{{Short description|Czech theologian, orientalist and explorer (1868–1944)}} {{More footnotes needed|date=November 2018}} thumb|right|200px|Alois Musil ("Shaykh Musa"), 1901
'''Alois Musil''' (30 June 1868 – 12 April 1944) was a Czech<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.aloismusil.cz/index.php/english|title=Academic Society of Alois Musil}}</ref> theologian, orientalist, explorer and bilingual Czech and German writer.
==Biography== Musil was the oldest son born in 1868 into an poor farming family in Moravia (then Cisleithanian part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, today Czech Republic). His birthplace of Rychtářov was in an area surrounded by German-speakers, allowing him and his brothers to learn to read and write both German and Czech. He was a second cousin of Robert Musil, an Austrian modernist writer.<ref>Hall, M.G., "The great Austrian writer Robert Musil", ''Virtual Vienna'' [Digital Resource], [http://www.virtualvienna.net/main/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=299&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0 Online:] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130617054722/http://www.virtualvienna.net/main/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=299&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0 |date=2013-06-17 }}.</ref> In the years 1887–1891 he studied Roman Catholic theology at the University of Olomouc, was consecrated as a priest in 1891 and received a doctorate in theology in 1895. In the years 1895–1898 he studied at the Dominican Biblical School in Jerusalem, in 1897-1898 at the Jesuit University of St. Joseph in Beirut, 1899 in London, Cambridge and Berlin.{{citation needed|date=November 2018}}
[[File:Qasr Amra.jpg|thumb|Qusayr 'Amra in Jordan was discovered by Musil and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1985.]] He travelled extensively throughout the Arab world and kept coming back to it until 1917, collecting a huge body of scientific material. Among his discoveries was the 8th-century desert castle of Qusayr 'Amra, now famous for its figurative Islamic paintings. In the process of trying to steal the now-famed Umayyad fresco ''Painting of the Six Kings'' from Qusayr 'Amra, he permanently damaged the painting.<ref>{{cite book |last= Fowden |first= Garth |title= Qusayr 'Amra: Art and the Umayyad Elite in Late Antique Syria |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=YKY9MuRTFQ4C |date= 20 September 2004 |publisher= University of California Press |isbn= 978-0-520-92960-9 |page= 198}}</ref> He later developed a serious lung disease.{{citation needed|date=November 2018}}
Between his trips Musil continued working on his publications and lecturing. In 1902 he became professor of theology at the University of Olomouc, and in 1909, professor of Biblical studies and Arabic at Vienna University. In addition to modern and classical languages, he mastered 35 dialects of Arabic. He was so well acquainted with the Rwala Bedouins, that he was accepted into the tribe as "Sheikh Musa".{{citation needed|date=November 2018}}
During World War I he was sent to the Middle East to eliminate British attempts to instigate a revolution against the Ottoman Empire, thus being an opponent of T. E. Lawrence.{{citation needed|date=November 2018}} In 1917 he journeyed through the Middle East with Archduke Hubert Salvator of Austria; there are suggestions that the mission had a political motive involving Arab Revolt against the Ottoman government.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/200906/from.moravia.to.arabia.htm|title=From Moravia to Arabia|access-date=26 November 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131202223849/http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/200906/from.moravia.to.arabia.htm|archive-date=2013-12-02|url-status=dead}}</ref>
After the war he became a professor at Charles University in Prague (1920), despite opposing voices resenting his close ties{{citation needed|date=December 2019}} with the House of Habsburg. He helped to establish the Oriental Institute of the Academy of Sciences in Prague.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.aloismusil.cz/index.php/alois-musil|title = Alois Musil}}</ref>
In cooperation with the American industrialist Charles Richard Crane he published his works in English (1922–23). In addition to scientific work and popular travel books he published 21 novels for young readers.{{citation needed|date=December 2019}}
Musil worked for Charles University until 1938, but was active until the very end of his life. He died in Otryby due to kidney dysfunction complicated by lung disease.{{citation needed|date=November 2018}}
==Works== {{wikisource|works=or}} Although Musil is best known for his discovery of Qusayr 'Amra, his output was prolific. He wrote more than 50 books (including six illustrated works published by the American Geographical Society and 20 children's books); some 1200 scholarly articles; transcriptions and translations of Bedouin tribal poems and songs; produced thousands of photographs of archaeological sites and Bedouin people and prepared topographic maps and surveys of territories.<ref>Harrigan, P., "From Moravia to Arabia", ''Aramco World'' [Magazine], November–December, 2009, [http://archive.aramcoworld.com/issue/200906/from.moravia.to.arabia.htm Online:]</ref>
*{{cite book|last=Musil|first=Alois|author-link=|editor=J.K. Wright |title=Arabia Deserta - A Topographical Itinerary |series=Oriental Explorations and Studies No. 2, on behalf of the American Geographical Society |publisher=Czech Academy of Sciences and Arts & Charles R. Crane|year=1927|location=New York|pages=|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uva.x030532222&view=1up&seq=9&skin=2021 |language=en|oclc=635356892}} * ''Ḳuṣejr ʻamra und andere Schlösser östlich von Moab: Topographischer Reisebericht'', Wien 1902 * ''Sieben samaritanische Inschriften aus Damaskus'', Wien 1903 * ''Od stvoření do potopy'' (From Creation to the Flood), Prag 1905 * ''Auf den Spuren der Geschichte des Alten Testaments'', 2 Bde., Olmütz 1906/07 * ''Kuseir 'Amra'', 2 Bde., Wien 1907 * {{cite book|last=Musil|first=A.|author-link=Alois Musil|title=Arabia Petraea |translator= |publisher=Alfred Hölder, for the Kaiserliche Akademie der Wissenschaften|volume=1-4 |year=1907|location=Vienna (Wien)|page=|language=de|oclc=465845427}} (with excerpts on Jerusalem and other places in Palestine) * ''Ethnologischer Reisebericht'', Wien 1908 * ''Im nördlichen Hegaz'', Wien 1911 * ''Zur Zeitgeschichte von Arabien'', Leipzig 1918<ref>Original publication of 1918</ref> * ''The Northern Hegaz, a Topographical Itinerary'', American Geographical Society, Oriental Studies and Explorations No: 1, 1926 * ''Northern Negd'', New York 1928 * ''The Manners and Customs of the Rwala Bedouins'', New York 1928 * ''In the Arabian Desert'', arranged for publication by Katherine McGiffort, New York 1930 * ''Krest'anské Církve dnešního orienta'' (The Christian Churches in the present day Orient), Olmütz 1939 * 1910 until 1933 over 1.500 articles, contributions to collected essays, and new paper articles, the most important ones are collected in: Dnešní Orient, 11 Bde., Prag 1934–1941.
==Note== * His image appears on a 21Kc Czech Republic postage stamp
==See also== * Al-Manifa
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * [https://web.archive.org/web/20120801062908/http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/200906/from.moravia.to.arabia.htm Detailed biography of Musil] * [http://www.radio.cz/en/section/czechs/alois-musil-the-czech-lawrence-of-arabia English article on Radio Prague] * [http://www.libri.cz/databaze/orient/search.php?name=Musil Biography, bibliography (in Czech)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210517163645/http://www.libri.cz/databaze/orient/search.php?name=Musil |date=2021-05-17 }} * [http://www.aloismusil.cz Academic Society of Alois Musil (in Czech)] * [http://www.ingema.net/clanek.php?id=401 Details of Musil's discoveries (in Czech)]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Musil, Alois}} Category:1868 births Category:1944 deaths Category:19th-century Czech Roman Catholic priests Category:20th-century Czech Roman Catholic priests Category:Writers from Austria-Hungary Category:Czechoslovak Roman Catholic priests Category:Czech theologians Category:Czech male writers Category:Czech explorers Category:Czech Arabists Category:Czech orientalists Category:Holy Land travellers Category:Explorers of Asia Category:Academic staff of the University of Vienna Category:Czech expatriates in Austria Category:Czech Roman Catholic writers Category:Academic staff of Charles University Category:Palacký University Olomouc alumni Category:People from the Margraviate of Moravia Category:People from Vyškov