Christian

reservations

against

the

religion

of sword

and

fire,

against

themishmash ofthe

Koran,

so

easily?

Between the

two

passages

lies,

indeed,

a

difference

as

broad

as

the

heavens:

Muham

mad the

cunning

salesman,

the bric-a-brac

hawker

of

a

patchwork

faith,

becomes

a

sub

lime

poet,

furthering

his

message

not

through

violence

but

through

verse.

For

all

our

em

phasis

on

the

centrality

of faith

in

Herder's

thought,

there

appear

to

be

moments when

Herder

is

willing

to

diminish,

even

muffle,

his

Christian

identity

in

order

to

allow

a

more

secular

project

to

emerge.

He

himself

acknowledged

that

there

were

"warm"

and

"cold"

ways

of

writing history,

the coldest

his

tories

being

the

"cleverest"

("kliigste"),

those

that,

like

Machiavelli,

"[measure]

out

the

re

sult

of

given

forces

and,

moving

forward,

[cal

culate]

a

plan"

("den

Erfolg gegebener

Krafte

ausmisst und

fortgehend

einen Plan berech

net";

Philosophical

Writings

411

[letter

121 in

Letters

for

theAdvancement

of

Humanity]-,

Briefe

[1991]

732).

Perhaps

the

wholly

positive

account

of

Islam

he

gives

in

On the

Effect

of

Poetry

was a warm

history,

a

piece

of

glowing



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123.i

1

IanAlmond

63

orientalism,

one

for

which his

own

Christian

feelings

had

to

be

sufficiently

cooled.

This

process,

like

all

processes,

is vari

able.

Ten

years

later,

in

the

Ideen

(1784-87),

we find the

beginnings

of a return to a less

positive,

more

ambiguous,

colder

description

ofMuhammad's

revelation:

"His

Koran,

this

peculiar

mixture

of

poetry,

eloquence,

igno

rance,

cleverness,

and

arrogance,

is

a

mirror

of

his

soul,

which shows

clearer

than

any

other

prophet's

Koran

his

gifts

and

failings,

his

incli

nations

and

mistakes,

the

self-deception

and

the

resourcefulness

with

which he deceived

himself

and

others"

("Sein

Koran,

dies

son

derbare Gemisch von Dichtkunst, Beredsam

keit,

Unwissenheit,

Klugheit

und

Anmafiung,

ist ein

Spiegel

seiner

Seele,

der

seine Gaben

und

Mangel,

seine

Neigungen

und

Fehler,

den

Selbstbetrug

und die

Notbehelfe,

mit

denen

er

sich und andre

tauschte,

klarer als

irgendein

anderer

Koran

eines

Propheten zeiget";

2:

421)

More than

any

other

passage

in

Herder's

oeu

vre,

the

sentence

illustrates the

tension

in

Herder between

the

Romantic and

Christian

perspectives on the phenomenon of Islam he

was

trying

to

analyze.

Islam

was

imaginative

yet

somehow

false,

gifted

yet

somehow

cun

ning,

beautiful

yet

somehow

wrong.

When

we

follow the

two-page

description

ofMuham

mad

in

the

Ideen,

with

its

emphasis

on

the

elo

quence,

physical

beauty

("a

youth

of beautiful

form"

["ein

Knabe

von

schoner

Bildung"]),

and

powerful

imagination

("gluhend...

Phan

tasie")

ofthe

Prophet

(420-21),

we

realize

that

an

aesthetic

acknowledgment

of Islam's

power

was

the

only

point

on

which Herder's

Protes

tant

and

early

Romantic

vocabularies could

come

together?naturally

with

very

different

motivations.

In

the

description

of Muham

mad's

achievements,

something resembling

a

tone

of

apologia

pro

vita

mahometis

seems

to

creep

in.

If

the

main aim

of

the section

on

Muhammad

in

On

the

Effect of

Poetry

is

to

illustrate

how

poetry

can

be used

to

give

people

an

identity

and

gather

them

together,

in the Ideen Herder seems to be

showing,

in

his remarks

not

only

on

the

Prophet's gifts

but

also

on

his

"[morally]

transparent

life"

("ein

anschauliches

Leben";

421),

how

inevitable

and

therefore

understandable

Muhammad's

conviction of divine inspiration was. In this

ambiguous

picture

of

an

impressively

creative

and

morally

sound

yet

ultimately

misguided

individual,

the

pastor

and

the

poet

appear

to

find

an

uneasy

compromise.

Herder

he

Antipapist

The

disparities

among

the

three

significant

descriptions

of

Islam

that

Herder

gives

us

(in 1766, 1778, and 1786) highlight develop

ments

in

his

attitude

not

merely

toward

Islam

but

also

toward Catholicism

and

the

history

of his Christian

faith.

If

in

the

earliest

pas

sages

Islam's

conquest

through

sword

and

fire

is

unfavorably

juxtaposed

with the

spread

of

Christianity

("our church")

through

the

"evi

dence ofthe

Holy

Spirit"

("unsrer

Kirche

...

mit

Beweissung

des

Geistes";

Samtliche

Werke

1:

58),

twenty

years

later

in

the Ideen

a

very

different picture emerges:

Unfortunately,

[in

Islam's

conversion of

its

neighbors]

Christianity

was

also

included,

which of all the

religions

had

been the

first

o

impose

its

faith

on

foreign

lands

as a neces

sary

condition

of

blessedness;

only

[this

ime]

the

Arabs

converted

not

through

women,

monks,

and

illicit

trade

but

rather

.. .

with

sword

in hand and with

the

exacting

cry

"Convert

or

pay

tribute "

Leider

ging

ihnen auch hierin das Christen

tum

vor,

das

unter

alien

Religionen

zuerst

sei

nen

Glauben,

als die

notwendige Bedingung

zur

Seligkeit,

fremden Volkern

aufdrang;

nur

der

Araber bekehrte nicht durch Schleichhan

del,

Weiber

und

Mdnche,

sondern,

wie

es

dem

Mann

der

Wiiste

geziemte,

mit

dem Schwert

in

der

Hand

und

mit

der

fodernden

Stimme:

?Tribut

oder Glaube "

(2: 422)

Frauen,

friars,

and

bootleggers...

the

cynicism

is remarkable?or

perhaps

not so

remarkable,



8/9/2019 25501827.pdf

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64

Terrible

Turks,

Bedouin

Poets,

and Prussian

Prophets:

The

Shifting

Place of Islam

in

Herder's

Thought

PMLA

given

that

our

church has

now

become "their"

church

and

also

bearing

in

mind the

generally

low

esteem

Herder

had for

European

Catholics

and

Middle

Eastern

Christians

(the

latter,

we

are told in the Ideen, are "a contemptible race

...

not

worthy

ofthe

crosses on

their churches"

["ein

verachtliches

Menschengeschlecht...

un

wert

des

Kreuzes

auf ihren

Kirchen";

423]).

Clearly,

an

altogether

more

skeptical

view

of

the

spread

of

religious

faith

is

present

here,

even

if

his

abiding

belief

in

the

inscrutability

of

the

divine

drama's

"wisdom and

knotty plot"

("Weisheit

und Knote

des

Erfinders")

could

accommodate

all

manner

of

explanations

for the success ofChristianity (Philosophical

Writings

336;

Auch

eine

Philosophic

85).

Also

noticeable

is

a

very

Protestant

Distanzierung

from

the

abuses of

a

Catholic and

Orthodox

past,

a

determinedly

Lutheran

redescription

of

Islam's

victories

as

having

competed

against

"the

corrupted

traditions of...

Christianity"

("verderbte

Traditionen

des...

Christentums";

Ideen

2:421).

In

the

familiar

praises

of

Herder's

willingness

to

critique

the cruel

histories of

Christian nations, his denunciation of "every

form

of

centralization,

coercion

and

conquest"

(Berlin

158),

this

point

is

often overlooked.

His

resentment

of the Crusades

and

imperialism

springs

not

merely

from

his

sense

of

human

ity

but

also

from

his

Protestant

identity.

Re

marks

such

as

"we

Protestants do

not

want

to

undertake

any

crusade

for fallen

altars"

(Philo

sophical

Writings

367)

or

his

reminder

of

how

Pope

Nicholas

V

gave

permission

to

turn

all

unbelievers

into

slaves

suggest

that

Herder

oc

casionally

viewed

the colonial

and

militaristic

abuses

of

Christianity

as more

Catholic

than

Christian

phenomena

(394 [letter

116

in

Let

ters

for

the

Advancement

of

umanity]).

Ironically, although

Herder's

Lutheran

faith

contributed

to

his

reservations

about

Islam,

it

also

made

sympathetic

inroads

into

his

concept

ofthe

Muslim

other

whenever

Ca

tholicism

was

brought

into the

equation.

This

sympathy

was

created

in two

ways.

First,

a

very

Protestant

suspicion

of

representation,

ofRo

man

Catholic distortion and

embellishment,

drove

his

correction

of

medieval

concep

tions

of Islam.

As

Soengeng

Hardiyanto

has

already

pointed

out

(107),

Herder

had

a

low

opinion of previous Catholic representations

of

Islam,

which he considered

nothing

more

than the

"basest

Roman

lies

and

common

say

ings"

("die

gemeinste Romanluge

und

Pobel

sage";

Samtliche

Werke

15:

84).

He

dismisses

allegorical

attempts

to

identify

Muhammad

with

one

ofthe four

trumpets

in

Revelation

as

"guessing

games"

("Ratselei";

9:

39);

elsewhere,

he

goes

into

some

detail

to

explain

how "dur

ing

the barbaric

Middle

Ages,

everyone

knew

Muhammad's name was shortened, and how

differently

it is

still

written

and

pronounced,"

even

listing

variants

("Jedermann

ist

bekannt,

wie

der

Name Mahomed

in

den

barbarischen

mittleren

Zeiten verstummelt

wurde,

ude

wie

verschieden

er

noch

geschrieben

und

ausge

sprochen

wird";

15:

81).

In

his

early

Parallels

between Greek

and

French

Tragedians,

Herder

complains

how

"papist barbary"

has created

a

popular

theater

of

"submissive

stupidity"

("unterthanige Dummheit"), one that does

nothing

but

churn

out

didactic

scare

puppets

("Schreckbilder")

ofMuhammad

and

religious

impostors

(32:

142).

In

all these

corrections,

there

is

an

abiding

concern

for

the

veracity

of

the

image,

one

that

should

not

be

exaggerated

into

an

empathy

with the

object

of

represen

tation.

A

desire for

Veritas and

a

historicist's

impatience

with

hasty,

uncritical

abstractions

drove

Herder's

ultimately

self-affirming

criti

cism

of such

distortions.

Although

Herder could

never

be

called

a

Calvino-Turk?those

sixteenth-

and

seventeenth-century

Protestants whose

ha

tred

ofthe

papacy

helped

them

see

a

potential

ally

in

the Turk?there

are

certainly

moments

when

he

compares

Islam with

Roman

Cathol

icism

at

the latter's

expense.

While

this

com

parison

never

becomes

as

extreme

as

Luther's

position

(Luther

felt

the

pope

had

"done

more

harm

to

the

kingdom

of

Christ than

Mo

hammed"

[187]),

Herder does

occasionally



8/9/2019 25501827.pdf

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Ian

Almond

65

subscribe

to

that

long

Protestant

tradition,

stretching

from

Edward

Pococke

to

Nietz

sche's

"peace

with

Islam,

war

on

Rome"

(246),

of

evaluating

the Catholic

Church

severely

through Islamic lenses. In reporting the in

tellectual and

spiritual

backwardness

of

papal

Rome,

which

is

held

almost

single-handedly

responsible

for the

"barbary

ofthe Occident"

("Barbarei

Occidents"),

the

persistence

ofthe

Dark

Ages,

and the

synonymy

of

scholarship

with

"sorcery

and

blasphemy"

("Zauberei

und

Gotteslasterung"),

Herder

tells

us:

In

this

I

almost

prefer

Muhammad

to

the

pope

and

the

Saracens

to

the

monks.

They

truly

sought

out

and

encouraged

the

sci

ences

out

of

a

love

of

them....

A

caliph

or

a

Saracen

certainly

had

more

to

overcome,

if

he

truly

loved

the

sciences,

than

a

Christian

or a

papist?and

yet

to

what

a

degree

[the

Arabs]

surpassed

them

in

everything

they

did

Fast

mochte

ich hierinn dem

Pabst den

Mahomed und

Monchen die Saracenen

vorziehen.

Sie

haben wurklich die

Wissen

schaften,

aus

Liebe

zu

ihnen

selbst,

gesucht

und

getrieben.

. . . Ein

Kalif,

ein

Saracen

hatte

gewifi

mehr

zu

uberwinden,

wenn er

die

Wissenschaft

lieben

wollte,

als

ein

Christ,

ein

Pabstler haben

durfte;

und

doch,

wie

sehr

haben

sie

diese

iibertroffen,

in

allem,

was

sie

getrieben

haben

(Sdmtliche

Werke

9:

340)

The

"almost" here

provides

an

interesting

moment

of

hesitation,

not

simply

because

it

is

negated

in

the

subsequent

passage

(Herder

clearly

does

prefer

the

Saracens

to

the

monks)

but

also

because

it

reveals

Herder's

awareness

ofthe

provocativeness

ofthe

gesture.

In

his let

ters

and

playful

similes

elsewhere,

Herder

has

no

qualms

about

adopting

Muslim

identities

(camel

drivers,

Mamluks,

haj

pilgrims).

But

as

he

moves

from

a

European

heresy

to

a

non

European

one,

"almost"

acts

as

a

kind

of

safety

line,

preventing

his

critique

from

wandering

too

far

into

the exotic in

its

search

for

an

ex

ternal

vantage

point.

It

culturally

anchors

the

passage,

reminding

the reader of itsChristian

provenance,

and

sets

a

limit

on

how

far

one

can

go:

one can

curse

the

pope

but

not

sym

pathize

with

Muhammad.

Exactly

how elastic

this line

was

and how far

it

could

be stretched

depended on what voice Herder was

using

at

the

time.

(Two

years

earlier,

he

described

the

Arabs

as

a

"savage

people"

to

whom "subtle ab

stractions"

were

wholly

alien

["wilden

Volke,"

"feinsten

Astraktionen";

Philosophical

Writ

ings

220;

Samtliche

Werke

8:

210]).

This evocation

of Islam

instead

of

Cathol

icism

as

an

alternative

paradigm

or

counter

reference

alongside

Protestant

Christianity

emerges

again

in

Herder's ideas

on

educa

tion. In a 1783 textwe find the thinker urg

ing

geography

masters to

teach

children what

volcanoes,

elephants,

and

crocodiles

are

and

not

merely "dry"

facts

about German

towns:

for

a

child,

"to hear

about

Muhammad

and

themufti is

more

pleasant

and

essential

than

learning

about

the

pope

and the

cardinals;

a

parliament

of

the

storks

will

please

him

more

than the

formalities

of

the

Reichstag

in

Re

gensburg

or

the law

chambers

in

Wetzlar ..."

("VonMahomed und dem Mufti zu horen ist

ihm

so

angenehm

und

unentbehrlich,

als

vom

Pabst

und

den

Kardinalen

und

ein

Reichstag

der

Storche

und

Kraniche

wird ihm

mehr be

hagen,

als die

Formalien des

Riechstags

in

Regensburg

oder

des

Kammergerichts

in

Wefi

lar_";

Samtliche Werke

30:108).

This

remark

should

not

be

exaggerated;

Herder

is

advocat

ing

not

the

teaching

of

Islam

in

Prussian

ju

nior

schools but

merely

a

more

interesting

and

diverse

geography syllabus.

Muhammad

and

the

mufti

will

add

color,

more

than

content,

to

a

German

education.

Yet

once

again

Muham

mad

displaces

the

pope

as

a

more

relevant

and

desirable

point

of

reference,

a

move

that forms

part

of

Herder's

larger

project

of

European

decentering.

His

mistrust

of

what he termed

"popery"

facilitated,

though

by

no

means

solely

explained,

his

gaze

away

from

Europe

toward

a

Muslim

Orient,

which

he,

in

some

moments at

least,

was

happy

to

affirm

and

praise

over and

against

itsCatholic

neighbor.



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66

Terrible

Turks,

Bedouin

Poets,

and Prussian

Prophets:

The

Shifting

Place of Islam

in

Herder's

Thought

PMLA

Herder

the

Poet:

Fantasist,

Idealist,

and

Seeker

of

Renewal

We

have

seen

how

Herder's

Protestant

faith,

with

its

negative, antipapist underside,

for

mulated

and colored his attitude

toward

the

Muslim

Orient,

pushing

him

sometimes

to

cynicism,

sometimes

to

sympathy.

Now arises

the

question

of how Herder's

views

of

poetry

fared

in

the framework

of

his

ideas

on

Mu

hammad,

Persians,

and

Arabs.

Conversely,

we

must

also ask

what kind

of

images

of

Mu

hammadan

religion

and

culture

Herder

sum

moned

(and

repressed)

in

order

to

articulate

his

views

on

poetry.

His

belief

in

poetry

as

standing

in

an

essential

relation

to

life,

in

opposition

to

the

dead,

abstract

language

of

philosophy,

is

crucial

in

understanding

his

at

times

hyperbolic

eulogies

of

oriental

poetry.

It

is

difficult

to

think of

a

single

negative

ref

erence

by

Herder

to

Islam,

Muhammad,

or

Persians in

the

context

of

poetry

or

artistic

creativity.

From

his

early acknowledgment

of

the

self-expression

of

genius

in Turkish

trage

dies, praise

of richness

ofthe Arabic

language

in

the

Treatise,

idealization

ofthe

Arabs

in

On

the

Effect

of

Poetry,

and

quasi-hagiography

of Saadi

to

his claims

in

the Ideen

and the

Adrastea

that the

Arab tradition

almost

single-handedly

reinvigorated

European

po

etry,

Herder

the

poet

seems

to

speak

about

the

Muslim

Orient

in

a

language

devoted

to

idealization

(Philosophical

Writings

161;

Samt

liche

Werke

32:

142).

In

his

adaptations

from

the

poems

in

Sayings

of

Al-Halil,

even

the

nor

mally

vilified

Turks and

Huns,

sultans

and

vi

ziers

are

presented

in

a

morally

positive

light.

In

his attacks

on

the

cosmopolitanism

of

the

philosophes,

Herder

famously

lampooned

the

"citizen

of

the

world

who,

burning

with

love

forhis

fellow

ghosts,

loves

a

chimera"

(qtd.

in

Craig

25).

Elsewhere

he had

warned

histo

rians

of

the

dangerously

misleading

abstrac

tions that

appear

when

"your

head

is

full

of

a

group

that

you

have

fallen

madly

in

love

with"

("wenn

dein

Kopf

von einer

Gruppe,

indie du

dich

vernarrt

hast,

voll

ist";

Philosophical

Writ

ings

293;

Auch

eine

Philosophic

31).

Yet

in

many

ways

the Arab forHerder

was one

such chi

mera.

Whenever

the

subject

was

poetry

or

lan

guage,

an

impromptu

halo was extended over

Arabs,

and their

barbarism,

thievery,

unbelief,

philosophical

backwardness,

and

bellicosity

were

momentarily

forgotten,

parenthetically

resolved

or

deferred

into

a

mildly

qualifying

afterthought.

The reference

to

"Turks, Arabs,

street

thieves,

and desert wanderers"

in his

review

of

Shaw's

travelogue

("Tiirken,

Araber,

Strassenraiiber

und

Wusteneien";

Sdmtliche

Werke

1:

82)

or

the label

"savage

people"

in

On

theCognition and Sensation oftheHuman Soul

("wilden

Volke";

Philosophical

Writings

220;

Sdmtliche Werke

8:

210)

appears

around

the

same

time

that

he

is

describing

to

us,

in

On the

Effect of

Poetry,

how

for

the

Arabs

"language

and

poetry

...

were

originally

one"

("ihre

Dichtkunst,

wie

ihre

Sprache

...

beide

waren

urspriinglich

nur

eins"),

how

their

"noble free

dom

[was

transformed]

into

turbans instead

of

crowns

and

tents

instead of

cities"

("edle

Freiheit... inTurbanen statt der Kronen, in

Zelten

statt

der

Stadte"),

and how "their

spirit

of

honor,

chivalry,

and

manly

courage"

("den

Geist der

Ehre,

Ritterschaft und

des Mannli

chen

Muths")

consituted

a

national

character

that has remained

"unchanged

for

millennia"

("Jahrtausende

durch

...

unverandert";

Sdmt

licheWerke 8:

360-61).

When

Herder the

poet

writes,

the

Arabs

lose

the

rings

in

their

noses

and

begin

to

speak

in

couplets.

In

his

thoughtful study

on

the

place

of

Africa

in

Herder's

thought,

Arno

Sondereg

ger

tries

to account

for the

"ambivalence"

of

Herder's

representation

of

Africans

(some

times

close

to

apes,

sometimes

victims,

sometimes

noble

savages)

as

arising

out

of

a

"need for

a

writing

that

forces

the

dynamic

thought

train

...

into

a

temporal sign"

(122).

The

problematic

sequence

of noble

and

brute,

of

savagery

and

sophistication

thus

becomes

a

kind

of

process,

facilitating

a

rapprochement

to the

object

of

representation through

a con



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i23.i

Ian

Almond

67

stant

depiction

of

contrasts.

This

optimistic

treatment

of the

ambiguity

of Herder's

non

Europeans

sees

the

variety

of

viewpoints

and

images

we

find

in

his

writings

as

an

incessant

Verarbeitung,

or

working

out, rather than an

irreconcilable

plurality

of

jarring

voices.

Son

deregger,

however,

refrains

from

foreground

ing

that ineluctable

polyphony

in

his

study,

a

gesture

thatHerder's

varied

and diverse

oeu

vre

would

seem

to

demand.7

When Herder

writes

of

poetry

or

lan

guage,

Islam

signifies

life,

energy,

an

explo

sion

of

power,

and

an

expansion

of

force

on

a

variety

of

levels?militarily,

linguistically,

culturally, theophanically. The familiar con

cept

ofthe

Orient

as

the

dawn,

childhood,

or

Eden

of

humankind,

which

Herder

emphati

cally

reiterates

("Morgenland,

you

rightly

chosen soil

of God "

["Morgenland,

du hiezu

recht auserwahlter Boden

Gottes ";

Auch

eine

Philosophic

11]);

the natural

harmony

ofthe

camel-driving

Arab with

his

surroundings

(Philosophical

Writings

67);

the "rich and

pure

and beautiful"

language

of

Arabic

("reich

und

rein und schon"; Samtliche Werke 8: 363) and

its

crucial

proximity

to

Herder's

fantasy

of

or

igins

("With

what

pleasure

we

dream

through

poetic

narratives

about this

or

that

origin:

here the first

sailor,

there the first kiss

...

here the

first camel"

[Philosophical

Writings

52])?all

contributed

to

fill

his Muslim

Ori

ent

with

an

expansive

vitality,

an

elan that

he,

unlike

Kant,

neither feared

nor

sought

to

con

tain.

If

Herder the

pastor

wanted

to

box and

limit the

"Turkish

religion"

as an

offshoot

of

Christianity

and

a mere

mishmash of

previ

ous

traditions,

Herder

the

poet

had

no

qualms

about

tracing

the

most

significant

streams

of

European

culture?poetry, philosophy,

even

aspects

of

language?back

to

Arab

roots.

His

radical

gesture

distinguishes

itself

from

the

standard

eighteenth-century

oriental

ist

tropes

of dawn

and

origin

in

the

philological

diligence

and

emphasis

with

which

he

worked

out

the

consequences

of

such oriental anterior

ity

for

the

Occident.

In

the

Ideen,

drawing

on

a

variety

of orientalists

(e.g.,

Reiske,

Pococke,

George

Sale,

William

Jones,

Simon

Ockley),

Herder

explains

in

detail how

the

entire Ro

mance

tradition,

its

courtly

love,

knightly

bal

lads, and early novels, grew from the Arabs'

language

and

way

of

thinking

(2:

453).

Not

stopping

with

Sicily

or

Spain,

the

text

moves on

to

the

troubadours,

Don

Quixote,

and

even

through

the

meeting

of Norman

heroic

sagas

"with the finer

chivalry

of

the Arabs"

("mit

dem feineren

Rittertum

der

Araber";

454)?

into

Germany

and northern

Europe.

Risking

anachronism,

I

would

suggest

a

Nietzschean

feel

to

this

depiction

of

an

Arab-Spanish

love

of life and itseffecton Europe, one that lends

an

irony

to

Nietzsche's remark

in

The

Anti

christ,

a

century

later,

thatMoorish

Spain

"is

more

closely

related

to

us

at

bottom"

("uns

im

Grunde

verwandter";

246).

The

critique

of

Eu

ropean

inwardness that Herder

expressed

in

his

regular

references

to

"our northern corner"

("unsern

nordischen

Winkel";

SdmtlicheWerke

1:

58)

or

the

"little northern

part

ofthe

world"

(Philosophical

Writings

339),

coupled

with his

cynicism concerning the "abstracted... name"

of

European

culture

("Where

does

it exist... ?

With which

people?"

[396]),

doubtless fed and

in

equal

measure

sprang

from

this

awareness

of

the

place

ofthe

foreign

(derFremde)

at

the heart

of

so-called

European

culture.

In

this

respect,

his

empiricism

tried

to

dissolve the

Grenzen,

or

boundaries,

Kant

had

sought

to

preserve.

The

alleged

universality

of

Christianity,

central

to

Herder's

compassionate

humanism,

never

con

tributed

as

much

to

this

boundary

dissolution

as

his belief

in

the

energy

of

Sprache.

His

love

of

poetry,

more

than his

religious

faith,

saw

the

simple

movement

of

language

as

sufficiently

subversive

to

problematize

and

ridicule

the

bloated,

empty

myth

of

Europe.

The

powerful/association

in

Herder's

texts

of

Muhammad

and

Arabia

with

life,

imagina

tion,

seed,

and

inspiration

does have

negative

consequences.

His

poetic

celebration ofthe

Prophet's

achievements

and

his insistence

on

the

superior

imagination

and

poetic

gifts



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68 Terrible

Turks,

Bedouin

Poets,

and Prussian

Prophets:

The

Shifting

Place of

Islam

in

Herder's

Thought

PMLA

of

the

Arab

effectively

turn

the

Koran

into

a

long,

impressive

poem,

an

Arab

Ossian.

Islam,

in

turn,

loses

its

truth-value

and

becomes

a

set

of

tropes.

When

Herder,

writing

to

his

wife, tells her how

"your

letters tome are like

the

chapters

of the

Koran,

which the

angel

Gabriel

brought

to

Muhammad"

("Ihre

Briefe

sind

mir

wie dem Mahomet die

Kapiteln

im

Koran,

die

ihm der

Engel

Gabriel

brachte ";

Briefe

[1979]

2:

238

[Sept.

1772]),

we

realize

that

the

aesthetic

has

become

a

space

in

which

the

thinker

can

neutralize the

threatening

as

sertiveness

of Islam's

competitive

revelation

while

retaining

its

form

as a

rhetorical tool

and example. The enemies of religion have

become the

parodies

of

religion.

Herder's

commitment

to

the

innate

imag

ination,

poetry,

and

sublimity

of the Arab

mind

("the

imagination

of

[the

Arabs]

...

is

adapted

to

the

excessive,

inconceivable,

and

marvelous"

["die

Einbildung

des

Volkes

...

furs

Ubertriebene,

Unbegreifliche,

Hohe und

Wunderbare

gestimmt

ist";

Ideen

2:

434]),

while

favorably

intended

as

a

counterpoint

to

what Herder considered dry, rational, abstract

thought,

also

effectively

sidelines

the

Arabs

from the

status

of

serious,

original

think

ers;

they

are

a mere

bridge conducting

Greek

science

to

Asia

and

later

to

Europe

(312).

It

would be

wrong

to

deny

any

development

in

this

idea:

his

coarser

remarks

during

the

1770s,

concerning

the

Arabs

as a

"savage

peo

ple"

trying

to

deal with abstractions

beyond

their ken

(Philosophical

Writings

220),

do

not

persist

into the

next

decade.

Nevertheless,

while

Herder,

particularly

in

the

later

years

ofthe

Ideen,

praised

the Arabs

as

preservers

and mediators

of

Greek

thought,

especially

for

their

achievements

in

medicine

and the

sciences,

the

description

of Arabia

offered

in

Auch

eine

Philosophic?"a

subplot

in

the

history

ofthe

formation

of

Europe"

("der

un

derplot

zur

Geschichte

der

Bildung Europas";

Philosophical

Writings

338;

Auch

eine Phi

losophic 88)?lingers.

Arab

philosophers

are

described

as

often

being

poets

who

base

their

work

on

the

Koran

or

Aristotle

(Ideen

2:

435);

Herder felt

that the

Arabs,

having

never

had

a

"free state"

("Freistaaten"),

were

unable

to

produce

any

significant political

thought

or

history.

Their

history,

we are told, "is either

poetry

or woven

through

with

poetry"

("sind

Poesie

oder

mit

Poesie

durchwebet";

436).

On

this

point,

defenders of Herder will

cite

his belief

in

the

incommensurability

of

the historical

moment

("no

two moments

in

the world

are

the same"

["in

der Welt keine

zwei

Augenblicke

dieselben

sind";

Philosophi

cal

Writings

293;

Auch

eine

Philosophic

30]);

his

emphasis

on

theHeraclitean

nature

ofthe

time line and chronology, not tomention the

untranslatability

of

specific

cultural

instances

(well-disciplined, patriarchal authority

be

ing

misunderstood

as

oriental

despotism,

for

example);

and

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