Alois Musil, the Czech Old Testament scholar, priest, topographer and explorer of the unexplored Arabic lands of the Near East before World War I left the scholarly world an immense wealth of information about the Biblical, historical, ethnographical, and archaeological sites he visited, described, noted, and commented on during the years ca. 1896 to 1917. During that time he served as a valuable mediator to the Central Powers (Mittel-Mächte) and the Ottoman Empire seeking to make peace between rival Arab tribes in Arabia. Since he knew the sheikhs of all tribes, and since he was acknowledged by the tribe of the Rualla as sheikh Musa, he was successful in making peace between the tribes of the Rualla, Ibn Rashid, and Ibn Saud. In this way he raised approximately 30,000 camel riders to aid the Ottoman Empire in the fight against the British army in Arabia. Initially his efforts were successful, however due to the shortsightedness of the Ottoman Empire, the British and French military and policy finally triumphed over the tribal confederacies by turning them away from Constantinople. The various episodes of Alois Musil’s sojourn into the Arabian desert, as well as his negotiations with the tribes from November/December 1914 until the middle of April 1915, are described and commented on in this article.
Studie se zabývá problematickými počátky zakládání Orientálního ústavu ve dvacátých letech 20. století a rolemi Aloise Musila a Zdeňka Fafla v tomto procesu. Alois Musil, arabista, teologa a cestovatel, působil po 1. světové válce na pražské české univerzitě a stál u zrodu myšlenky založení Orientálního ústavu na základě svých zkušeností s podobnými institucemi působícími ve Vídni. Jeho návrh na vědeckou instituci, která by propojila orientalistický výzkum zemí Asie a Afriky s potřebou průzkumu rázu hospodářského a s nutností navázání kulturních i hospodářských styků Československa s těmito zeměmi, jej propojil se skupinou národohospodářů z Ústavu pro zahraniční obchod. Zdeněk Fafl, právník, úředník Ústavu pro zahraniční obchod, později generální tajemník Pražské obchodní a živnostenské komory a ředitel Československého exportního ústavu, získal pro myšlenku Orientálního ústavu Rudolfa Hotowetze, ředitele Ústavu pro zahraniční obchod. Rudolf Hotowetz dokázal získat pro Orientální ústav 4 mil. Kč jako jeho základní jmění i peníze na vlastní budovu, Alois Musil se zasloužil především o udržení původního návrhu na zaměření ústavu a Zdeněk Fafl se podílel především na prosazení tohoto návrhu v meziministerských poradách. Edice korespondence Aloise Musila a Zdeňka Fafla z let 1920-1928, která je představena v druhé části této studie, je jedním z klíčových pramenů, jenž ukazuje Musilovo napojení na československé hospodářské a politické kruhy, bez jejichž podpory by Orientální ústav, plánovaný s tak širokým odborným záběrem, nikdy nemohl vzniknout., This study deals with the issues surrounding the origins of the establishment of the Oriental Institute in the 1920s and the roles played by Alois Musil and Zdeněk Fafl in this process. Alois Musil, Arabist, theologist and traveller, worked at the Czech University in Prague after the First World War. He was the man behind the idea of establishing an Oriental Institute based on his experience with similar institutes in Vienna. His plan for a scholarly institute that combined Orientalist research into the lands of Asia and Africa with the need for research of an economic nature and the requirement for forging cultural and economic ties between Czechoslovakia and these countries brought him together with a group of national economists from the Foreign Trade Institute. Zdeněk Fafl, lawyer, Institute of Foreign Trade official, subsequently General Secretary of the Prague Chamber of Commerce and Trade and Director of the Czechoslovak Export Institute won over Rudolf Hotowetz, Director of the Foreign Trade Institute, to the idea of an Oriental Institute. Rudolf Hotowetz managed to obtain four million crowns for the Oriental Institute's basic capital, as well as money for the premises themselves, while Alois Musil primarily played an important role in adhering to the original plan for the institute's orientation and Zdeněk Fafl primarily took part in promoting this plan at interministerial meetings. The edition of correspondence between Alois Musil and Zdeněk Fafl from 1920 to 1928, which is presented in the second part of this study, is one of the key sources showing Musil's involvement in Czechoslovak economic and political circles, without whose support the Oriental Institute, conceived on such a broad specialist basis, could never have been established. Translated by Melvyn Clarke, and Překlad resumé: Melvyn Clarke