Jan Grzegorzewski – Visionary Orientalist or „Dreamer and Dilettante”?
Jan Grzegorzewski – Visionary Orientalist or „Dreamer and Dilettante”?

Summary/Abstract: 17 November 2022 marks the centenary of the death of Jan Grzegorzewski – Orientalist, Slavist, publicist and social activist. The aim of this article is to highlight this figure and to show his activity in various areas of social and scientific life, especially his contribution to Polish Oriental studies. This somewhat forgotten but extremely interesting and colourful, although somewhat controversial, figure has still not received the comprehensive biography he fully deserves. Thanks to his extraordinary determination and commitment to his activities, Jan Grzegorzewski initiated the establishing of the first Polish scientific journal of Oriental studies – Rocznik Orientalistyczny for which he also obtained funds. The first part of the first volume of Rocznik, covering the years 1914-1915, was published in 1915 in Cracow, and the second part (for the years 1916-1918) only in 1918. There is also no doubt that with his activities, both academic and journalistic, Jan Grzegorzewski contributed to the establishment of the first Polish Oriental studies in Poland, which took place in 1919 at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow. Analysing some of Grzegorzewski’s achievements from today’s perspective, one can afford to say that with the issues presented in his publications, he undoubtedly inspired many later orientalists to set new research directions.

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