Adriaan Reland
Encyclopedia
De Rijp
De Rijp is a village in the Dutch province of North Holland. It is a part of the municipality of Graft-De Rijp, and lies about 10 km northwest of Purmerend.De Rijp was a separate municipality until 1970, when it merged with Graft....
, North Holland
North Holland
North Holland |West Frisian]]: Noard-Holland) is a province situated on the North Sea in the northwest part of the Netherlands. The provincial capital is Haarlem and its largest city is Amsterdam.-Geography:...
- February 5, 1718, Utrecht
Utrecht (city)
Utrecht city and municipality is the capital and most populous city of the Dutch province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, and is the fourth largest city of the Netherlands with a population of 312,634 on 1 Jan 2011.Utrecht's ancient city centre features...
) was a Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
scholar, cartographer and philologist.
Reland was the son of Johannes Reland, a Protestant minister, and Aagje Prins in the small North Holland
North Holland
North Holland |West Frisian]]: Noard-Holland) is a province situated on the North Sea in the northwest part of the Netherlands. The provincial capital is Haarlem and its largest city is Amsterdam.-Geography:...
village of De Rijp. Adriaan's brother, Peter (1678–1714) was an influential lawyer in Haarlem
Haarlem
Haarlem is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland, the northern half of Holland, which at one time was the most powerful of the seven provinces of the Dutch Republic...
. Reeland first studied in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
and enrolled at University of Utrecht in 1693. After obtaining his PhD in Utrecht he moved to Leiden where he tutored the son of Hans Willem Bentinck
William Bentinck, 1st Earl of Portland
Hans William Bentinck, 1st Earl of Portland, Baron Bentinck of Diepenheim and Schoonheten, KG, PC was a Dutch and English nobleman who became in an early stage the favourite of William, Prince of Orange, Stadtholder in the Netherlands, and future King of England. He was steady, sensible, modest...
, later the 1st Earl of Portland. The latter invited him to move to England, but Reland declined because of his father's deteriorating health .
Reland was one of the early Orientalists. He was appointed professor of philosophy at the University of Harderwijk
University of Harderwijk
The University of Harderwijk , also named the Guelders Academy , was located in the town of Harderwijk, in the Republic of the United Provinces...
in 1699.. From 1701 onwards he was professor of Oriental languages at the University of Utrecht. In 1713, he also taught Hebrew antiquities. Reland was acclaimed for his painstaking studies of Islam and linguistic research. He traced the eastward extension of Malay-like languages
Austronesian languages
The Austronesian languages are a language family widely dispersed throughout the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia that are spoken by about 386 million people. It is on par with Indo-European, Niger-Congo, Afroasiatic and Uralic as one of the...
into the western Pacific.
Although he never ventured beyond the borders of the Netherlands, he was also acclaimed as a cartographer
Reland died in 1718 in Utrecht of small pox.
Selection of published work
- Palaestina ex monumentis veteribus illustrata - a detailed geographical survey of biblical PalestinePalestinePalestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
written in LatinLatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
and published by Willem Broedelet, Utrecht, in 1714. - De religione Mohammedica libri duo - the first EuropeEuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an work to attempt to describe the Islamic religion in a relatively objective way, published in 1705. - Galatea. Lusus poetica - A collection of Latin love-elegies, which brought Reland some fame as a Neolatin poet, published in 1701.
- De natuurlijke wijsgeer - a Dutch translation of Ibn TufailIbn TufailIbn Tufail was an Andalusian Muslim polymath: an Arabic writer, novelist, Islamic philosopher, Islamic theologian, physician, vizier,...
's Arabic novel Hayy ibn YaqdhanHayy ibn YaqdhanḤayy ibn Yaqẓān is an Arabic philosophical novel and allegorical tale written by Ibn Tufail in the early 12th century.- Translations :* from Wikisource* English translations of Hayy bin Yaqzan...
, printed by Pieter van der Veer at Amsterdam in 1701.