Reiske devoted his life to a field that would not reward him

Evidence

In 1738 he moved to Leiden. It was a mistake: ‘This served me an ill turn. Dearly, too dearly have I had to pay for my folly! I became a martyr for Arabic literature. Oh if my burning thirst of those days for this literature, which only made me unhappy coming as it did too early, at a time when nobody needed it and still less appreciated it enough to reward or encourage it, oh if it could find its way into a soul which could some day bring life to happier times! If that day ever comes (though there is hardly room for hope) then Arabic literature will be better appreciated and studied with greater application than it is now.’ — Robert Irwin, For Lust of Knowing, 226

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: A haunting meditation on working years ahead of one’s time — scholarship pursued at personal cost for work nobody yet needs, a recurring predicament worth sitting with.