Adriaan Reland

Adriaan Reland (also known as Adriaen Reeland/Reelant, Hadrianus Relandus) (July 17, 1676, De Rijp, North Holland - February 5, 1718, Utrecht ^[1]) was a Dutch scholar, cartographer and philologist.

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.^[1] Reeland first studied in Amsterdam and enrolled at University of Utrecht in 1693. After obtaining his PhD in Utrecht he moved to Leiden where he tutored the son of Hans Willem Bentinck, later the 1st Earl of Portland. The latter invited him to move to England, but Reland declined because of his father's deteriorating health.^[1]

Reland was one of the early Orientalists.^[2] He was appointed professor of philosophy at the University of Harderwijk in 1699.^[3] From 1701 onwards he was professor of Oriental languages at the University of Utrecht. In 1713, he also taught Hebrew antiquities. Reland was acclaimed for his painstaking studies of Islam and linguistic research. He traced the eastward extension of Malay-like languages into the western Pacific.

Although he never ventured beyond the borders of the Netherlands, he was also acclaimed as a cartographer^[4]

Reland died in 1718 in Utrecht of small pox.^[1]

Selection of published work

Palaestina ex monumentis veteribus illustrata - a detailed geographical survey of biblical Palestine written in Latin and published by Willem Broedelet, Utrecht, in 1714.^[5]
De religione Mohammedica libri duo - the first European work to attempt to describe the Islamic religion in a relatively objective way, published in 1705.
Galatea. Lusus poetica - A collection of Latin love-elegies, which brought Reland some fame as a Neolatin poet, published in 1701.
De natuurlijke wijsgeer - a Dutch translation of Ibn Tufail's Arabic novel Hayy ibn Yaqdhan, printed by Pieter van der Veer at Amsterdam in 1701.

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d John Gorton, A General Biographical Dictionary, 1838, Whittaker & Co.
^ Power And Religion in Baroque Rome: Barberini Cultural Policies, P. J. A. N. Rietbergen, p.321
^ Adriaan Reland (1676-1718)
^ Maps by Reland
^ Digital gallery of University of Haifa

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

Persondata
Name	Reland, Adrian
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	July 17, 1676
Place of birth
Date of death	February 5, 1718
Place of death

Adriaan Reland

Selection of published work

References

External links