Oriental Scholar - Your Journey into Asian Academic Information

Plato and Aristotle

Plato (left) and Aristotle (right), a detail of The School of Athens, a fresco by Raphael. Aristotle gestures to the earth, representing his belief in knowledge through empirical observation and experience, while holding a copy of his Nicomachean Ethics in his hand, whilst Plato gestures to the heavens, representing his belief in The Forms.

Vishnu Sharma

Vishnu Sharma was an Indian scholar and author who is believed to have written the Panchatantra collection of fables. The exact period of the composition of the Panchatantra is uncertain, and estimates vary from 1200 BCE to 300 CE. Some scholars place him in the 3rd century BCE

Ban Zhao

Ban Zhao (2st century), courtesy name Huiban, was the first known female Chinese historian. She completed her brother Ban Gu's work as he was imprisoned and executed in the year 92 BCE. because of his association with the family of Empress Dowager Dou. It was said her works could have filled eight volumes. Apart from being interested in history, she also had great interest in astronomy and mathematics.

Ban Gu

Ban Gu, courtesy name Mengjian, was a 1st century Chinese historian and poet best known for his part in compiling the Book of Han. He also wrote in the main poetic genre of the Han era, a kind of poetry interspersed with prose called fu. Some are anthologized by Xiao Tong in his Selections of Refined Literature in the 6th century. Compiler of the Bo hu tong.

Bessarion

Bessarion was one of the most learned scholars of his time. Besides his translations of Aristotle's Metaphysics and Xenophon's Memorabilia, his most important work is a treatise directed against George of Trebizond, a vehement Aristotelian who had written a polemic against Plato, which was entitled In Calumniatorem Platonis ("Against the Slanderer of Plato"). Bessarion, though a Platonist, was not so thoroughgoing in his admiration as Gemistus Pletho, and he strove instead to reconcile the two philosophies. His work, by opening up the relations of Platonism to the main questions of religion, contributed greatly to the extension of speculative thought in the department of theology. His library, which contained a very extensive collection of Greek manuscripts, was presented by him in 1468 to the senate of Venice, and forms the nucleus of the famous library of St Mark's, the Biblioteca Marciana. Most of Bessarion's works are in Migne, Patrologia Graeca, vol. 161.

John Argyropoulos

John Argyropoulos was a Greek Renaissance scholar who played a prominent role in the revival of Greek philosophy in Italy. It is well known that students hailing from different parts of Europe came to see and hear him at those classes, when he taught Greek and philosophy courses. Leonardo da Vinci probably attended the lectures of Argyropoulos[16] He was a member of the Byzantine delegation to the Council of Ferrara-Florence and left a number of Latin translations, including many of Aristotle's works.

Gaza

Gaza's translations were superior, both in accuracy and style, to the versions in use before his time. He devoted particular attention to the translation and exposition of Aristotle's works on natural science. Gaza stood high in the opinion of most of his learned contemporaries, but still higher in that of the scholars of the succeeding generation. His Greek grammar (in four books), written in Greek, first printed at Venice in 1495, and afterwards partially translated by Erasmus in 1521, although in many respects defective, especially in its syntax, was for a long time the leading textbook.

Johannes Cocceius

Johannes Cocceius theology was founded entirely on the Bible, and he encouraged the study of the original text. In one of his essays he contends that the observance of the Sabbath, though expedient, is not binding upon Christians, since it was a Jewish institution. His major was his Lexicon et commentarius sermonis hebraici et chaldaici (Leiden, 1669), which has been frequently republished. His theology is fully expounded in his Summa Doctrinae de Foedere et Testamento Dei (1648). As an exponent of federal theology he was tacitly influenced by his teachers in Bremen, Matthias Martinius and Ludwig Crocius.[1] His collected works were published in 12 folio volumes (Amsterdam, 1673-1675).

Benito Arias Montano

Benito Arias Montano (or Benedictus Arias Montanus), Spanish orientalist and editor of the Antwerp Polyglot, was born at Fregenal de la Sierra, in Extremadura, in 1527. He is the subject of an Elogio histórico by Tomás Gonzalez Caral in the Memorias de la Real Academia de la Historia

Sir Walter Elliot

Sir Walter Elliot, Born in Edinburgh, studied at the East India College in Haileybury and joined the Indian Civil Service at Madras in 1821 and worked on till 1860. In 1874 he wrote on the contributions of Thomas C. Jerdon to the journal Nature, however this was not published for want of space. He also produced a work on ethnobotany Flora Andhirica in 1859 which give the Telugu names for various plant species in the Northern Circars, north of the Godavari delta area. He also collected plants and his herbarium was gifted to the Royal Botanic Garden of Edinburgh.

Austin Tappan Wright

Austin Tappan Wright was an American legal scholar and author, best remembered for his major work of Utopian fiction, Islandia. He was the son of classical scholar John Henry Wright and novelist Mary Tappan Wright, the brother of geographer John Kirtland Wright, and the grandfather of editor Tappan Wright King.

John Henry Wright

John Henry Wright was an American classical scholar, born at Urumiah, Persia. He was the son of missionary and oriental scholar Austin Hazen Wright. He edited Collignon's Manual of Greek Archæology (English translation, 1886) and A History of All Nations (24 volumes, 1902). He was associate editor of the Classical Review, editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Archaeology, and associate editor of the Classical Quarterly.

Colonel James Tod

Lieutenant-Colonel James Tod was an English officer of the British East India Company and an Oriental scholar. He combined his official role and his amateur interests to create a series of works about the history and geography of India, and in particular the area then known as Rajputana that corresponds to the present day state of Rajasthan, and which Tod referred to as Rajas'han.

Harold Frederick Stewart

Harold Frederick Stewart was an Australian poet and oriental scholar. He is chiefly remembered as the enigmatic other half of Ern Malley. Stewart's work has been associated with James McAuley and A. D. Hope, belonging to a neo-classical or Augustian movement in poetry, but his choice of subject matter is different in that he concentrates on writing long metaphysical narrative poems, combining Eastern subject matter with his own metaphysical journey to shape the narrative. He is usually described by critics as a traditionalist and conservative but described himself as a conservative anarchist.

Bernard Lewis

Bernard Lewis, FBA (born May 31, 1916) is a British-American historian, scholar in Oriental studies, and political commentator. He is the Cleveland E. Dodge Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University. He specializes in the history of Islam and the interaction between Islam and the West, and is especially famous in academic circles for his works on the history of the Ottoman Empire.

Sir Sayyad Ahmad Khan

Sir Sayyad Ahmad Khan, scion of a Mughal family was known to be the principal founder of 'modernist Islamic thought'. A known advocate for scientific and modern education to Muslims he renounced the Islamic orthodoxy of Waliullah but his rational interpretation of Islam, which was contrary to the fundamentalists views on controversial issues like Jihad, polygamy and animal slaughtering was rejected by his contemporary Muslim intellectuals. Ultimately, he succumbed to the pressure of fundamentalists and "agreed not to express his views on Islam through his writings"

Leo Allatius

Leo Allatius was a Greek scholar, theologian and keeper of the Vatican library. His works are listed by Johann Albert Fabricius, in Bibliotheca Graeca (xi. 437), where they are divided into four classes: editions, translations and commentaries on ancient authors works relating to the dogmas and institutions of the Greek and Roman Churches historical works miscellaneous works.

Alexander Dunlop

Alexander Dunlop, 16th of that Ilk, son of James, He held the lands of Dunlop from 1670-1683. Another champion of Presbyterianism. The accounts of the Dunlop family in Burke's Peerage and Baronetage (16th ed.) and in J. G. Dunlop's The Dunlops of Dunlop (1939), give some detail of the early Carolina colonist, Alexander Dunlop's life to 1685.

Herbert Feith

Herbert Feith was an Australian academic and world leading scholar of Indonesian politics. Feith was guided by a strong sense of social justice, human rights and worked with international peace movements. In Melbourne he assisted Indonesian asylum seekers who faced persecution under the Suharto regime, and was active in a range of campaigns. With Amnesty International, he negotiated to free political prisoners in Indonesia. He practiced voluntary simplicity and was renowned as an inspiring lecturer and teacher

Hanna Petros

Hanna Petros was an Iraqi Assyrian composer and a scholar. He wrote numerous books and treatises over oriental music, Iraqi Maqams and Syriac hymnody. He is also established a renowned conservatory in Baghdad. Hanna Peros' main attention was concentrated on oriental music, he composed and performed pieces in Iraqi Maqams and Syriac sacral music. He also left many literary works on that field most notably the Principals of Music Theory and The Book of National Anthems.

Hayashi Shihei

Hayashi Shihei ( August 6, 1738 - July 28, 1793) was a Japanese military scholar and a retainer of the Sendai Domain. His name is sometimes misread (according to the Sino-Japanese reading) as Rin Shihei. He complained of the lack of organized drill exercises, and stressed the importance of choren, or teamwork drill, rather than mere individual martial training. He gave a lot of technical descriptions about shipbuilding, cannons and other military designs. He published these thoughts in his work titled Kaikoku Heidan (i.e. Discussion concerning military matters of a maritime nation), printed without permission of the bakufu in the year 1791. The printing blocks were confiscated soon afterwards. Another famous work is Sangoku Tsuran Zusetsu (Illustrated Description of Three Countries), printed 1786.

Ken'ichi Yoshida

Ken'ichi Yoshida was a Japanese author and literary critic in Showa period Japan. His debut as a writer was in 1935 with a translation of Edgar Allan Poe's Memorandum (Oboegaki). Legend had it that, due to his Cantabrigian education, albeit brief, Yoshida conceived in English more than in his native Japanese.

Hayashi Jussai

Hayashi Jussai was a Japanese neo-Confucian scholar of the Edo period. He was an hereditary rector of Edo's Confucian Academy, the Shohei-ko, also known at the Yushima Seido, which was built on land provided by the shogun. The Yushima-Seido, which stood at the apex of the Tokugawa shogunate's educational system; and Jussai was styled with the hereditary title "Head of the State University"

Wani

Wani (Japanese: Wani, Wani Kishi ) is a semi-legendary scholar who is said to have been offered as a tribute to Japan by Baekje of southwestern Korea during the reign of Emperor Ojin. He used to be associated with the introduction of the Chinese writing system to Japan.

Benimadhab Barua

Benimadhab Barua was a Bengali Indian scholar of ancient Indian languages and law. He was a prominent educationist and writer. Benimadhab was a prolific scholar. Some of his works include the following: In English A History of Pre-Buddhist Indian Philosophy A Prolegomena to the History of Buddhist Philosophy (1918) A History of Pre-Buddhistic Indian Philosophy (1921) The Ajivikas (1921) Prakrit Dharmapad (which he wrote jointly with Shailendranath Mitra)

Anagarika Dharmapala

Anagarika Dharmapala (17 September 1864 - 29 April 1933) was a leading figure of Buddhism in the twentieth century. Most of Dharmapala's works are collected in Return to Righteousness: A Collection of Speeches, Essays, and Letters of the Anagarika Dharmapala. (Edited by Ananda Guruge. Colombo: Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs, 1965).

Vidurupola Siri Piyatissa Mahanayaka Thera

The latter part of the nineteenth century witnessed the birth of Ven. Vidurupola Siri Piyatissa Thera who was later to become a great scholar of Sri Lanka. The Thera later to become the Mahanayake of the Udarata Amarapura Nikaya was born on June 15, 1880 in the village of Vidurupola in the Badulla District.

Chunnakam Kumaraswamy Pulavar

Chunnakam Kumaraswamy Pulavar was a well known Sri Lankan Tamil scholar and poet from Maylani village in Chunnakam township in Jaffna peninsula in the British held Ceylon now known as Sri Lanka. Scholarly contributions - Tamil Pulavar Charithram (History of Tamil poets), Ilakkiya Sol Aharathy (Dictionary of classical terms), Neethi Neri Vilakkam (An explanation of the judicial process), Megathootha Karikai and Raguvamsa Charitha Amirtham (Both religious works). Besides the above, he also published some of the Tamil classics, with his explanatory notes and comments. He was also a Sanskrit scholar.

Henry Steel Olcott

Olcott was the first well-known American of European ancestry to make a formal conversion to Buddhism Olcott is considered a Buddhist modernist for his efforts in interpreting Buddhism through a Westernized lens. Olcott was a major revivalist of Buddhism in Sri Lanka and he is still honored in Sri Lanka for these efforts. Olcott has been called by Sri Lankans "one of the heroes in the struggle of our independence and a pioneer of the present religious, national and cultural revival".

Martin Wickramasinghe

Martin Wickramasinghe (May 29, 1890 - July 23, 1976) was a Sri Lankan novelist. His books have been translated into several langues. The search for roots is a central theme in Wickramasinghe's writings on the culture and life of the people of Sri Lanka. His work explored and applied modern knowledge in natural and social sciences, literature, linguistics, the arts, philosophy, education, and Buddhism .

Wellawattearachchige Abraham Silva

Wellawattearachchige Abraham Silva was born in Wellawatte, Colombo. W. A. Silva was a best selling author of Sinhala literature.

Bai Juyi

Bai Juyi was a Chinese poet of the Tang dynasty. Many of his poems concern his career or observations made as a government official, including as governor of three different provinces. Bai Juyi was also renowned in Japan. Bai Juyi has been known for his plain, direct, and easily comprehensible style of verse, as well as for his social and political criticism. Besides his surviving poems, several letters and essays are also extent.

Cai Yong

Cai Yong was a Chinese scholar of the Eastern Han Dynasty. He was well-versed in calligraphy, music, mathematics and astronomy. One of his daughters was the famous Cai Wenji. Due to the turmoil in China in the decade after his death, much of his work had been lost. However, Cai Yong had apparently entrusted the bulk of his library to his protege Wang Can, and it is through his collection that Cai Yong's work can be found in compilations like the Book of Later Han. Few items of his work survive today.

Cao Cao

Cao Cao was a warlord and the penultimate chancellor of the Eastern Han Dynasty who rose to great power during the dynasty's final years. As one of the central figures of the Three Kingdoms period, he laid the foundations for what was to become the state of Cao Wei and was posthumously titled Emperor Wu of Wei. Cao Cao was an accomplished poet, as were his sons Cao Pi and Cao Zhi. Cao Cao was also a a patron of poets such as Xu Gan.[9] Of Cao's works only a remnant remain today. His verses, unpretentious yet profound, helped to reshape the poetic style of his time and beyond, eventually contributing to the poetry styles associated with Tang Dyanasty poetry.

Du Fu

Du Fu was a prominent Chinese poet of the Tang Dynasty. Along with Li Bai (Li Bo), he is frequently called the greatest of the Chinese poets. His greatest ambition was to serve his country as a successful civil servant, but he proved unable to make the necessary accommodations. Criticism of Du Fu's works has focused on his strong sense of history, his moral engagement, and his technical excellence.

Haji Abdul Malik Karim Amrullah

Haji Abdul Malik Karim Amrullah, known as Hamka (kampung Molek Sungai Batang Agam Regency, West Sumatra February 17, 1908 - Jakarta July 24, 1981) was a prominent Indonesian author, ulema and politician. Other than his activities in the religious and political sectors, Hamka was also a journalist, a writer, and a publisher. Since the 1920s, Hamka was working as the journalist of several newspaper such as Pelita Andalas, Seruan Islam, Bintang Islam and Seruan Muhammadiyah.

Huang Yuanyong

Huang Yuanyong (15 January 1885 - 25 December 1915) was a renowned Chinese author and journalist during the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China Huang made significant contributions to journalism and literacy in China, particularly as an innovator in both journalistic methodology and writing style.

Kang Youwei

Kang Youwei (March 19, 1858-March 31, 1927), was a Chinese scholar, noted calligrapher and prominent political thinker and reformer of the late Qing Dynasty. He led movements to establish a constitutional monarchy and was an ardent Chinese nationalist. His ideas inspired a reformation movement that was supported by the Guangxu Emperor but loathed by Empress Dowager Cixi. Before becoming a journalist Huang immersed himself in writing literature, as classical Chinese literature was still popular in the late Qing dynasty. He was known for writing fluently, with major use of rhetoric and allusion.

Liang Qichao

Liang Qichao (February 23, 1873 - January 19, 1929) was a Chinese scholar, journalist, philosopher and reformist during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), who inspired Chinese scholars with his writings and reform movements. He died of illness in Beijing at the age of 55. Liang passed the Xiucai degree provincial examination at the age of 11. In 1884, he undertook the arduous task of studying for the traditional governmental exams. Liang Qichao was the "most influential turn-of-the-century scholar-journalist," according to Levenson. Liang showed that newspapers and magazines could serve as an effective medium for communicating political ideas.

Mohammad Natsir

Mohammad Natsir (17 July 1908 - 6 February 1993) was a Islamic scholar and politician. He was Indonesia's fifth prime minister. Natsir wrote extensively on Islam, totaling 45 books and hundreds of articles. He viewed Islam as an intrinsic part of Indonesian culture and was disappointed by the Sukarno and Suharto governments' handling of the religion. Natsir published 45 books or monographs and several hundred articles dealing with his views of Islam.

Shao Young

Shao is considered one of the most learned men of his time. Unlike most men of such stature in his society, Shao avoided governmental positions his entire life, but his influence was no less substantial. He wrote an influential treatise on cosmogony, the Huangji Jingshi ( Book of supreme world ordering principles) Shao was a member of a group of thinkers who gathered in Luoyang toward the last three decades of the 11th century. This group had two primary objectives. One of these was to draw parallels between their own streams of thought and that of Confucianism as understood by Mencius.

John Clark Marshman

John Clark Marshman, Indian scholar and philanthropist. 1827 - an abridged version of Carey's 'Dictionary of the Bengali Language'; 1832 - a 'Guide Book for Moonsiffs, Sudder Ameens, and Principal Sudder Ameens, containing all the Rules necessary for the conducts of Suits in their Courts' 1835 - a 'Guide to Revenue Regulations of the Presidencies of Bengal and Agra' 1842 - 'The History of India from remote Antiquity to the Accession of the Mogul Dynasty'. 1859 - 'The Life and Times of Carey Marshman and Ward 1863-1867 - 'History of India from the Earliest Period to the Close of Lord Dalhousie's Administration' published in three volumes.

Moulana Hameed Uddin Husami Aqil

Moulana Hameed Uddin Husami Aqil was an Indian Islamic scholar. He died on 12 March 2010 at Hyderabad. He was a member of the Muslim Personal Law Board.

Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje

Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje (8 February 1857 - 26 June 1936) was a Dutch scholar of Oriental cultures and languages and Advisor on Native Affairs to the colonial government of the Netherlands East Indies (now Indonesia). Snouck, who was fluent in Arabic, through mediation with the Ottoman governor in Jeddah, was examined by a delegation of scholars from Mecca in 1884 and upon successfully completing the examination was allowed to commence a pilgrimage to the Holy Muslim city of Mecca in 1885. He was one of the first Western scholars of Oriental cultures to do so.

Judith Gautier

Judith Gautier (25 August 1845, Paris - 26 December 1917) was a French poet and historical novelist, the daughter of Theophile Gautier and Ernesta Grisi, sister of the noted singer and ballet dancer Carlotta Grisi. She was an Oriental scholar and her works dealt mainly with Chinese and Japanese themes. She was a member of the Academie Goncourt (1910-1917).

Bhaskar Anand Saletore

Bhaskar Anand Saletore (1902-1963), better known as B. A. Saletore, was a well known Indian historian from Mangalore, Karnataka. Salatore was a polyglot. His works spanning several books and hundreds of articles cover a wide range of subjects including ancient Indian history. During his early years he was guided by world famous historians like H. Heras and L.D. Barnett. In the 1930s, he wrote a well known book Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire, a book that includes the much debated topic of the origin of the Sangama brothers and the origin of the empire itself. This book was his PhD. thesis while at the University of London. The work contains a bibliography of 55 pages, running to thousand and odd books and articles

Maulana Shah Muhammad Abdul Aleem Siddique

Maulana Shah Muhammad Abdul Aleem Siddique was born in the month of Ramadhan, on 3 April 1892 (15 Ramadhan 1310), in Meerut, India and was raised in a family that was pious and devout. From youth, his father, Muhammad Abdul Hakim and his mother were a source of guidance and education in the teachings of Islam. He was a great Sufi, writer, poet, orator and scholar of Islam and modern sciences, and was known for his spiritual guidance and promulgation of the message of hope and peace.

Abdur Razzaq

National Professor Abdur Razzaq (1914 - November 28,1999) was a noted scholar, academic, educator and intellectual in Bangladesh . To acknowledge his unique status as a teacher, the Government of Bangladesh honored him with the distinction of National Professor in 1975. In 1973, the University of Delhi honored him with a Ph D.

Sheikh Abu Bakr Effendi

Sheikh Abu Bakr Effendi (1835-1880) was a Osmanli qadi who was sent in 1862 by the Ottoman sultan Abdülmecid I at the request of the British Queen Victoria to the Cape of Good Hope, in order to teach and assist the Muslim community of the Cape Malays Abu Bakr was born in ancient province Shehrizur in Kurdistan .

Aryabhatta

Aryabhatta (476-550 A.D.) was born in Patliputra in Magadha, modern Patna in Bihar, India . His greatest contribution has to be zero and invented the value of pi=3.1416 . He even computed the circumference of the earth as 24835 miles which is close to modern day calculation of 24900 miles. He goes as far as to explain the eclipse of the moon and the sun, day and night, the contours of the earth, the length of the year exactly as 365 days. His other works include algebra, arithmetic, trigonometry, quadratic equations and the sine table.

Carter Godwin Woodson

Carter Godwin Woodson (December 19, 1875 - April 3, 1950)[1] was an African-American historian, author, journalist and scholar . Woodson was one of the first scholars to study African American history. A founder of Journal of Negro History . Dr. Woodson has been cited as the father of black history.

Epifanio de los Santos y Cristobal

Epifanio de los Santos y Cristobal, sometimes known as Don Panong or Don Panyong (April 7, 1871 - April 18, 1928) was a noted Filipino historian, literary critic,art critic, jurist, prosecutor, antiquarian, archivist, scholar, painter,poet, musician,musicologist,philosopher,philologist,bibliographer,translator, journalist,editor, publisher, paleographer, ethnographer, biographer, researcher, civil servant, patriot and hero. "Great among the Great Filipino Scholars" , died in office on April 18, 1928.

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (1888-1958) was initially opposed to Aligarh school of Islam, which according to him was against the "international Islamic unity and sovereignty of Turkish Caliph over Indian Muslims" . He was one of the most prominent Muslim leaders to support Hindu-Muslim unity . He was posthumously awarded India's highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna .

Shumei Okawa

Shumei Okawa (Okawa Shumei, December 6, 1886 - December 24, 1957) was a Japanese nationalist, Pan-Asian writer and Islamic scholar. After World War II, Okawa was prosecuted as a class-A war criminal by the Allies. Okawa was transferred from the jail to the Tokyo Metropolitan Matsuzawa Hospital, a famous mental hospital, where he completed the first Japanese translation of the entire Quran.

Motoori Norinaga

Motoori Norinaga (21 June 1730 - 5 November 1801) was a Japanese scholar of Kokugaku active during the Edo period. He is probably the best known and most prominent of all scholars in this tradition. Norinaga's most important works include the Kojiki-den (Commentaries on the Kojiki), made over a period of around 35 years, and his annotations on the Tale of Genji. Norinaga also made vital contributions to establishing a native Japanese grammatical tradition, in particular the analysis of clitics, particles and auxiliary verbs.

Muhammad Al-Ameen Ibn Muhammad Al-Mukhtaar Ibn 'Abdil-Qaadir Al-Jaknee Ash-Shanqeetee

Muhammad Al-Ameen Ibn Muhammad Al-Mukhtaar Ibn 'Abdil-Qaadir Al-Jaknee Ash-Shanqeetee (1907-1973) was a Muslim scholar from Mauritania. He has authored some books, which include: - Adwaa-ul-Bayaan fee Tafseer-il-Qur'aan bil-Qur'aan - printed [This is his tremendous voluminous work on Tafseer of the Qu'raan] - Al-Mudhakkirah fee Usool-il-Fiqh - printed [A small treatise on the Principles of Fiqh] - Adab Al-Bah-th wal-Munaadhara - printed [Etiquettes for Researching] , etc .

Swami Rama Tirtha

Swami Rama Tirtha (October 22, 1873 - 27 October 1906[1] at Murli, Gujaranwala (now in Pakistan) ), also known as Swami Ram, was an Indian teacher of the Hindu philosophy of Vedanta. Among the very few great Vedantic scholars He is the one who emphasized on indian independence. He was among the first notable teachers of Hinduism to lecture in the United States

Tatsukichi Minobe

Tatsukichi Minobe (Minobe Tatsukichi, May 7, 1873 - May 23, 1948) was a Japanese statesman and scholar of constitutional law. His interpretation of the role of the monarchy in the pre-war Empire of Japan was a source of considerable controversy in the increasingly radicalized political environment of Japan in the 1930. Following the surrender of Japan after World War II, Minobe was active as an advisor in the creation of the post-war Constitution of Japan, as well as an advisor to the Privy Council .

Tirumular

Tirumular (also spelt Thirumoolar etc., originally known as Sundaranatha) was a Tamil Shaivite mystic and writer, considered one of the sixty-three Nayanars and one of the 18 Siddhars. Legend has it that Tirumular was a travelling Shaiva saint and scholar from Kailash who used his yogic powers to transmigrate into the body of a southern cowherd, Mulan. His main work, the Tirumantiram (also sometimes written Tirumanthiram, Tirumandhiram, etc.), which consists of over 3000 verses, forms a part of the key text of the Tamil Shaiva Siddhanta, the Tirumurai.

Baron Tsuda Mamichi

Baron Tsuda Mamichi (25 July 1829 - 3 September 1903) was a Japanese statesman and legal scholar in the Meiji period. After his return to Japan in 1868, Tsuda wrote the Kaisei Kokuho ron (On Western Law), which was the first book in Japanese on the subject. He was recruited by the new Meiji government and helped in the first codification of Japanese laws.

Vincent Gordon Harding

Vincent Gordon Harding (born July 25, 1931) is an African American historian and a scholar of religion and society. An activist as well, he is best known for his work with and writings about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Writings Chapter 1 Widening the Circle: Experiments in Christian Discipleship African-American Christianity: Essays in History Martin Luther King: The Inconvenient Hero ., etc

Hirata Atsutane

Hirata Atsutane was a Japanese scholar, conventionally ranked as one of the four great men of kokugaku (nativist) studies, and one of the most significant theologians of the Shinto religion. His literary name was Ibukinoya. Little is known of his early life, but Hirata was a student of the Neo-Confucianism of Yamazaki Ansai (1619-1682) in Edo. He later turned towards Daoism as found in the works of the Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi, and towards Shinto as per the works of Motoori Norinaga, founder of the kokugaku movement.

Hitoshi Igarashi

Hitoshi Igarashi was a Japanese scholar of Arabic and Persian literature and history and the Japanese translator of Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses. He completed his doctoral programme in Islamic art at the University of Tokyo in 1976, and was research fellow at the Royal Academy of Iran until the Islamic Revolution in 1979. After Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for the death of "the author of the Satanic Verses book, which is against Islam, the Prophet and the Qur'an, and all those involved in its publication who are aware of its content", he was stabbed to death repeatedly in the face and arms by an unknown assailant on July 11, 1991 in his office at the University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki,[2] where he was an associate professor.

Zawgyi

Zawgyi (12 April 1907 - 26 September 1990), born in Pyapon, Irrawaddy Division, real name U Thein Han , was a distinguished and leading Burmese poet, author, literary historian, critic, scholar and academic. He was one of the leaders of the Hkit san (Testing the Times) movement in Burmese literature searching for a new style and content before the Second World War,[1] along with Theippan Maung Wa, Nwe Soe and Min Thu Wun. His first hkit san poetry,Padauk pan (Padauk flower), was published in Hantha Kyemon pamphlet

John W. Dower

John W. Dower (born 21 June 1938 in Providence, Rhode Island ) is an American author and historian. Dower was the executive producer of the Academy Award-nominated documentary Hellfire, A Journey from Hiroshima, and was a member of the Committee of Concerned Asian Scholars, sitting on the editorial board of its journal with Noam Chomsky, and Herbert Bix The Bombed: Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japanese Memory, Diplomatic History 19, no. 2 (Spring 1995) Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II (1999; W. W. Norton) Empire and Aftermath: Yoshida Shigeru and the Japanese experience, 1878-1954.

John Evelyn

John Evelyn (31 October 1620 - 27 February 1706) was an English writer, gardener and diarist. Evelyn's diaries or Memoirs are largely contemporaneous with those of the other noted diarist of the time, Samuel Pepys, and cast considerable light on the art, culture and politics of the time (he witnessed the deaths of Charles I and Oliver Cromwell, the last Great Plague of London, and the Great Fire of London in 1666). Over the years, Evelyn's Diary has been over-shadowed by Pepys's chronicles of 17th-century life.[1] Evelyn and Pepys corresponded frequently and much of this correspondence has been preserved.

Kunio Yanagita

Kunio Yanagita as a Japanese scholar who is often known as the father of Japanese native folkloristics, or minzokugaku. He depicted some facets of Japanese society by analyzing the famous folk tale Momotaro. His methodology was followed by many ethnologists and anthropologists. Yanagita revealed that the distribution of dialects for the word snail forms concentric circles on the Japanese archipelago.

DAVID M. LAMPTON

David M. Lampton (born 1946) is George and Sadie Hyman Professor of China Studies at Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). He is Director of China Studies at SAIS. He is Former President of the National Committee on United States-China Relations in New York City. He currently serves on the Board of Advisors for the National Bureau of Asian Research. On June 17, 2010 The National Bureau of Asian Research and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars awarded Lampton the inaugural Scalapino Prize, an award established in honor of renowned Asia scholar Robert A. Scalapino.

Masao Maruyama

Masao Maruyama (Maruyama Masao, March 22, 1914 - August 15, 1996) was a leading Japanese political scientist and political theorist. His expertise lay in the history of Japanese political thought, to which he made major contributions. The major work of his retirement years was a three-volume commentary on Fukuzawa Yukichi's Fukuzawa's principal work Bunmeiron no Gairyaku, based on a lengthy seminar he conducted with a small working group. This was published in 1986, as Reading 'An Outline of a Theory of Civilisation',by Iwanami Shoten. Besides, he contributed several more noteworthy as well as controversial works on Japanese culture or the process of translation in modern Japan.

Devin deweese

Devin Deweese is a professor of Islamic and Central Eurasian Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington. He received his PhD in 1985 at Indiana University, and since then has continued to do research on Central Asian Islam, particularly Sufism and its political and social dimensions. He has published major studies of Central Asian religion and history using Persian, Arabic and Turkic manuscript sources he has painstakingly accumulated from collections all over the world. Islamization and Native Religion in the Golden Horde: Baba Tükles and Conversion to Islam in Historical and Epic Tradition. Pennsylvania State University Press, 1994 Series "Hermeneutics: Studies in the History of Religions", 638 pp. "Khojagani Origins and the Critique of Sufism: The Rehtoric of Communal Uniqueness in the Manaqib of Khoja 'Ali 'Azizan Ramitani," in Islamic Mysticism Contested: Thirteen Centuries of Controversies and Polemics, ed. Frederick De Jong and Bernd Radtke (Leiden: E.J. Brell, 1999) 492-519.

Maung Htin Aung

Maung Htin Aung was an important author and scholar of Burmese history and Burmese culture. Oxford and Cambridge educated Htin Aung wrote several books on Burmese history and culture in both Burmese and English. Htin Aung authored many important books on Myanmar, under the pen name of Maung Htin Aung. His books are widely used in the study of the comparatively under-documented history and culture of Myanmar.

Min Thu Wun

Min Thu Wun (10 February 1909 - 15 August 2004) was a Mon - Burmese poet, writer and scholar who helped launch a new age literary movement called Hkit san (Testing the Times) in Burma. Nursery Songs for Maung Khway - 13 songs in Burmese with music and English translations by Gordon H Luce of 60 years ago were reprinted in 2002. Pan hnin pinzi - The Tree Trunk and the Blooms (1965)

Muhammad Abduh

Muhammad Abduh (or Mohammed 'Abduh) (Nile Delta, 1849 - Alexandria, July 11, 1905) was an Egyptian jurist and religious scholar. A recent book titled "Islam and Liberty" regarded Muhammad Abduh as the founder of the so-called Neo-Mutazilism. Muhammad Abduh argued that Muslims could not simply rely on the interpretations of texts provided by medieval clerics, they needed to use reason to keep up with changing times (1897), Risalat al-taw?id ("Theology of unity;" first edition) (1903), Tafsir Surat al-'Asr, Cairo. (1904), Tafsir juz' 'Amma, al-Matb. al-Amiriyya, Cairo. (1927), Tafsir Manar, 12 volumes (1944), Muhammad Abduh. Essai sur ses idées philosophiques et religieuses, Cairo>

Nguyen Khuyen

Nguyen Khuyen was a famous Vietnamese Confucian scholar, poet and teacher living in 19th century. The more disadvantages he met in his life, the more talented he became in his writing. He was the hyphen between classical literature and modern literature. He was both a prominent lyric poet and an outstanding satirical poet.

Nguyen Thuong Hien

Nguyen Thuong Hien was a Vietnamese scholar-gentry anti-colonial revolutionary activist who advocated independence from French colonial rule. He was a contemporary of Phan Boi Chau and Phan Chu Trinh and was regarded as the most prominent northerner of his generation of scholar-gentry activists. Hien's first government position was an appointment in the historical Bureau, which possibly gave him access to more Chinese works about anti-colonialism. He was later appointed as the education commisoner (doc hoc) of Ninh Binh Province, before being transferred ot the corresponding position in Nam Dinh Province.

Paul Mus

Paul Mus (1902 - 1969) was a French author and scholar. His studies focused on Vietnam and other Southeast Asian cultures. He was born in Bourges to an academic family, and grew up in northern Vietnam (Tonkin). He volunteered for the Free French Forces during World War II in Africa. He trained with British commandos in Ceylon in 1944-1945. He has written widely on Buddhism and comparative linguistics. He was deeply affected by the death of his son Émile Mus in 1961 during the Algerian War.

Pe Maung Tin

Pe Maung Tin was a scholar of Pali and Buddhism and educator in Myanmar, formerly Burma. Born an Anglican and named Maung Tin at Pauktaw, Insein Township, Rangoon, he was the fifth child of U Pe and Daw Myaing. Liang passed the Xiucai degree provincial examination at the age of 11. In 1884, he undertook the arduous task of studying for the traditional governmental exams. Liang Qichao was the "most influential turn-of-the-century scholar-journalist," according to Levenson. Liang showed that newspapers and magazines could serve as an effective medium for communicating political ideas.

Stephen Little

Stephen Little (born 1954) is an American Asian art scholar, museum administrator and artist. Dr. Little's father was a linguist and cultural attaché for the government of the United States. Stephen was raised in Indonesia, Cambodia, Burma, and Turkey, not living in the United States until age 11. He initially studied nuclear physics, but changed his major to Chinese art.[2] He received a B.A. from Cornell University in 1975, an M.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1977, and a Ph.D. from Yale University in 1987. Dr. Little has painted all his adult life. He currently works in a minimalist style strongly influenced by East Asian ink and wash painting.

Michio Takeyama

Michio Takeyama was a Japanese writer, literary critic and scholar of German literature, active in Showa period Japan. On returning home in 1932, Takeyama taught German language as a professor at First Higher School, and also translated works of German literature into Japanese. Among the works he translated were Goethe's An Anthology, Nietzsche's Thus Spake Zarathustra and Out of My Life and Thought: An Autobiography by Albert Schweitzer.

Tran Trong Kim

Tran Trong Kim was a Vietnamese scholar and politician who served as the Prime Minister of the short-lived Empire of Vietnam, a puppet state created by Imperial Japan in 1945. This came after Japan had seized direct control of Vietnam from the French colonial forces during the Second World War.

Watanabe Kazan

Watanabe Kazan was a Japanese painter, scholar and statesman member of the samurai class. He was the first Japanese artist to paint realistic portraits of his subjects using the effects of shading which he learned from European paintings. On the one hand, he was a traditionalist Confucian, who believed in filial piety and loyalty to his daimyo, and on the other he was enthusiastic about Western ideas regarding science and politics. He wrote two private essays which were interpreted as being critical of the Shogunate's defense of Tokyo Bay and promoting Western ideas

Wyndham Knatchbull

Wyndham Knatchbull (1795 or 1796 - 5 April 1868) was a British clergyman and academic who was Laudian Professor of Arabic from 1823 until 1840. Knatchbull, who was one of the sons of Sir Edward Knatchbull, 8th Baronet, was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, matriculating there on 7 November 1804 at the age of 18, and obtaining his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1808. He was elected to a Fellowship at All Souls College, Oxford in 1809, holding this position until 1824. He also obtained the further degrees of Master of Arts (1812), Bachelor of Divinity (1820) and Doctor of Divinity (1821). He was appointed Laudian Professor of Arabic in 1823, a post he retained until 1840.

Yamazaki Ansai

Yamazaki Ansai was a Japanese philosopher and scholar. He began his career as a Buddhist monk, but eventually came to follow the teachings of Neo-Confucian Zhu Xi. He combined Neo-Confucian ideas with Shinto to create Suika Shinto. Born in Kyoto on January 24, 1619, Yamazaki Ansai was the son of a former ronin-turned-doctor and the last of four children. In his youth, he was strongly influenced by both his mother and grandmother. While his mother "urged him to develop a noble heart worthy of a samura's son,"[1] his grandmother supported him in his study of the Chinese language. After his first publication, Ansai spent the remaining thirty-five years of his life writing, publishing, editing, annotating, and punctuating Confucian and Shinto texts (that accumulated to over two thousand pages)

Herbert P. Bix

Herbert P. Bix is the author of Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan, an acclaimed account of the Japanese Emperor and the events which shaped modern Japanese imperialism. He has taught at many universities and is a professor of history and sociology at Binghamton University. Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan won the Pulitzer Prize in 2001.

William Gifford Palgrave

William Gifford Palgrave (1826-1888) was an Arabic scholar, born at Westminster, England. He was the son of Sir Francis Palgrave, K.H. and Elizabeth Turner. He was educated at the Charterhouse School, then occupying its original site near Smithfield, and under the head-mastership of Dr. Saunders, afterwards Dean of Peterborough. Among other honours he won the school gold medal for classical verse, and proceeded to Trinity College, Oxford, where he obtained a scholarship, graduating First Class Lit. Hum., Second Class Math., 1846. (1954-1961), Tafsir al-Qur'an al-Hakim al-Mustahir bi Tafsir al-Manar, 12 vols. with indices, Cairo.

Ion Grant Neville Keith-Falconer

Ion Grant Neville Keith-Falconer (5 July 1856 - 11 May 1887) was a Scottish missionary and Arabic scholar, the third son of the 8th Earl of Kintore. Keith-Falconer was born in Edinburgh. After passing through Harrow School and the University of Cambridge, he moved into evangelistic work in London. In 1886 he was appointed Arabic professor at Cambridge, but his career was cut short near Aden while in missionary work. He translated the Fables of Bidpai. He was an athlete, a champion cyclist and is described as a world cycling champion in 1878. Keith-Falconer taught himself Hebrew at Harrow and then moved on to other Semitic languages. At Cambridge he studied for a Semitic languages tripos, studying Hebrew, Arabic and Syriac. Hebrew required a deep knowledge of the Hebrew Bible. He passed.

Cao Xuan Duc

Cao Xuan Duc was a scholar, historian-mandarin, and court adviser in the Nguyn Dynasty, Vietnam. Cao Xuan Duc made significant contribution in maintaining Vietnamese culture and literature in 19th and 20th century. He spent many years writing, collecting, copying, re-writing and preserving valuable books including: He was later vilified by Cuong's group and demoted to a lowly local post in Hoang Xa outside of Hanoi. A relief of Cao Xuan Dc was sculptured on a wall in a cave in this local region to commemorate his righteousness.

Hoang Van Chí

Hoang Van Chí was one of the first Vietnamese political writers, a prominent intellectual who was an opponent of colonialism and later of communism in Vietnam. His book, From Colonialism to Communism, was translated into more than 15 languages. From Colonialism to Communism: A Case Study of North Vietnam describes North Vietnam from 1940-55, during the transition from the French colonial rule to communism. It also documents The Land Reform in Vietnam in 1954. From 1960-62, Hoàng wrote From Colonialism to Communism, an account of events in Vietnam from 1940s to 1955, especially The Land Reform in Vietnam. The book was published first in 1962, at the same time in New York, London, and New Delhi.

Nguyen Trai

Nguyen Trai was an illustrious Confucian scholar, a noted poet, a skilled politician and a master tactician. He was at times attributed with being capable of almost miraculous or mythical deeds in his designated capacity as a close friend and principal advisor , Vietnam's hero-king, who fought to free the country from Chinese rule.

Phan Khoi

Phan Khoi was an intellectual leader who inspired a North Vietnamese variety of the Chinese Hundred Flowers Campaign, in which scholars were permitted to criticize the Communist regime, but for which he himself was ultimately persecuted by the Communist Party of Vietnam. Phan Khoi learned Chinese characters from a young age and was very well read. He read many progressive writings and developed a belief in civil rights and a new society. In 1906, he joined the Progressive Movement (Duy Tan) led by Phan Chu Trinh (1872-1926), Huynh Thuc Khang (1876-1947) and Tran Quy Cap (1870-1906). Phan Khoi moved to Hanoi to learn French ). Phan Khoi wrote under the pen name Chuong Dân, and was very well known for his new, revolutionary and controversial ideas.

Nguyen Quyen

Nguyen Quyen was a Vietnamese scholar-gentry anti-colonial revolutionary activist who advocated independence from French colonial rule. He was a contemporary of Phan Boi Chau and Phan Chu Trinh, and one of Tonkin Free School's (Dong Kinh Nghia Thuc) founders.] Quyen was born in Thung Trì (or Ðìa Village), Thung Mão, Thun Thành, Bac Ninh Province. Quyen was not the first choice for the role. The regional authority in the area was Vi Van Ly, a seventy year old descendant of a Chinese immigrant family that had inherited authority in the area due to its bestowal to them by the Nguyn Dynasty. The more I read the more I become aware that he things we studied, our examination system, were wrong - indeed the real reasons for our having lost our country. From that point on I was determined to seize upon our country's literature and on modern learning to awaken our citizenry.

Tran Cao Vân

Tran Cao Vân (1866-1916) was a mandarin of the Nguy?n Dynasty who was best known for his activities in attempting to expel the French colonial powers in Vietnam. He orchestrated an attempt to expel the French and install Emperor Duy Tân as the boy ruler of an independent Vietnam, but the uprising failed. Vân was executed while Duy Tân was exiled by the French. Vân's father was believed to be of scholar-gentry background, but never passed the imperial examination system. Instead, he made a living for himself by running a silkworm and rice production business. Vân was born in the village of Phu Cu in the prefecture of Dien Ban in Quang Nam Province in central Vietnam. The prefecture was also the home area of General Hoàng Di?u, who commanded the garrison Citadel of Hanoi when it fell to France in 1882 and then committed suicide, marking the start of colonisation.[1]

Father Alexander de Rhodes

Father Alexander de Rhodes (15 March 1591 - 5 November 1660) was a French Jesuit missionary and lexicographer who had a lasting impact on Christianity in Vietnam. He wrote the Dictionarium Annamiticum Lusitanum et Latinum, the first trilingual Vietnamese-Portuguese-Latin dictionary published in Rome in 1651. Alexander de Rhodes was born in Avignon, France. He entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus in Rome on 24 April 1612 to dedicate his life to missionary work. He arrived in Indochina about 1619. A Jesuit mission had been established in Hanoi in 1615; Rhodes arrived there in 1620.

Bruce Cumings

Bruce Cumings (born 1943) is an American academic and author. He is the Gustavus F. and Ann M. Swift Distinguished Service Professor in History and the chair of the history department at the University of Chicago. He specializes in modern Korean history and contemporary international relations in East Asia. In his youth, Cumings was a Peace Corps volunteer in South Korea for less than a year before going to Columbia University in 1968.[1] He joined the Committee of Concerned Asian Scholars at Columbia after Mark Selden formed a chapter there, and published extensively in its journal, Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars.

Sir Gerard Leslie Makins Clauson

Sir Gerard Leslie Makins Clauson (1891-1974) was an English civil servant, businessman, and Orientalist best known for his studies of the Turkish language. 1962. Studies in Turkic and Mongolic Linguistics. Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Routledge (reprint, 2002). 1964. "The future of Tangut (Hsi Hsia) Studies"; Asia Major (New Series) volume 11, part 1: 54-77. 1972. An Etymological Dictionary of pre-thirteenth-century Turkish. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Hafez Ibrahim

Hafez Ibrahim was an Egyptian poet, called Al-Neel, means the Poet of the Nile. He was one of several poets that revived Arabic poetry during the latter half of the 19th Century.