Adriaan Reland

Adriaan Reland (also known as Adriaen Reeland/Reelant, Hadrianus Relandus; 17 July 1676 – 5 February 1718) was a Dutch Orientalist scholar, cartographer and philologist. Even though he never left the Netherlands, he made significant contributions to Middle Eastern and Asian linguistics and cartography, including Persia, Japan and Palestine during the biblical ages (the Holy Land).

Early life Reland was the son of Johannes Reland, a Protestant minister, and Aagje Prins in the small North Holland village of De Rijp. Adriaan's brother, Peter (1678–1714), was an influential lawyer in Haarlem. The latter invited him to move to England, but Reland declined because of his father's deteriorating health.

Academic career In 1699, Reland was appointed Professor of Physics and Metaphysics at the University of Harderwijk. By this point, he had achieved a good knowledge of Arabic, Hebrew, and other Semitic languages. In 1701, at age 25, he was appointed Professor of Oriental Languages at the University of Utrecht. Beginning in 1713, he also taught Hebrew Antiquities. Reland was never able to visit the regions he described in his works, due to his sickly father.

Reland gained renown for his research in Islamic studies and linguistics; his work being an early example of comparative linguistics. Additionally, he studied Persian and was interested in the relation of Eastern myths to the Old Testament. He published a work concerning East Asian myths, Dissertationum miscellanearum partes tres, in 1708. Moreover, he discovered the link for the Malay language to the Western Pacific dictionaries of Willem Schouten and Jacob Le Maire.

Research on Middle East Manuscript of Reland's work on the foundations of the Persian language (Prima elementa linguae persicae nitidissime conscriptae Adriani Relandi). Printed in Utrecht, dated 1705

Reland, through compiling Arabic texts, completed De religione Mohammedica libri duo in 1705. This work, extended in 1717, was considered the first objective survey of Islamic beliefs and practices. It quickly became a reference work throughout Europe and was translated into Dutch, English, German, French and Spanish.

Reland also extensively researched Middle Eastern locations and biblical geography, taking interest in Palestine. He published Antiquitates Sacrae veterum Hebraeorum (1708) and Palaestina ex monumentis veteribus illustrata (1714), in which he described and mapped the biblical peoples, and ancient geography of Palestine.

Among his geographical works was a map of the Persian Empire published in 1705. The map attempted to reconcile information from Persian and Arabic geographical traditions with existing European cartography and introduced Persian place-names more systematically to European readers.

Reland also published a map of Japan in 1715. Unlike many contemporary European maps, it relied heavily on Japanese geographical sources. The map later served as the basis for the map of Japan included in Engelbert Kaempfer's History of Japan (1729). Dutch translation: Palestina opgeheldert. Ofte de Gelegentheyd van het Joodsche land. Analecta rabbinica. Utrecht 1702, 1723 Dissertationum miscellanearum partes tres. Utrecht 1706–1708, 3 Teile Antiquitates sacrae veterum Hebraeorum. Utrecht 1708, 3. uppl. 1717, 1741 De nummis veterum Hebraeorum. Utrecht 1709 Brevis introductio ad grammaticam Hebraeam Altingianam. Utrecht 2. uppl. 1710, 1722 De natuurlijke wijsgeer – a Dutch translation of Ibn Tufail's Arabic novel Hayy ibn Yaqdhan. Printed by Pieter van der Veer. Amsterdam 1701 Galatea. Lusus poetica – a collection of Latin love-elegies, which brought Reland some fame as a Neo-Latin poet. Amsterdam 1701

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