''History of the Arabic Written Tradition'' (, or GAL) is a reference work produced by the German scholar
Carl Brockelmann
Carl Brockelmann (17 September 1868 – 6 May 1956) German Semiticist, was the foremost orientalist of his generation. He was a professor at the universities in Breslau, Berlin and, from 1903, Königsberg. He is best known for his multi-volume ...
and first published in two editions by
Brill
Brill may refer to:
Places
* Brielle (sometimes "Den Briel"), a town in the western Netherlands
* Brill, Buckinghamshire, a village in England
* Brill, Cornwall, a small village to the west of Constantine, Cornwall, UK
* Brill, Wisconsin, an un ...
in
Leiden
Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wit ...
in 1898 and 1902.
Publication
The first edition of the work was first published in two volumes (1898–1902), and aimed to give a framework which divided Arabic literature into periods and subjects. However, Brockelmann later wrote a series of three ''Supplementbände'' ('supplement volumes') that vastly expanded the original work and then revised the original volumes, so the final work comprised the following:
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*
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Between 2016 and 2018, GAL was published by Brill in an updated English translation as ''History of the Arabic Written Tradition''.
Influence
The work is considered a classic of
Orientalist scholarship and it remains a fundamental reference volume for all
Arabic literature
Arabic literature ( ar, الأدب العربي / ALA-LC: ''al-Adab al-‘Arabī'') is the writing, both as prose and poetry, produced by writers in the Arabic language. The Arabic word used for literature is '' Adab'', which is derived from ...
.
Abd ar-Rahman Badawi in his
''Encyclopedia of Orientalists'' describes it as "the single and essential source for everything relating to Arabic manuscripts and the places where they are kept."
References
External links
Full text of the original 1898-1902 edition (German)
{{Authority control
Arabic literature
Orientalism
Reference works