É. Apor , I. Ormos (ed.): Goldziher Memorial Conference, June 21–22, 2000, Budapest.
ESS, Josef van: Goldziher as a Contemporary of Islamic Reform
JOSEF VAN ESS classes at al-Azhar. 2" But we can easily see from what we have in hand that when writing out of immediate experience he used less sweeping language. This was not yet the moment of generalization and selective reminiscing but of observation and eager assimilating. Nevertheless there are enough pertinent remarks where the later overall picture announces itself. Goldziher had always been interested in comparisons between the three monotheistic religions. His eye had been sharpened by the situation in Hungary itself. Only a few years before his trip to the Near East the Jewish community to which he himself belonged had been accorded equal rights with the Christian population; the law was passed by the Parliament on November 25, 1867, shortly after the so-called Compromise ("Ausgleich") which granted Hungary complete internal independence within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. 3( 1 But the Hungarian Jews were deeply split between the Orthodox, the "Guardians of the Faith" (Wächter des Glaubens ) who followed the direction indicated by Rabbi Hátam Söfer (= Moses Schreiber, 1762-1839) and his yeshiva at Bratislava, Slovakia 3 1, on one side and the Neolog faction on the other. In between there was a third group, the so-called "Status quo congregationists" who tried to avoid the enervating quarrels going on between both factions and with whom Goldziher seems to have felt most at ease. 3 2 As a child he had witnessed how, in 1858, a Rabbi who belonged to the reform party (the "Neologs") had been forced to give up his office at 2 9 Conrad, ib. 111. Conrad had the opportunity to consult the original which is now preserved at the Jewish Theological Seminary at New York. Patai had rather surmised that the last part had got lost in Budapest at the end of the Second World War (Diary 26). But this seems quite improbable; it is only true for the annotated and interleaved copies of Goldziher's printed works. The bulk of his library had been acquired by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1923. 3 0 Cf. W. Pietsch, Zwischen Reform und Orthodoxie. Der Eintritt des ungarischen Judentums in die moderne Welt, Berlin 1999, 80. 3 1 Until 1918, Slovakia belonged to Hungary. For Hätam Söfer cf. Encyclopaedia Judaica XV 77 ff. ' 2 Tagebuch 22. The best overview of the situation is to be found in Patai, Jews of Hungary (see above, n. 28), 312 ff.; for the part played by German Jewry in this process cf. Pietsch 67 ff. Goldziher's concept of religion as reflected in his Oriental Diary has been highlighted by Conrad in JRAS 1990, 235 ff.; as far as Judaism is concerned, Conrad (like A. Hourani, Islam in European thought, Cambridge 1991, 37) assumes a lasting impact by Abraham Geiger (1810-74) with whom Goldziher had studied in Berlin (cf. his article in I. R. Netton [ed.]. Golden Roads [above, n. 1], 123 ff. and 145). It might be worthwhile to check the papers of the Jewish communal archives with regard to Goldziher in this respect; they are, to my knowledge, still preserved. - Goldziher's patron. Baron József Eötvös, the minister of religions (who was also responsible for the educational system) had done everything to conserve or to reestablish unity among the Hungarian Jews. The official schism occured in 1871, with the agreement of the Hungarian government (Pietsch 80); Eötvös died in the same year, shortly before Goldziher left for his journey. 42
