German Orientalists

Abstract

This chapter describes the context germane to understanding Taghi Erani’s involvement in orientalism, his contributions, and the imprint this field left in his mental universe. It describes how the drive in the Wilhemite era to assert Germany’s prominence in the international arena led to the engagement of orientalist scholars in colonial and foreign policy. It also explains how the backlash from the defeat in the Great War led to a yearning of return to pure orientalism. It introduces the key characters that Taghi Erani came to know and how serendipity pulled him into the vortex of this field—his editorial work with the Persian expatriate press in Berlin—epitomized by his encounter with Friedrich Rosen, Foreign Minister during Weimar.