Władysław Szczepański's Journey Through Arabia Petraea in 1905 and 1906

Abstract

This paper presents the figure of Władysław Szczepański – a Polish Jesuit and a world-renowned biblical scholar interested mainly in biblical archaeology and philology, whose journey through Arabia Petraea has been forgotten and is rarely mentioned nowadays. The first part of Szczepański’s journey of 1905 was focused on the eastern part of Arabia Petraea, the Jordanian and Galilean regions. Szczepański was accompanied then by Henri Lammens, Louis Jalabert and Urban Holzmeister. In 1906 Szczepański and Franz Fellinger became the first people to enter the area of the Sinai Peninsula after the border between Egypt and the Ottoman Empire was established anew. This time the scholars concentrated on the western part of Arabia Petraea, which is according to Szczepański, after Israel, the most informative area for every biblical scholar. When Szczepański returned from his expeditions he published two volumes: ‘In Arabia Petraea. On the Basis of a Journey of 1905’ and ‘In Sinai. On the Basis of a Journey of 1906’. Those two publications shed light on the unknown and forgotten Arabia Petraea – they picture its geography, climate, and ancient history with references to biblical records and the present-day life of its inhabitants.