Orientalism in Eastern Europe: the Quran Adventure of the Philomaths

The Quran of the Philomaths is a fascinating adventure led by brilliant patriotic students, mainly Polish. They spent several years in Lithuania in the early 19th century, writing the first Polish translation of the Koran using the Latin alphabet. Numerous articles were devoted to this Quran, as well as several books on the Tatars of Northern Europe. However, those papers emphasize the political patriotic goals behind that translation. This long article, based on my doctoral thesis at the Sorbonne, follows another path and demonstrates that the translation of the Philomaths was first a scientific and literary project motivated by the great interest in Orientalism shown by the Philomaths. To support this, the first part of the article is dedicated to demonstrating the importance of the Orientalist movement in Poland and Vilnius in general, and among several members of the Philomaths and the Philarets. The question of rehabilitation of Polish Orientalists who lived in Russia in the 19th century is also included. The second part of this research addresses essential questions about the Koran of the Philomaths, such as who the real authors are, their sources, their level of Arabic and their work methodology. Some of these practical questions have never been addressed. This paper also focuses on what happened to the manuscript of the Philomaths after their conviction in 1823. It is true that the first printed Polish translation of Buczacki in Warsaw in 1858 is linked to that of the Philomaths. Nevertheless, this research firmly rejects the accusations of usurpation, which are very popular today. Finally, this article shows the lesser-known contribution of other important authors, such as Andrzej Potocki and Albert de Biberstein Kazimirski.