Arabia e Wahhabiti nella Geografia di Carl Ritter

Carl Ritter's Erdkunde is mainly studied today with regard to its General Introduction (18222) which contains the theoretical principles adopted by the German geographer. Little attention is given however to the effective application that the above mentioned principles should find in some specific sections of the work. The two volumes concerning the Arabian peninsula (1846-47) offer a typical example of Ritter's chiefly historical and man oriented approach to his discipline. Ancient and modern sources on Arabia and its people are thoroughly discussed by the author also in the light of his own religious and political beliefs. A special interest is devoted here to Ritter's outlook on the Wahabees, who were causing in his times a crisis of Islam, right in conjunction with the early European colonization of the Middle-East. [Publisher's text]