Abstract:

Napoleon Bonaparte's invasion in 1798 made Egypt one of the themes of orientalism and sparked curiosity and travels towards the "Land of the Pyramids" in Europe. 27 years after Bonaparte, a young Englishman Edward William Lane (1801-1876) arrived in Alexandria in July 1825 after a long cruise. He preferred to live among ordinary Egyptians in Cairo. Edward William Lane wrote his works as a result of his three trips to Egypt at different times. Traveling through much of ancient and modern Egypt Lane immersed himself in a contemporary Egyptian lifestyle and described it vividly. He recorded his observations, beliefs, languages, customs and traditions of the people in his works such as Description of Egypt, An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptian, Thousand and One Nights, Selections from Kur’ân and also Arabic-English Lexicon. During his first visit to Egypt, while working on Ancient Egypt, in time he was interested in Arabic and culture of the contemporary Egyptians, their daily lives and customs. At this point, the specialty of Lane's works as a orientalist was to explain Egypt and Egyptians with a “scientific” eye. This article will examine Edward William Lane's place in Egyptian studies in various dimensions as an Orientalist.