By the end of the 15th century, the discovery of new lands had become a major ambition in Europe. At the time, European knowledge of Arabia was based on descriptions by the classic authors1 and Ptolemy’s Geography, which dates back to the 2nd century. The opening of trade with India would enable the more detailed mapping of the Arabian Peninsula, whose ports were stopovers on the maritime route connecting Europe to India via the Cape of Good Hope. Information was gleaned from the maps and accounts of Arab historians and geographers, while the humanism of the Renaissance was fostering an interest in Oriental languages. In 1538, the French Arabist Guillaume Postel explained, in the introduction to his Arabic grammar, the necessity of creating teaching chairs in that language, given the vast extent of the regions where it was spoken. This intellectual fascination was often linked to a missionary ideal: it was thought that the study of Arabic could broaden the knowledge of the Semitic peoples’ roots and help elucidate the more obscure passages of the Old Testament. However, scholars of the early 17th century, most prominently Joseph Justus Scaliger, a French-born professor from the University of Leiden, would begin taking a genuine interest in Arab culture – a culture that arose in the heart of the region believed to be the historical kingdom of the Queen of Sheba.
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