EN
Silvestre de Sacy (1758–1838), a pioneer of Eastern Studies in Europe, supplied the European reader with many fundamental works about the Orient, in addition to translations, which are often still valid today. It was he who studied the Rosetta stone and interpreted the correspondence of Timur with the King of France, Charles VI. His accomplishments opened the mysterious and alluring Orient for Europe long before the publication of Orientalism (1978), the widely discussed book by Edward W. Said. From our present perspective, the impact of the Orient on the culture of Europe is very obvious. Hence the interest in this issue among the authors of papers contained in this issue of Perspectives on Culture, most of whom refer to the main theme, The Orient: Now and Then.