Friedrich Rückerts Beschäftigung mit der arabischen Literatur: Motive und Nachwirkungen

Abstract

At the time of the Crusades from 1096 to 1291 the Arab culture was superior in almost all areas of Western culture: in medicine, astronomy, mathematics, and especially in literature. Later, during the period of the Enlightenment, Classical and Romantic periods, won the Arabic literature a special place with some great German writers as part of the so-called “world literature” or “universal poetry”: it reminds us of Johann Georg Hamann (1730–1788), Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803), Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) and Friedrich von Schlegel (1772–1829). All these persons are, in fact, as an important stimulator of Rückert, with his great preoccupation with the oriental literature in general and the Arab in particular. The aim of my present study, then, is to elucidate the influence of the Arab culture and literature to the great German poet Friedrich Rückert and translation destroy. Such an attempt might – I am aiming in fact – be a significant contribution to a better mutual understanding in the field of intercultural dialogue between Germans and Arabs (the theme “Intercultural Dialogue” interested me for a long time).