DOZY, REINHART PIETER ANNE°

°DOZY, REINHART PIETER ANNE (1820–1883), Dutch Arabist-Islamist. Having studied Semitics at Leiden, Dozy was appointed professor of medieval and modern history at the university. His scholarly activities concentrated on Arabic lexicography (cf. his Supplément aux dictionnaires Arabes, 2 vols. (1881)) and the history of Muslim Spain. His Histoire des Musulmans d'Espagne, jusqu'a la conquête de l'Andalousie par les Almoravides 711–1110 (4 vols., 1861) was re-issued at least 20 times and became fundamental to the modern study of medieval Andalusia. In 1864 he published a Dutch volume on the Jews in Mecca, De Israëliten te Mekka van Davids tijd tot in de vijfde eeuw onzer tijdrekening. There he suggested that migrants from the tribe of Simeon had started the Meccan sanctuary in the days of David, and that a new wave of Hebrews during the Babylonian period had strengthened the Hebraic impact on Muslim ritual. This controversial theory was both applauded and criticized, the latter especially in German Jewish circles. (Dozy's Leiden colleague H. Oort continued the discussion in The Worship of Baalim in Israel (1865).) Contemporary Dutch Jewish scholars, too, followed Dozy's work with a keen interest.

bibliography:

M. Jastrow, in: mgwj, 13 (1864), 313–17; hb, 7 (1864), 103–6; K.H. Graf, in: zdmg, 19 (1865), 330–51; G. Dugat, Histoire des orientalistes de l'Europe, 2 (1870), 44–65; M.J. de Goeje, Biographie de R. Dozy (1883); E.D. Pijzel, Mannen van beteekenis in onze dagen (1884), 263–300; G.J. Dozy, De familie Dozy. Genealogie en geschiedenis (1911), 151–55; P.C. Molhuysen et al., Nieuw Nederlandsch Biografisch Woordenboeki (1911), 749; J.W. Fueck, Die arabischen Studien in Europa (1955), 181–85; J. Brugman, in: W. Otterspeer, Leiden Oriental Connections 1850–1940 (1989), 62–81; G. Martinez-Gros, in: Studia Islamica, 92 (2001), 113–26; J. Weststeijn, in: Al-Masâq, 16 (2004), 205–15.

[Irene E. Zwiep (2^nd ed.)]