ABSTRACT
The point, in one sense, is a minor one, and yet it is indicative of a much larger series of tensions within Hegel. The Persian poets, fanatical/hospitable Arabs and “raw” Turks we fi nd in Hegel-and the multiple contexts they bring with them-partly refl ect an already well-researched set of ambiguities in Hegel towards Christianity, the French Revolution, Judaism, the ever-present father-fi gure of Kant and the whole idea of ‘Germanness’ (which Hegel occasionally referred to not as Deutschtum but rather Deutschdumm-not ‘Germandom’ but ‘Germandumb’). Our examination of the different voices Hegel used when writing about Muslims-the registers of Enlightenment, religion, aesthetics and race-will try to elucidate and account for these complexities by carefully paying attention to the modality of Hegel’s prejudices.
