SPANISH ARABISTS

I was thinking today that readers from Muslim countries do not approach my Blog. I am not complaining, just curious. Then I read a note from the Biblioteca Nacional explaining that writers who died in 1944 are now in the public domain, and Miguel Asín Palacios (1871-1944) was mentioned. My father had his Crestomatía del árabe literal in his library, and as a boy, I tried to study the language from that book. The farfetched connection is that Muslim countries are not interested in my Blog. Yet, Spain has produced many arabistas, like Asín Palacios, Francisco Codera, Pascual de Gayangos, and even Juan Valera. Fancy that! Gayangos, while at Oxford, introduced Arabic to Captain Sir Richard Burton, who went on to translate the Arabian Nights into English. I suggest you check the names I mention above; they are fascinating Arabists, writers, professors, and travelers.