Marife Turkish Journal of Religious Studies

Abstract

In this article, depending upon his Oriental Diary and Tagebuch I have
brought out Goldziher's initial experience of the Muslim world, since this experience
had great impact upon developing his own comprehensive methodology in Islamic
studies. His Near east study tour, which he describes as "the happiest years of my
life" was quite important not only his scholarly approach but also his political functions.
Taking these informations into consideration, I have realised his "emotional"
and "logical" aspects, as well as his idea concerning the evolution of religions. In
his travel, which contains visiting Budapest , Istanbul , Damascus and Cairo , he
met Tahir al-Jazairi and Jamaleddin al-Afganî who were engaged with resurgence
and independence movements and then they became his close friends. On the
other hand, in the Islamic world Goldziher became the focus of great interest in his
early days whereas in the West, he became famous after gaining enormous success
in oriental studies. Therefore, in this article, I have suggested that Goldziher can be
understood, criticised, and approved properly by only taking him into consideration
as a whole