Leiden dominated European Oriental studies for two centuries
Evidence
The University of Leiden, founded in 1575 in the immediate aftermath of the Dutch Revolt against Spain, was the centre of Dutch Orientalism and of academic life more generally. Indeed, it was the leading Protestant university in Europe and the place swarmed with British, German and French Huguenot students. In its early years the university drew heavily on French scholarship and Joseph Scaliger was only the grandest of various French scholars whom it recruited. Despite Leiden’s vital intellectual life and numerous bookshops, the crusty Scaliger described the place as ‘a swamp within a swamp’. Leiden’s Chair of Arabic was established in 1600 and for two centuries thereafter Leiden was to dominate Oriental studies. — Robert Irwin, For Lust of Knowing, 176