Middle East studies as a major part of Oriental studies have a long tradition at German universities. In its modern form, the discipline was established in the early decades of the nineteenth century. Though its history has attracted considerable attention in the literature (esp. Fueck, Paret, Johansen, Hanisch, Mangold), major questions have remained open. Why did almost every university establish at least one chair in the discipline at the beginning of the nineteenth century? What accounts for its further development? Since the discipline was introduced in such a systematic manner at an early stage, one might expect to find a fairly rapid process of internal differentiation. But the disciplinary delineation seems to have remained almost unaltered for more than a century.

            As in other disciplines, the history of Middle East/Oriental studies has usually been written as an account of the internal development of the field’s concepts and methods. In light of the debate following the publication of E. Said’s book, Orientalism (1978), scholars have also tried to identify German colonial/imperial policies that might have influenced the rise and development of the discipline. In particular the emergence of Islamic studies at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries tends to be ascribed to the imperial aspirations of the German Reich. If the interpretation is valid, it can explain only a small part of a long tradition. Even in that respect, the explanation remains a partial one. If Islamic studies were an imperial project, why did it fail? There was not a single chair in Islamic studies established until the end of the First World War.

            In my talk, I shall present an alternative approach for studying the history of the discipline. I take the scholars who pursued a professional career at the university as my vantage point. I suggest placing their training and career paths in the context of the development of the university in general and the faculty of philosophy in particular, in order to discern the reasons for universities/faculties employing scholars specializing in Middle Eastern/Oriental topics. Then I shall consider in which way these terms of employment may have influenced the development of the discipline.