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.