Lewis trained in five dead languages before professing Middle Eastern history

Evidence

At one stage I was engaged simultaneously in the study of Latin, Greek, Biblical Hebrew and Classical Arabic—a rather heavy program of dead languages for a mere undergraduate. As a graduate student, I expanded my study of Arabic, and added Persian and Turkish. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 67

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Historians of the Middle East traditionally trained in four to five dead languages
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Historians of the Middle East traditionally trained in four to five dead languages