Eastern Wisedome and Learning

In the England of 1600 Arabic was merely exotic. Only one Englishman knew it well and almost no Arabic books were available. By 1666 England ranked foremost in Europe in the study of Arabic. There were permanent Chairs for it at Oxford and Cambridge, Arabic printing presses in Oxford and London had produced important works, and a great Arabic library was accumulating at Oxford. In this masterly and original study Professor Toomer explains how this extraordinary change came about, and why there was a drastic decline towards the end of the century.