Terryfying unreason or a model of toleration? Imaginning Islam in fictional travelogues of Václav Matěj Kramerius
Abstract
The study deals with Matěj Václav Kramerius (1753-1808), one of the first authors writing in modern Czech, and his reflections on Islam, both as a religion and civilisation. As will be explained, these were strongly based on negative stereotypes and defamatory rhetoric - Kramerius used them to persuade his readers which social practices to imitate and which ones to avoid.
Kramerius occupied a central position in a network of intellectuals who tried to produce and spread literature and journalism, in Czech, in small towns of Bohemia and Moravia and in the countryside. Given the popularity of Krameriusʼs fictive travelogues, it seems obvious that they influenced ways in which members of an emerging Czech national movement related themselves to the 'Non-European Other', and created, by so doing, new cultural identities.
The study analyses Krameriusʼs knowledge of the Qur'an, the life and normative teachings of Muhammad, as well as his stereotypical attitude to themes such as religious violence, a purported lack of rationality, superstition, and religious zealotry. We shall also focus on certain anti- Muslim rhetorical strategies that Kramerius used to appeal to the feelings of his readers.