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Mesa 2016: Salisbury & Arabic In New Haven & Beyond, Roberta L. Dougherty
Mesa 2016: Salisbury & Arabic In New Haven & Beyond, Roberta L. Dougherty
Roberta L. Dougherty
In 1841, Yale College appointed Edward Elbridge Salisbury (1814-1901) as “Professor of Arabic & Sanscrit.” This was, at the time, the only position of its kind in North America, although Arabic had previously been taught at Yale and elsewhere. Salisbury’s appointment had much to do with American missionary and mercantile interest in the region now called the Middle East. This paper will argue that his appointment was critical to the rise of American Orientalism and the further development of U.S. interest in the academic study of the region—indeed, in the formation of the very basis of academic study upon which …