Portrait of a British Orientalist: Edward William Lane (1801-1876)
Selda Güner ÖzdenNapoleon Bonaparte's invasion in 1798 made Egypt one of the themes of orientalism and sparked curiosity and travels towards the "Land of the Pyramids" in Europe. 27 years after Bonaparte, a young Englishman Edward William Lane (1801-1876) arrived in Alexandria in July 1825 after a long cruise. He preferred to live among ordinary Egyptians in Cairo. Edward William Lane wrote his works as a result of his three trips to Egypt at different times. Traveling through much of ancient and modern Egypt Lane immersed himself in a contemporary Egyptian lifestyle and described it vividly. He recorded his observations, beliefs, languages, customs and traditions of the people in his works such as Description of Egypt, An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptian, Thousand and One Nights, Selections from Kur’ân and also Arabic-English Lexicon. During his first visit to Egypt, while working on Ancient Egypt, in time he was interested in Arabic and culture of the contemporary Egyptians, their daily lives and customs. At this point, the specialty of Lane's works as a orientalist was to explain Egypt and Egyptians with a “scientific” eye. This article will examine Edward William Lane's place in Egyptian studies in various dimensions as an Orientalist.
Bir İngiliz Oryantalistin Portresi: Edward William Lane (1801-1876)
Selda Güner ÖzdenNapolyon Bonapart’ın 1798’deki işgali Mısır’ı oryantalizmin temalarından biri haline getirdi ve Avrupa’da “Piramitler Diyarı”na yönelik merak ve seyahatleri tetikledi. Bonapart'dan 27 yıl sonra genç bir İngiliz, Edward Willian Lane (1801- 1876) uzun bir gemi yolculuğundan sonra Temmuz 1825'de Mısır'a gelerek, Kahire'de sıradan Mısırlıların arasında yaşamayı tercih etti. Mısır’a farklı zamanlarda gerçekleştirdiği üç seyahatinin neticesinde eserlerini kaleme almıştır. Eski ve modern Mısır’ın büyük kısmını dolaşan Lane gözlemlerini, halkın inanç, dil, örf ve adetlerini Description of Egypt, An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptian, Binbir Gece Masalları ve Arapçaİngilizce Sözlük gibi geniş çapta okunan eserlerde kaydetti. Mısır’a ilk gelişinde Antik Mısır’a dair çalışmalar yaparken, zamanla dikkatini çağdaşı Mısırlıların dil ve kültürleri çekmişti. Bir oryantalist olarak Lane’nin çalışmalarının hususiyeti, “bilimsel” bir yaklaşımla Mısır ve Mısırlıları anlatmaya çalışmasıydı. Bu makale bir şarkiyatçı olarak Edward William Lane’nin Mısır tetkikleri içindeki yerini muhtelif boyutlarıyla incelemeye çalışacaktır.
Studies of orientalism take their arguments from the conflict areas of imperialism and antiimperialism. Consequently, information about the East produced by western orientalists has been questioned, accused of being biased or rejected completely. Of course, Edward Said had an important influence on this after the seventies. Said argued in a critical way that the East was the most important external “reality” of modern Europe. Today we call this “the other” or “otherisation”. Although we are discussing orientalism within the boundaries of political history or generalization of Eastern through the eyes of the West/Western conceptions of the Orient, we take advantage of its experience at the point we have reached today. The rise in the generation of orientalist knowledge, especially in the 19th century, is remarkable. One case in point is that, Europeans of the early 19th century were keenly interested in the mysterious and enormous remains of the ancient Egyptian civilizations. Among them was a twenty-fouryear-old Englishman, Edward William Lane (1801-1876) who wrote as a result of three trips to Egypt undertaken at different times. Lane’s first trip to Egypt was between 1825-1828, his second trip between 1833-1835, and his third journey between 1842-1849. The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge supported his travels to Egypt, because Lane did not have any job or salary. Sometimes assistance was provided by socially eminent figures, such as Algernon Percy, the 4th Duke of Northumberland, and John Russell, 1st Earl Russell.
Various biographies of Lane’s life have already been written. Leila Ahmed wrote first modern biographical assessment, Edward W. Lane: A Study of His Life and Works and of British Ideas of the Middle East in the Nineteenth Century (1978). It was followed by Jason Thompson’s Edward William Lane The Life of the Pioneering Egyptologist and Orient (2010). These two biographical works are largely based on his letters to friends. Ahmed’s book can also be considered as a cultural history because of focusing on the nature of Lane’s published works. On the other hand, Jason Thompson’s study succeeded in completing the missing pieces of Lane’s life by used archival resources such as private manuscripts and letters at the Griffith Institute in Oxford, as well as papers of Lane’s close friends Sir Gardner Wilkinson and Joseph Bonomi at the Bodleian Library. Thompson was rightly aware that Lane’s life could not be understood without considering his activities and, for this reason, consulted the testimony of Egyptologists such as Joseph Bonomi, Robert Hay, and John Gardner Wilkinson who were in contact with him.
Lane recorded his observations and researches on the space, structures and habitats, traditions and cultures of ancient and modern Egypt in his Description of Egypt (not published until 2000), An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians (1836), One Thousand and One Nights (1840), Selections from Kur’ân (1843) and an Arabic-English Lexicon (first volume, 1863). After Lane finally left Cairo in 1849, he started working on Arabic-English Lexicon, devoting himself to the dictionary until he died in 1876.
During his first visit to Egypt, while working on Ancient Egypt, in time he became interested in Arabic and the culture of contemporary Egyptians, their daily lives and customs. At this point, the focus of Lane’s work was to explain Egypt and Egyptians with a scientific eye. He wrote his books for the early Victorian English reading public. Based on personal experience, especially in An Account of the Manners of the Modern Egyptians, he presented the British people a peerless tableux of a Egyptian society. Actually Lane began to work as an engraver, not an orientalist, Arabist or writer. When Lane first went to Egypt in 1825 with a new drawing device, camera lucida. His drawings via the camera lucida and their explanations were included in his work Description of Egypt which was not published until 2000.
Lane tried to live like an Egyptian during his travels. He immersed himself in a contemporary Egyptian life and described it vividly. His lifestyle made it possible for him to observe Egyptian society closely, spending time in coffee houses and praying in mosques. Lane traveled to Egypt at a time when Istanbul and Cairo began separating administratively and militarily. However, this separation was not included in his studies. Turks were still regarded as elite in the eyes of Egyptian society. Because of this, Lane dressed in Ottoman style, never dressing in European clothing during his life in Cairo. According to him, Ottoman meant Turk and vice versa. However, Lane was interested in the native culture, not the ruling or bureaucratic elites. He resided at Cairo, at different times. As his pursuits required that he should not draw attention in public as a European, he separated himself as much as possible from the Europeans and lived in a part of the town, near Babu’l-Hadid, somewhat remote from the Frank quarters. Lane built a Muslim identity for himself using the name Mansur Efendizâde. He was able to adapt easily to the life of the Egyptians: speaking Arabic and conforming with the manners of his Muslim neighbors. As he reported, Lane was treated with respect and affability by all the Egyptians with whom he had any dealings.
There are a limited number of studies about the Victorian orientalist Edward William Lane (1801-1876) by Turkish scholars since Lane dealt with Arabic and especially Egypt. If he had been a traveler whose road passed by Istanbul and Anatolia, he would have attracted more Turkish readers and researchers. Such being the case, the aim of this essay is to introduce a British Arabist- Orientalist researcher and his works, which came to Ottoman Egypt with a great curiosity in the 19th century, to more Turkish readers. I trace Lane’s character and his studies of folklore in the contexts of orientalist discourses. This paper examines how Egypt was perceived by Lane at a time when Egyptian society was beginning to be modernized. What makes Lane important for the Turkish reader is that he witnessed Egyptian society at a time when power was passing from the Ottoman administration to Mehmed Ali Pasha’s.
