Comte de Gobineau and Orientalism: Selected Eastern Writings

by Arthur de Gobineau, Daniel O'Donoghue (Translator), Geoffrey Nash (Editor)

Though known to specialists, Comte de Gobineau’s vital if idiosyncratic contribution to Orientalism has only been accessible to the English reader through secondary sources. Especially important for its portrayal of an esoteric Sufi sect like the Ahl-i Haqq, and its vivid narrative of the Babi episode in Persia, Gobineau’s work impacted significantly on European intelligentsia, including Ernest Renan, Matthew Arnold, Lord Curzon, and the Orientalist Edward Granville Browne. Daniel O’Donoghue’s brilliant translation now makes available sizeable extracts from Gobineau’s two most important writings on the Three Years in Asia and Religions and Philosophies of Central Asia. Geoffrey Nash’s comprehensive introduction and notes contextualise Gobineau’s work in the light of contemporary scholarship, as well as assessing its impact on nineteenth century Orientalists and modern Iranians, and its relevance to debates around Islam and modernity that are still alive today.

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 8, 2008

About the author

Joseph Arthur de Gobineau was a French aristocrat, novelist and man of letters who became famous for developing the racialist theory of the Aryan master race in his book "An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races"

Gobineau went to a French diplomatic school and became a diplomat in the USA, Norway, Brazil and Persia. His racial ideas were spawned in Persian society, he considered there was a natural barrier between the etnicities in Persian society.

Gobineau was born in a staunch royalist family and his mother is to be said was of Creole-Haitian origin.

Gobineau was also an admirer of Greek and Scandinavian culture