Muzułmański Wschód Aleksandra Jabłonowskiego z perspektywy dziewiętnastowiecznych teorii rasowych

Abstract

Aleksander Jabłonowski (1829–1913) was a comprehensively educated historian and ethnographer. In the 1870s he travelled around Muslim East. The article analyses his travel accounts that focus on visited lands, people inhabiting this lands, their culture and religion. What is more, the accounts present the Muslim East in relation to the concept of racial theories, which were, at the time, considered scientific in Europe. Jabłonowski divided the locals into Aryans, Semites and Turanians. According to him, it was the racial origin that determined their lifestyle, physical and moral features, and allowed valuing people. Even though Jabłonowski presented a lot of ethnographic information about the people of the Muslim East, he remained the representative of the era he lived in, and he could not think outside the box of Eurocentric view of the world. Still, his accounts are a significant testimony of those days’ perceiving ethnical and civilization matters.