ABSTRACT
THE last of my small collection of portraits of orientalists is of a man whose life was quiet and uneventful. Though a most eminent scholar of Arabic and Persian who made massive contributions to Islamic studies which are highly appreciated throughout the Muslim world, he never once travelled in the East and met very few of the people to the study and exposition of whose religion and culture he devoted a long life. He made few excursions abroad, and those few not for pleasure, for he detested being parted even for a few days from his books, but to attend learned conferences and to further his research. In this chapter therefore there are not many events to record, save the uninterrupted progress of his intellectual and spiritual career. Compared with the romantic and at times tumultuous adventures that have enlivened the sober activities of some of our erudites, nothing spectacular or untoward ever happened to him. He lived obscurely, like the true dervish that he was. But by his works he attained a worldwide fame, and when he died he was mourned in many lands. What I have to say of him, unlike what I have written of my other masters. is personal and at first hand, for he was my teacher, my chief inspirer, and my very dear friend.
