Scientific racism in Germany/Arthur de Gobineau/An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races/Book 2

Book 2 of Arthur de Gobineau's work An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races is subtitled "Ancient Civilization Spreading from Central Asia to the Southwest". In it, Gobineau establishes his basic pattern through detailed portrayal of several "secondary races" and early civilizations. He constructs three "secondary races": Blacks (oldest, from Asia, incapable of civilization, emotional-materialistic), Yellows (from America, materialistic), and Whites (from Central Asia, superior from the beginning through intelligence and religion). The Hamites—first white conquerors who migrated from Central Asia before 5000 BCE—become the paradigmatic example: they subjugated black peoples, mixed with them, and thereby degenerated into "mulattoes," lost their language, and became enslaved. The Semites follow as the second white wave with better but insufficient racial mixing. Assyria illustrates the mechanism of continuous "regeneration" through repeated invasions of white northern peoples. Gobineau treats Egypt particularly extensively: "Aryan" conquerors from the Indus created civilization (pyramids, art, writing), but mixture with Blacks led from the 2nd Dynasty onward to stagnation, artistic rigidity, and finally decline. These chapters establish the core pattern for all subsequent civilizations—Aryan conquest, admixture, decline. They "prove" through multiple historical examples that civilization arises exclusively through white blood, but without continuous influx of white blood inevitably decays. At the same time, Gobineau justifies slavery and despotism as racially determined necessities and develops his ambivalent art theory (art requires black sensuality plus white intellect). These accounts prepare for the subsequent racial hierarchy Persians-Greeks-Romans-Germans. Content of Book 2 Emergence of the three "secondary races" this sectionGobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 2-12 August Friedrich PottAugust Friedrich Pott Verwandtschaftliches Verhältniss der Sprachen vom Kaffer- und Kongo-Stamme untereinander 1848 Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 2 5-25, 129-158 https://www.menalib.de/vifa/menadoc/ Heinrich EwaldHeinrich Ewald 1844 Ueber die Saho-Sprache in Aethiopien Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes 5 410-424 http://www.sahoarchive.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/EWALD_Ueber-die-Saho-Sprache-in-Aethiopien..pdfHeinrich Ewald 1847 Ueber die Völker und Sprachen südlich von Aethiopien Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 1 44-56 https://www.menalib.de/vifa/menadoc/Heinrich Ewald 1851 Geschichte des Volkes Israel bis Christus 1 Göttingen Dieterichsche Buchhandlung 2 https://archive.org/details/geschichtedesvol01ewal/page/n7/mode/2up Johann Ludwig KrapfJohann Ludwig Krapf 1849 Von der afrikanischen Ostküste Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft 3 2/3 310-321 43364582 Carl RitterCarl Ritter 1850 Die Erdkunde 19 volumes. Christian LassenChristian Lassen 1847 Indische Altertumskunde Bonn 2 volumes. Engelbert KaempferEngelbert Kaempfer The History of Japan 1727 https://archive.org/details/historyjapantog05kaemgoog Posthumous English-language publication of a previously unpublished manuscript. Mountstuart ElphinstoneMountstuart Elphinstone 1819 An account of the kingdom of Caubul, and its dependencies in Persia, Tartary, and India London Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, and J. Murry 493 https://archive.org/details/anaccountkingdo01unkngoog/page/n1/mode/1up Alexander von HumboldtAlexander von Humboldt 1811 Essai politique sur le royaume de la Nouvelle-Espagne 3 Paris F. Schoell https://archive.org/details/essaipolitiquesu03humb German original first published in 1809.Alexander von Humboldt 1843 Asie centrale, recherches sur les chaînes des montagnes et la climotologie comparée 1 Paris Gide https://www.google.com/books/edition/Asie_centrale/SsRCAAAAYAAJ AristeasAristeas Arimaspeia (lost) HerodotusHerodotus Histories (around 430 BC) William Hickley PrescottWilliam Hickley Prescott 1843 History of the Conquest of Mexico 3 Philadelphia J. B. Lippincott https://archive.org/details/historyofconques0000unse_k7v1 The black race Gobineau describes the Black race as the oldest known to historians. He identifies Asia as the place of origin of black people, from where, via the Arabian Peninsula, they completely and exclusively occupied Africa, but also spread in other directions, such as South Asia, and even to China and Japan, where they are still present in small numbers in remote regions today.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 2 He writes of the early black peoples that they were extremely fertile, but displayed no sociability or produced any recognizable civilization. He characterizes them as "predators" with the physical appearance of apes and customs that were extremely cruel and brutal, practicing cannibalism and wars of annihilation.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 3f In a later chapter of Book 1, he characterizes black people as emotionally and sensually driven and materialistic: No doubt, it is that striking predilection for things of the imagination, that fierce passion for everything that could activate the most easily inflamed aspects of the mind, that reverence for everything that appeals to the senses, and finally, a devotion to a materialism that, although embellished, dressed up, and refined, was all the more perfect for it. Arthur de Gobineau Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Second volume, 1902, p. 165 He is convinced that blacks are fundamentally incapable of civilization and that when they invade civilizations created by Whites and interbreed with the white leadership, they corrupt that civilization.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 151, 164 The yellow race The next secondary race noted by historians, according to Gobineau, was the yellow peoples, who originated on the American continent. From there, they spread along the shores of the Atlantic to Europe, and along the shores of the Pacific to Asia, where they merged with black peoples in Southeast Asia to form the vast tertiary race of the Malays.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 4 From archaeological finds of yellow peoples in Scandinavia and the British Isles, Gobinau concludes that they possessed little more spirit and intelligence than the black peoples of the South and were similarly violent. In those parts of the world where the original yellow-black racial mixing has been preserved, this barbarism has also persisted to this day.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 5 The white race For Gobineau, the Flood and the fact that it was survived only by Noah's family—namely, his three sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth—is a historical fact. However, unlike some of his contemporaries, he assumes that the biblical narrative refers specifically to whe white race, while the author(s) ignored other races they despised. He considers the identification of the Hamites with the black peoples to be unsubstantiated speculation.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 9 Gobineau suggests that the origin of the white race lies in the high plateaus of Central Asia (presumably Tibet).Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 6, 8 He assumes that the white peoples—like the black and yellow peoples—were quite heterogeneous in their physical appearance from an early stage. However, from linguistic sources he concludes that they differ from the aforementioned in that they showed signs of high intelligence, sophistication, and superiority from the very beginning, that they had religion and history, lived communally in large villages, did not practice agriculture but kept cattle and horses, mastered the art of weaving, and used wagons in their military conquests.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 8-10, 12 The Hamites this sectionGobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 14f The Bible Henry Creswicke RawlinsonThe Collection of Rawlinson Papers at the Royal Asiatic Society Background: Ham and Canaan In Genesis 9:20–27, it is told that Ham committed a (not accurately depicted) outrage against his father Noah, so monstrous that Ham's son Canaan and his descendants were cursed for it. Racist theorists later used this passage to justify the enslavement of black people. Fact check: The Hamites Up to the mid-19th century, ethnologists and other scholars repeatedly traced all of humanity back to Noah’s three sons. A late form of this idea was the "Hamitic hypothesis," according to which all more highly developed cultures of Africa were not created by the truly black populations but by a non-black or only partially black "Hamitic people." Until the second half of the 20th century, this hypothesis supported colonial ideologies by systematically attributing African achievements to non-African influences. Its initiator is considered to be Hiob Ludolf; J.C. Prichard and K.R. Lepsius were the ones who transformed the hypothesis into an explicitly ethnic-racial doctrine. Gobineau's contribution to this discourse consisted in radically reinterpreting the Hamites: for him, they were pure white Aryan conquerors, not an African people. On this redefinition he built his theory of degeneration, according to which a small white elite founds a civilization, mixes with the black indigenous population, and thereby declines. To give this a religious legitimation, he rereads the Bible and turns the "Curse of Canaan" into an allegory for the inevitable deterioration caused by racial mixing. At the same time, for him the Hamites mark the beginning of history as the first white expansion out of Central Asia and as a pattern he applies to all later cultures. For Gobineau, the Hamites mark the beginning of human history; before them, he claims, only barbarism existed. His account of the Hamites provides the basic model for his entire theory of civilization: an originally white conquering group founds a culture, mixes with the black indigenous population, and then declines. Methodologically, the chapter exemplifies his approach of reading religious and archaeological traditions as encoded racial history. He also argues that early mixed populations were stronger than modern ones because pure racial types still existed, reinforcing his idea of long-term human degeneration. He further uses the Hamites to justify slavery and despotism, arguing that ancient Near Eastern despotism resulted not from cultural factors but from racial mixture with blacks, whom he portrays as inherently incapable of civilization. Finally, the Hamites serve as the starting point of his universal history—the first white expansion and the first supposed proof that racial mixture leads inevitably to decline, a pattern he extends to all civilizations. One of the first steps Gobineau takes in this chapter is to make sure that the biblical narrative is aligned with his racial doctrine. Demonstrating that religious texts must be interpreted in racial terms is one of the aims he pursues in his Essay. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he emphatically denies that the Hamites, the descendants of the biblical Ham, were black from the outset.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 13f He describes them as a subset of the white people, and as the first group among the White who left their original settlement area in Central Asia and began to conquer further territories. He dates this to no later than 5000 AD.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 12f He cites the push factor for this migration as the retreat from another white people migrating within the original settlement area, who in turn had to avoid a yellow people coming from the north.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 12 They crossed the Turan and spread from there throughout the Middle East, in the Mediterranean, and along the Arabian coasts to East Africa.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 14f, 22, 25 Fact check: Hamitic languages The term "Hamitic languages," inspired by the biblical Table of Nations, referred to, among others, the Ancient Egyptian, Berber, Chadic, and Cushitic languages. The term was first used by Johann Ludwig Krapf in 1850, and subsequently elaborated by other linguists, but was debunked as useless by Diedrich Westermann and August Klingenheben in the 1920s and 1930s. Gobineau cites hideous, barbaric, and "incurably savage" barbaric black peoples as adversaries whom the Hamites had to face and to fight during their migration.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 15f The Hamites took them as slaves and were only able to rule them through oppression and "arrogant, unrestrained despotism." According to Gobineau, the Hamites' degeneration and loss of superiority began with their mixing their blood with that of the original black population of their new settlement area.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 16, 18 "Their mulatto descendants, who could still bear their name as an honorary title, gradually became an entirely black people." As a result of this physical change, the Hamites were then "destined to be in servitude to the descendants of Noah, who were more agreeable to God." The separation of the Hamites from the other white peoples was completed when they allowed their language to degenerate by mixing it with that of the Blacks, which led to the emergence of the Hamitic languages.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 17 Gobineau attributes to black people a tendency to declare white people to be gods upon first coming into contact with them.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 60f, 121f In his opinion, the Hamites willingly allowed themselves to be worshipped. As the willingness to worship the rulers as gods diminished with increasing racial mixing, the rule of the "gods" was replaced by the rule of a (mulatto) priestly caste. In a third phase, power then fell to the warlords who sooner or later became kings. This is a pattern that Gobineau believes he finds in all the societies he discusses from this point on in Book 2, especially in Assyria, Tyre, and Egypt.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 61, 119 When a morally superior group of people rules over an inferior group, Gobineau writes in a later chapter, despotism is "the only possible form of government," and priestly power, "even when carried to extremes [...] always has the most salutary effects, because in any case it is at least more mixed with intelligence."Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 122 The Semites this sectionGobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 25-47 Franz Karl MoversFranz Klar Movers 1841 Die Phönizier 2 Bonn E. Weber https://archive.org/details/diephnizier00unkngoog Herodotus Barthold Georg NiebuhrBarthold Georg (1811-1832) Niebuhr Römische Geschichte Berlin Realschulbuchhandlung https://archive.org/details/rmischegeschich08niebgoog 3 volumes. The Bible Henry Creswicke RawlinsonThe Collection of Rawlinson Papers at the Royal Asiatic Society John Gardner WilkinsonJohn Gardner (1837–1841) Wilkinson Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians J. Murray London https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001968950 6 volumes. August Friedrich Pott Christian Lassen Heinrich Ewald Wilhelm GeseniusWilhelm Gesenius 1813 Hebräische Grammatik Halle Rengersche Buchhandlung https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hw5hon&seq=7 Silvestre de SacySylvestre de Sacy 1810 Grammaire arabe Paris Imprimerie Impériale https://archive.org/details/de-sacy-grammaire-arabe-1810-tomes-1-2/De%20Sacy%2C%20Grammaire%20arabe%20%281810%2C%20Tome%201%29/page/n2/mode/1up 2 volumes. Émile Prisse d'Avennes Fact check: The Semites The idea that "the Semites" constitute an ethnic or even biological community is inspired by the Table of Nations in the Bible; the descendants of Shem are designated there genealogically as "Semites." When August Ludwig Schlözer coined the term "Semitic languages" in 1781, he attempted to redefine the term linguistically and to shed its biblical connotations. In large parts of the scholarly world, however, the old idea that the Semites constitute an ethnic group continued to be cultivated undisturbed. Gobineau's "innovation" in this discourse consisted in systematically integrating the Semites into a biologically deterministic racial model, to which he then added the thesis of inevitable degeneration through racial mixture. He understood the Semites as an already "degenerate" white race, resulting from admixture with black "Hamites." Ernest Renan, who drew from the same discursive reservoir as Gobineau—whether he read Gobineau's work remains uncertain—published his "Histoire générale et système comparé des langues sémitiques" in 1855, in which he designated the Semites as a "race." The obsolescence of the Semitic thesis was demonstrated over an extended period in the 20th century by various scholars in several stages. Read: Edward Said (Orientalism, 1978), Maurice Olender (Les Langues du Paradis: Aryens et Sémites – un couple providentiel, 1989) Gobineau portrays the Semites as originally white tribes from the Armenian Highlands who, after moving southward, mixed with Hamitic and later black populations. From this mixture, significant civilizations emerged, but also moral decline. He interprets this through his racist theory of degeneration, which attributes cultural achievements to "white blood" and ascribes "corruption" to racial mixing. Linguistically, he erroneously claims that Semitic languages are structurally "deficient" mixed languages formed from Indo-European and African idioms; in reality, they constitute an independent, well-defined Afroasiatic language family with consistent grammar, which refutes his construction. According to Gobineau, the Semites – the second subset of white peoples that he discusses in his Essay – are descendants of Noah's son Shem, moved westward from their original settlement center in Central Asia to the Caucasus.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 22 Around 2000 BC they descended from there and spread, in the footsteps of the Hamites, to the Persian Gulf, Yemen, Asia Minor, and the Mediterranean.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 22f, 34 These regions were by now populated by Black Hamites, with whom the Semites began to interbreed. It is important to Gobineau to point out that the result of this interbreeding was superior to that produced by the Hamites through their union with the black race, due to the higher proportion of white blood.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 24-26 This explains, to him, why wherever the Semites united with the Black Hamites, "luxuriant communities" and "flourishing cities" emerged; specifically Assyria he praises as the "fount of civilization."Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 25f The Semitic-Black-Hamitic mixed people created monumental buildings such as the Egyptian pyramids, monumental sculptures of images and writing, lavish domestic furnishings, and luxurious consumer goods.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 27-29 Gobineau also sees signs of degeneration among this people caused by the mixing with inferior blood, such as "degrading diseases," emanationism spawned by superstition, human sacrifice as homage to the deity, prostitution, moral decay, and neglect of martial courage and martial virtues.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 30-34, 42 Gobineau also addresses the situation on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean, i.e., in Canaan, which was particularly important for Assyria as a market but politically difficult to control, but de facto dominance was still achieved here through peaceful infiltration, for example, through the migration of Assyrian workers and sailors to Canaan.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 36f Gobineau argues that the biblical narrative about Terah and his son Abraham (both are direct descendants of Shem) can be read precisely in this context.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 37-41 He describes the Semitic migration to the Middle East and the Mediterranean as a trickle of flow, with a supply from the original settlement area in Central Asia that seems to have been inexhaustible over a long period. According to Gobineau, however, this movement was forcibly terminated when other white peoples in Central Asia came under migratory pressure and, in turn, displaced the Semites from their ancestral mountain valleys and forced them to migrate south.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 44 Fact check: Semitic languages The Semitic languages form a branch of the Afroasiatic language family, which is 6,000–8,000 years old and includes, in addition to Semitic, Egyptian, Berber, Cushitic, Omotic, and Chadic. The Semitic languages include Akkadian, Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, Ethiopic, and others. They constitute a clearly genetically related language family with a reconstructable proto-language (Proto-Semitic) and are not the result of language mixing. Gobineau's central misconception concerns the grammar. The Semitic verbal system is by no means deficient but highly structured: the triconsonantal roots allow a systematic and productive derivational system that, in languages such as Arabic, comprises up to fifteen distinct verbal stems. What Gobineau misinterprets as "gaps"—for example, aspectual rather than temporal categories—is simply a fully functional grammatical organization that differs from Indo-European patterns. Also fundamentally wrong is Gobineau’s equation of linguistic structure with biological ancestry. Languages are transmitted culturally, not genetically. Read: Robert Hetzron (ed., The Semitic languages, 1997), Aaron D. Rubin (A Brief Introduction to the Semitic Languages, 2010) Gobineau assumes that the Semites, like the Hamites, spoke an Indo-European language in their original Central Asian homeland, and that the Semitic languages ​​emerged only from their contact with the Black Hamites, whose languages in turn emerged from a fusion of their original Indo-European language with the languages ​​of the black natives. Unlike today's linguists, who see three completely separate language families here, the Semitic languages ​​seem to him to be strongly related to "the" African languages, but clearly also contain elements of Indo-European languages. He attributes the characteristics of the Semitic languages to the fact that the Indo-European-speaking Semites tried to adopt the African languages, but encountered problems because their own language structures conflicted with those of the African languages; as a result of this friction, languages emerged that adopted African forms, but in an incomplete way.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 45-48, 81 He sees the greatest friction losses in Aramaic, followed by Hebrew, and finally Arabic.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 81f He also sees Semitic features in some languages ​​that are by no means classified as Semitic today, such as Old Azerbaijani, Afar, Saho, Somali, Setswana, and even Swahili.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 49f Based on his linguistic analyses and his recognition of the biblical narrative, Gobineau assumes that the Semites, after settling in the new territories, interbred with the existing population to a slightly lesser extent than had been the case with the Hamites, who had merged intensively with the indigenous black population. This judgment applies especially to the "Hebrews", whereas the Arabs interbred to a much greater extent.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 51, 54 Gobineau explains the superiority of the Semites over the Black Hamites, whose settlement areas they soon completely dominated, with their relatively high ethnic purity; however, this purity was not high enough to make the Semites superior to the even purer white (Aryan) peoples, who would later challenge them.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 53 The Phoenicians this sectionGobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 56 Heinrich Ewald Wilhelm GeseniusWilhelm Gesenius 1815 Geschichte der hebräischen Sprache und Schrift Leipzig Friedrich Christian Wilhelm Vogel https://archive.org/details/geschichtederheb00geseuoft Franz Karl Movers Christian Lassen James Cowles PrichardJames Cowles Prichard 1843 Natural History of Man London H. Baillière https://archive.org/details/naturalhistorym00norrgoog The Bible StraboStrabo (first century BC or early first century AD) Geographica https://archive.org/details/Strabo08Geography17AndIndex/Strabo%2001%20Geography%201-2/ Fact check: The Phoenicians The Phoenicians were a Semitic-speaking group of closely related city-states on the Levantine coast (in today's Lebanon, ca. 2500–65 BCE) who became influential through seafaring trade, skilled crafts (especially purple-dye production), the founding of colonies across the Mediterranean (including Carthage, ca. 814 BCE), and the invention and spread of the Phoenician script, the precursor of the alphabet. In his account of the Phoenicians—which he also calls "Canaanites" in biblical fashion—Gobineau relies heavily on Movers. He interprets the Phoenicians as an originally Hamitic trading people whose theocratic order supposedly collapsed through progressive "racial mixing." In his narrative, their political system evolves from priestly to aristocratic and finally to democratic rule, which, due to new waves of immigration, allegedly ends inevitably in chaos. The flight of the nobles to Carthage represents for him the last attempt to escape the anarchy of Tyre. Thus the example of the Phoenicians is meant to demonstrate that a society "weakened" by mixture necessarily collapses under democratic forces. In reality, Gobineau ignores all linguistic and archaeological evidence: the Phoenicians were a Levantine, Semitic-speaking population, and their political developments had nothing to do with "racial degeneration." Read: Glenn E. Markoe (Phoenicians, 2000), Sabatino Moscati (The Phoenicians, 2001) thumb|The Middle East, including Phoenicia, around 700 BC (modern depiction) Gobineau calls Phoenician Canaan one of the "most excellent regions" of the Hamitic civilization (in this case, referring to the Phoenicians) due to its flourishing trade and commodity production.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 56 However, he immediately qualifies his praise of the Phoenicians by remarking that "fruitful trade" is by no means an indicator of a people's vitality, and that the Phoenicians were, in fact, politically dominated first by Assyria and then by Egypt.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 56f While they ruthlessly exploited their defenseless European and African trading partners, they were still dependent on the markets of their two powerful neighbors.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 57f The Canaaties worshipped Melqart and Baal and ruled despotically inland through a priestly dynasty.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 61 After the arrival of the Semites, the Phoenicians initially did not recognize them as rulers, despite their relative racial superiority. Gobineau emphasizes, however, that the Semites who migrated to Canaan were already heterogeneous in terms of blood. Therefore, the Semites subjugated the Canaanites militarily and, together with them, introduced a strict absolute monarchy in which the highest offices were held by shophets.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 62-66 Gobineau then moves on to his description of the decline of Phoenician prosperity, the causes of which he sees primarily in the fact that the country, offering job opportunities, attracted many migrants, which led to severe intermingling of blood and political anarchy.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 67, 69 He describes the 820s BC as the turning point in this development, when Queen Dido, who had fled from her residence in Tyre, founded Carthage.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 70-72 While Carthage rose rapidly from then on, Tyre declined after the emigration of its nobles, became the "horror of all Canaan" due to its anarchic conditions, and fell under the rule of foreign peoples (first the Assyrians, then the Persians, then the Macedonians).Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 73f In a sort of digression, Gobineau examines in detail why the Phoenician colonies—unlike, for example, the Greek ones—showed so little desire for autonomy from their metropolises located in Canaan. He sees the reasons for this in the fact that they believed they were dependent on their protection, that they were under strong pressure to keep away from the hostile natives who surrounded them, and that they could only reach their important markets (Babylon, Nineveh, Egypt) via the ports of Canaan.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 74-78 The Assyrians this sectionGobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 82-89 Félicien de SaulcyLouis Félicien de Saulcy 1849 Recherches Analytiques sur les Inscriptions Cunéiformes du Système Médique Journal Asiatique. Série IV 14 Paris 93ff Continued in Volume 15, 1850, pp 397ff. Julius KlaprothJulius Klaproth 1823 Asia polyglotta Paris https://archive.org/details/asiapolyglotta01klapgoog Emil Rödiger/August Friedrich PottEmil Rödiger August Friedrich Pott 1840 Kurdische Studien Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes 3 1-63 Continued in 4, 1842, pp. 1–42; 5, 1844, pp. 57–83; 7, 1850, pp. 91–167. Franz Karl Movers Heinrich Ewald Christian Lassen Henry Creswicke Rawlinson Fact check: Assyria When Gobineau wrote his Essay, Western scholars possessed only fragmentary knowledge of Mesopotamian history, derived mainly from the Bible, Herodotus, and limited cuneiform texts and early excavations. They were familiar with later periods—Old Babylonian and Old Assyrian, the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian empires, and subsequent Persian, Hellenistic, and Islamic eras—but not with the deeper foundations of Mesopotamian civilization. The Assyrians were a Semitic-speaking people of northern Mesopotamia whose principal cities—Assur, later Niniveh—lay along the upper Tigris. They emerged as a distinct power in the early second millennium BCE and dominated the Near East militarily between the 9th and 7th centuries BCE, when their empire collapsed in 612 BCE. What mid-19th-century scholars did not yet understand was that Assyrian culture rested on much older foundations laid by the non-Semitic Sumerians and Semitic Akkadians. Contrary to Gobineau's depiction, Assyrian civilization was primarily an indigenous development. Although conquests occurred—by Guti, Kassites, and later Medes and Persians—these were intermittent, not cyclical, and incoming groups typically adopted local culture rather than "regenerating" it. The Medes and Persians, for instance, did not revitalize Assyria but ended it. Gobineau's portrayal of consistent Assyrian dominance is also misleading: Babylon was often more powerful, and Assyrian supremacy emerged relatively late. The achievements of Mesopotamian civilization—writing, mathematics, astronomy, law, urbanism—resulted from cultural evolution, economic complexity, and geographic advantages like irrigation, not from "racial mixing." Read: Amélie Kuhrt (The Ancient Near East, 1995), Marc Van De Mieroop (A History of the Ancient Near East, 2015) Background: Why Assyria, and not other Mesopotamian high cultures? Gobineau's failure to distinguish clearly between Assyrians, Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians, and other Mesopotamian peoples stemmed partly from the fact that the Assyrian example, given its relatively northern geographical location, best suited his argument. However, it also reflected the state of scholarship in the mid-nineteenth century, when large portions of Mesopotamian history remained poorly understood. At this time, for instance, European scholarship had not yet recognized the Sumerians as a distinct people. The Sumerians were the civilization that emerged in southern Mesopotamia beginning around 3500 BCE and created humanity's first complex society, with innovations including writing, cities, sophisticated administration, and advanced technologies. The Sumerians fundamentally contradicted Gobineau's theses: they lived in the deep south, not the north, which undermined his geographical hierarchy ("the more northern, the more superior"). Their language was neither Semitic nor Indo-European but rather a linguistic isolate—they fit into none of his "racial" categories. Moreover, they were the original creators of civilization, not the product of northern invasions. They invented writing, mathematics, legal codes, and urban planning independently, before any purported "white" conquerors ever arrived. Acknowledging the Sumerians would have meant admitting that a non-Indo-European, non-"white" population laid the foundations of all Mesopotamian culture—which would have demolished Gobineau's entire racial theory. Likewise, due to their settlement area being located further south, the Babylonians were also less suitable for Gobineau's argumentation than the Assyrians. Read: Samuel Noah Kramer (Twenty-Five Firsts, 1956; The Sumerians, 1963), Harriet Crawford (Sumer and the Sumerians, 1991) thumb|Assyria at its greatest extent (map from 1906) Gobineau interprets Assyrian history as a paradigmatic illustration of his core thesis that civilization arises from, and is sustained by, the infusion of "white blood," only to decline again through mixture and degeneration. In Assyria he perceives an endless cycle of regeneration and decay: northern conquerors repeatedly introduced "fresh white blood" and founded new, vigorous dynasties, but within a few generations they "sank" into the local Hamitic-Semitic population and, through mixing, degenerated. Their vitality ebbed until the next invasion renewed the cycle. This perpetual mechanism—northern incursion, florescence through "racial reinforcement," mixture, decline, renewed invasion—constituted, in his view, the fundamental principle of Assyrian dominance. The other peoples of the region—Phoenicians, Hebrews, Arabs—were, he claims, mere imitators; Assyria controlled the commerce, ideas, and political order of the Near East. With the various rulers of Mesopotamia ("Assyrians"), Gobineau, in the second book of his essay, addresses for the first time one of the ten peoples whom he had previously judged to form "complete societies," an expression by which he means "high culture" and "civilization".Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Erster Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 285-289 He introduces them as the "tribe sprung from Ham and Shem" that was superior to all others:Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 81 Assyria ruled everything undisputedly. Arthur de Gobineau Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Second volume, 1902, p. 81 Based on Aramaic, Old Armenian, Median, Avestan, and Pahlavi, Gobineau observed that the degree to which Indo-European languages lost their purity and "Semitic mixing" took place depends on the settlement location of the respective people on the north-south axis. From the fact that the Assyrians settled in the very north of the Semitic region, he concludes that the Indo-European linguistic influence ​​must have been bolder and more powerful here than anywhere else. From this, and also from the fact that the Assyrians must have had the largest influx of purely white immigrants of all Semitic peoples, he draws a connection to their "centuries-old predominance."Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 82f Gobineau then lists the white peoples who had recently migrated from the northeastern mountains and successively populated Assyria and took control. The Hamites were replaced around 2000 BC by the "Semitic-Chaldean dynasty." These, he reports, were in turn followed by the Medes 200 years later.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 83 Gobineau wants to leave open whether the Medes were Semitic Chaldeans or already Aryans, but he describes them as "a kind of avant-garde of the Aryan family" and notes that they were superior to the previous Semites, particularly due to their "healthier" religion, but also due to their martial arts and their "greater capacity for government."Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 84 However, due to their small numbers and the rise of the city of Balkh – which completely absorbed the attention of their much-needed Aryan supporters – their success remained limited.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 85f The Medes were eventually followed by other Semitic invaders, including the Chaldeans, who reconquered lost territories and greatly expanded Assyrian territory overall.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 87f In a later chapter, Gobineau will identify the "primordial civilization of the world" entirely with Nineveh, located far in the north, except for the Egyptian city of Memphis. All other cities, no matter how bustling, were merely "spiritual colonies" of these two.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 163 The Hebrews this sectionGobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 92-95 The Bible Heinrich Ewald Franz Karl Movers Fact check: The Israelites Gobineau claims that the Hebrews possessed no independent civilization but merely imitated Mesopotamian and Egyptian models. Despite religious purity laws, they had been unable to preserve their "racial purity": even the patriarchs had contracted mixed marriages, and David's extensive kingdom encompassed many peoples, which made intermixture with "Melanian blood" inevitable. Unlike the Assyrians, the Hebrews had experienced no periodic "regenerations" through northern invaders and therefore remained mere "satellites" of Assyrian civilization. This portrayal serves Gobineau's purpose of relativizing the religious and cultural significance of biblical Israel and demonstrating that even religious purity laws could not prevent "racial degeneration" in ethnically mixed environments. These claims are fundamentally false. Ancient Israel developed a distinctive culture of world-historical significance: biblical monotheism, the prophetic tradition, original legal codes, and wisdom literature are independent civilizational achievements, not mere imitations. The Israelites, a Semitic-speaking people who emerged from Canaanite groups in the second millennium BCE, created a united kingdom under Kings Saul, David, and Solomon (ca. 10th century BCE), which later divided into the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. After the Babylonian exile, classical Judaism emerged. Gobineau completely ignores Israel's true historical significance: the development of ethical monotheism, which shaped world history through Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Read: J. Maxwell Miller, John H. Hayes (A History of Ancient Israel and Judah, 1986), Israel Finkelstein, Neil Asher Silberman (The Bible Unearthed, 2001), Lester L. Grabbe (Ancient Israel, 2007) The people of Abraham—the "Hebrews," who also called themselves "Children of Israel" and identified as Jews—struck Gobineau as a people relatively unaffected by the power of Mesopotamia. More than other Semites, they placed great importance on separating themselves from other tribes.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 90f Nevertheless, Gobineau emphasizes that they never "possessed a civilization peculiar to them," but were morally shaped by Tyre and Nineveh and constantly exposed to the temptations of oriental emanationism.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 91 As many biblical examples already show, the ethnic purity of the Hebrews was gradually lost despite their strict laws.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 91-93 They also adopted the language and customs of the Black-Hamitic-Semitic mixed population (Ishmaelites, Edomites, Amalekites) among whom they lived.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 93f Gobineau explains that the Hebrews, despite their increased racial purity, were never able to permanently rule over the peoples of Palestine by the fact that, unlike the latter, no new white blood flowed to them.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 94 The Horites this sectionGobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 96ff The Bible Heinrich Ewald Fact check: The Hurrians The Hurrians—the probable historical counterpart to the biblical Horites—were still unknown to Western scholarship in the mid-nineteenth century. For his account of these "Chorréens," Gobineau relied exclusively on biblical texts and on the work of Heinrich Ewald. He describes the Chorréens as extremely primitive and inferior troglodytes, identifying them as remnants of the original Black population of western Asia before the arrival of the White Hamites, who lived in the region of Mount Seir. Gobineau uses them as an extreme example of his racial hierarchy and as proof of the absolute, immutable inferiority of the Black race; they represent for him the lowest level of human existence—"pure" Black peoples without any contact with "white blood." At the same time, they serve as historical evidence that western Asia was originally inhabited by Blacks before white conquerors arrived and established civilization. Gobineau's identification of the Chorréens as a "pure Black" aboriginal population and primitive cave-dwellers is completely false. Modern scholarship identifies or associates the biblical Horites with the Hurrians—a highly developed, non-Semitic, non-Indo-European people who dominated large parts of the Near East in the second millennium BCE. The Hurrians founded the powerful kingdom of Mitanni (ca. 1600-1260 BCE), which at times rivaled Egypt. They possessed advanced urbanization, their own language (related to Urartian), developed writing systems (Hurrian cuneiform), and exerted significant cultural, religious, and technological influence throughout the region. They were not marginalized bandits but one of the defining civilizations of the Bronze Age. Read: Gernot Wilhelm (The Hurrians, 1989), Eva von Dassow (State and Society in the Late Bronze Age: Alalah under the Mittani Empire, 2008) thumb|left|The historical Hurrians had their own language, a complex cuneiform script, and a highly developed civilization. After the Hebrews, Gobineau gives attention to the Horites (in the French original: les Chorréens, les Horréens), as an extrem example of the racial degradation of an alleged black indigenous population. This people, who is said to have lived in the highlands of Seir, is explicitely mentioned in early Bible translations (Septuagint, Vulgate).Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 95f Gobineau, who believes he has discovered their description even in certain passages of more recent Bible translations, characterizes the Horites as tall, primitive cave dwellers who bore Hebrew names but stole, murdered, and were feared for their cruelty.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 96-98 He describes them as "half-witted negroes" (French: nègres abrutis), a developmental form of the black race that has sunk particularly low through interbreeding and racial degeneration.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 98f The Egyptians Ancient Egyptian civilization as an Aryan creation this sectionGobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 102-117 John Gardner Wilkinson Karl Richard LepsiusKarl Richard Lepsius 1852 Briefe aus Aegypten, Aethiopien und der Halbinsel des Sinai geschrieben in den Jahren 1842-1845 Berlin Wilhelm Hertz https://archive.org/details/briefeausaegypt00lepsgoog August Wilhelm SchlegelJames Cowles Prichard 1837 Darstellung der Aegyptischen Mythologie: Verbunden mit einer kritischen Untersuchung der Ueberbleibsel der Aegyptischen Chronologie Vorrede by A. W. Schlegel Bonn German translation of An Analysis of the Egyptian Mythology (1819). Joseph de GuignesJoseph de Guignes 1759 Mémoire dans lequel on prouve que les Chinois sont une colonie égyptienne Paris De Saint & Saillant https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6117197j.texteImage Pavel Jozef ŠafárikPavel Jozef Šafárik 1837 Slovanské starožitnosti Jan Spurný Praha Christian von BunsenChristian Carl Josias (1845–1857) Bunsen Ägyptens Stelle in der Weltgeschichte Hamburg Friedrich Perthes https://archive.org/details/Bunsen10173/Bunsen1%2C%200-173/ 5 volumes. Eratosthenes Jacques-Joseph Champollion-FigeacJacques-Joseph Champollion-Figeac 1840 L'Egypt ancienne et moderne Paris Firmin Didot https://archive.org/details/egypteancienne00cham/page/n8/mode/1up Ferdinand EcksteinFerdinand Eckstein 1847 Recherches historiques sur l’humanité primitive: extrait de la revue indépendante Paris Martinet https://books.google.de/books?id=FhNBAAAAcAAJ Heinrich BrugschHeinrich Brugsch 1849 Die demotische Schrift der Alten Ägypter und ihre Monumente Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft 3 2/3 266-272 The Bible Peter van BohlenPeter van Bohlen 1830 Das alte Indien, mit besonderer Berücksichtigung von Aegypten Königsberg Gebr. Bornträger https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=pcqgxI83ISQC&pg=GBS.PP1&hl=de 2 volumes. Herodotus Diodorus SiculusDiodorus Siculus (1st century BC) Bibliotheca Historica Strabo PlatoPlato (4th century BC) Timaeus Ippolito RoselliniIppolito (1832–1844) Rosellini I Monumenti dell'Egitto e della Nubia Pisa Niccolò Capurro https://archive.org/details/imonumentidelle04rosegoog Fact check: Ancient Egypt Gobineau interprets Egyptian civilization as the creation of Aryan immigrants from India who intermixed with Black populations. He locates its origins in the upper Nile Valley and emphasizes alleged Indian parallels in caste systems and priestly rule. However, intermarriage purportedly led to rapid "degeneration," since Egypt—unlike Assyria—received no renewing invasions from northern peoples. Consequently, writing, art, and society stagnated early, with the country's isolation accelerating its decline. Egypt thus serves him as a cautionary example: even Aryan foundations inevitably decay without continual "regeneration" through successive Aryan conquerors. Simultaneously, it warns that even "superior" Aryan blood must ultimately succumb to the supposed overwhelming force of Black populations. In reality, Ancient Egypt was among humanity's earliest and most enduring civilizations. Emerging around 3100 BCE as an indigenous African culture in the Nile Valley, it flourished for three millennia through innovative state organization, monumental architecture, complex religion, sophisticated writing systems, art, science, and extensive trade and diplomatic relations with the Mediterranean world, the Near East, and Nubia. Gobineau's account contains numerous factual errors. Entirely false, for instance, is his claim of Aryan or Indian origins for Egyptian civilization. The ancient Egyptian language belongs to the Afroasiatic family, not the Indo-European; no Sanskrit connection exists. Egyptian civilization was an indigenous Nile Valley development, not the result of Indian invasion. His characterization of Egypt as stagnant and non-expansionist likewise ignores historical reality. The New Kingdom (ca. 1550–1077 BCE) was an imperial power controlling Nubia, parts of the Levant, and at times reaching the Euphrates. Read: Barry Kemp (Ancient Egypt, 1989), Ian Shaw (ed., The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, 2000), Toby Wilkinson (The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt, 2010) thumb|left|upright|One of the contemporary works of art from which some authors of the 19th century, including Gobineau, have concluded that the ancient Egyptians were to a significant proportion white The ancient Egyptians are the second people portrayed in detail by Gobineau, about whom he says that they represented a "complete society" (civilization). As a synonym for "ancient Egypt", he sometimes also uses the term Kush. For the first time in his book, he explicitly mentions the "Aryans" at this point, a subset of the white Race, who, in his view, possess greater power and ability than any other people to create civilization and impose their will on other peoples. He holds them responsible for ancient Egypt's extraordinary cultural achievements, such as Egyptian art and the construction of the pyramids. Background: Ancient Egyptian race controversy The heterogeneous physical appearance of ancient Egyptians has aroused particular interest among ethnologists for centuries. Beginning with a number of 18th-century scholars, the Ancient Egyptian race controversy arose, a scholarly debate that lost most of its foundation in the 20th century when science rejected the concept of human races. However, as a discussion about the ethnic composition of the ancient Egyptian people, the discourse has continued to this day. A majority of scholars now recognize that ancient Egypt was a crossroads between African and Eurasian populations, that the Egyptian population arose from the admixture of Saharan and Nilotic groups from Northeast Africa, that close affinities existed between Upper Egyptian and sub-Saharan populations, and that the heterogeneity of skin color and physical characteristics among North Africans does not need to be explained by hypothetical constructs such as alleged large-scale demographic replacements. Gobineau casually regrets that the history of ancient Egypt has so far been insufficiently explored and that research and excavations are currently in such flux that statements about this period of history can only be made with caution.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 104f Only with reservations does he subsequently formulate his assumption that the heyday of ancient Egypt should be dated to the period 1740-1355 BC, although this empire had already "exhibited a state of highly advanced civilization" much earlier, namely around 2120 BC, i.e., at the time of the construction of the Giza pyramids.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 105 (In stating this latter date, Gobineau follows Jacques-Joseph Champollion-Figeac; according to current knowledge, the Great Pyramid of Giza was built almost 500 years earlier, around 2600 BC.) Gobineau emphasizes that the ancient Egyptian religious cult was less bloodthirsty than those in Assyria and Canaan;Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 110, 123 a little later in the text, he casually mentions that one characteristic of the Aryan race is a strong sense of religion.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 116 Gobineau's belief in a White Egyptian ruling class rests partly on ancient Egyptian artwork, which he and many contemporaries interpreted as depicting white figures.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 101f, 108 He excludes the Hamites as these conquerors, arguing they rarely separated themselves sufficiently from other Hamitic groups to produce a language as linguistically distinct as ancient Egyptian.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 106 He likewise dismisses the Semites, who typically migrated along routes other than the Nile Valley, particularly the Mediterranean coasts.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 108 He therefore concludes that Egypt's rise originated in the central and upper Nile regions—specifically Memphis and Thebes—rather than the Mediterranean littoral, with Memphis as the principal center and Thebes as a secondary colony.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 111, 117, 163 However, his most emphasized argument for the involvement of the "Aryans" in Egypt's rise comes from linguistic considerations. Gobineau considers Ancient Egyptian to be a fusion of black languages, Semitic languages, and a "highly mysterious" third component, which bears a distinct similarity to Sanskrit and thus points directly to the Aryans.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 106f He assumes that the Aryans migrated to Egypt from the Indus region, and bases this on archaeological finds, among other things.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 107f He sees further connections in the fact that both cultures—Indian and ancient Egyptian—worship cattle, love the lotus, know Typhon, have a similar cosmogony, and have a caste system; he attributes the latter similarity to the fact that both peoples were aware of the importance of maintaining the purity of families in the face of racial inequality.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 112-114 In a later chapter in Book 2, Gobineau will state that Egyptian historiography began with the reign of the first pharaoh, Menes. He is certain that the Aryans had already immigrated by this time, shaped the language, created civilization, and founded cities such as Thebes and Thinis.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 142f He describes the period between the Aryan arrival and the reign of the first pharaoh as the "age of the gods" and the "heroic age," in which recorded history did not yet exist.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 143 This situation is not peculiar to Egypt: we find it in all states at the beginning. Arthur de Gobineau Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Second volume, 1902, p. 143 According to Gobineau, "heroic ages" are characterized by a superior people arriving after a migration in a hostile environment, fighting for a living, possibly conquering the "native race," but having other concerns than writing history. He avowedly has no interest in these "prehistoric times."Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 143f Egypt's heydays Gobineau examines the white rule in Egypt in more detail than in the case of the peoples discussed so far.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 119 He notes that here, too, similar to Assyria and Canaan, the white rulers were initially treated as gods by the black natives, until a priestly caste and finally the warlords took over. In Egypt, the office of king, although associated with absolute power, was tied to a priesthood (hierophancy).Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 119-121 As Gobineau believes, this ruling class had more white blood than in Assyria, so their rule was more justified.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 124f Gobineau also mentions the Egyptian nobility, which he compares to the Indian Kshatriya because both possessed a monopoly on national defense and the carrying of arms. The - predominantly black - common people of Egypt were subject to both the king and the nobility and lived without rights and under the most miserable conditions. Moses and the Israelites, Gobineau emphasizes, emigrated from Egypt for understandable reasons, especially since in his view they were also white.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 122, 124 Humanity may sigh over such a terrible spectacle, and that is quite right; but after paying a sufficient tribute of indignation and regret, let us also appreciate the terrible reasons that compelled the masses of Egypt and Assyria to patiently submit to a yoke so cruelly imposed upon them: there existed for the plebs of these countries an invincible racial necessity to endure the caprices of all their masters, but on condition that these masters retained the talisman that assured them obedience—that is, enough of the white man's blood to prove their right to rule. Arthur de Gobineau Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Second volume, 1902, p. 124 However, he also notes that the Aryans, although they created an unprecedentedly superior culture here, also had a handicap in Egypt from an early stage. This was because, in addition to the Whites, who "gave life" to the ancient Egyptian racial mixture, there were also "smooth-haired Blacks" and "woolly-headed Negroes"; not even the caste system could prevent the interbreeding of these three groups which, according to Gobineau, led to a certain degeneration in this population.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 103, 109, 125 Egypt, originally dominated by Whites, experienced an "increasing inundation by the black race."Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 148 As a result, he sees in ancient Egypt, alongside its achievements, certain weaknesses which he attributes to the influence of the Blacks, such as the worship of certain "lower beings" (snakes, crocodiles, goats, cats, beetles, even vegetables).Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 111f Gobineau explains that Egyptian civilization has nevertheless survived for so long by the fact that the leading castes been repeatedly "regenerated" by "the blood of its Hamitic and Semitic enemies from Asia"; he means, among others, the numerous prisoners of war brought to Egypt.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 125 This allowed Egyptian civilization to persist, and kept democratic ideas, such as those that triumphed in Tyre and Sidon, at bay, because the Egyptian "rabble" never achieved the blood improvement that could have given them the ambition and ability to place themselves on the same level as their masters.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 126f However, in Gobineau's opinion, the continuous moderate influx of fresh white blood into Egyptian civilization has only enabled it to survive and continue—not to develop further.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 127 The Ethiopians as a people in civilizational dependence on Egypt this sectionGobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 128ff Christian Lassen John Gardner Wilkinson Joseph Justus ScaligerJoseph Justus Scaliger 1583 De emendatione temporum Paris Hiob LudolfHiob Ludolf 1676 Sciagraphia historiae aethiopicae Frankfurt/MainHiob Ludolf 1681 Historia aethiopica Frankfurt/Main https://archive.org/details/gpl_1880974/page/n7/mode/2up Hermann Conring James Cowles Prichard Theodor BenfeyTheodor Benfey 1844 Ueber das Verhältniss der ägyptischen Sprache zum semitischen Sprachstamm Leipzig F. A. Brockhaus https://archive.org/details/ueberdasverhltni00benf Herodotus Karl Richard Lepsius Carl Theodor JohannsenCarl T. Johannsen 1828 Historia Jemanae Bonn Baaden https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_akljAAAAcAAJ Abyssinia, the land of the Ethiopians, interests Gobineau as "an annex of a great foreign civilization, which possesses it only imperfectly, just as the moon possesses sunlight. Abyssinia is to ancient Egypt what Annam is to China, and Tibet to China and India."Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 139 In his estimation, their civilization was shaped partly by neighboring Egyptians, partly by Black Hamites and Semites, with him describing the Egyptian influence as the "richer" and "more fruitful." By "Black Hamites," he means "Kushite Arabs," and by "Semites," "Himyarite Arabs." Both groups came successively from the Arabian Peninsula and brought to the peoples of Africa what they themselves possessed of Assyrian culture, a "fragmented civilization." Gobineau suspects that, through their trade relations with India, they also possessed a certain amount of Aryan blood—not enough, however, to become truly superior as a people.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 128f The bottom line, he writes, is that Abyssinian civilization was underdeveloped and limited to simple and incomplete imitations of the models in Aryan India, the Arabian coastal cities, and Egypt.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 130, 134f Gobineau explicitly contradicts certain "Negrophile" authors, who had considered this civilization to be very highly developed.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 130f Fact check: Ethiopia East Africa is referred to by most paleoanthropologists today as the "cradle of humanity." In the 20th century, remains of some of the earliest representatives of the genus Homo were archaeologically unearthed in Ethiopia ("Lucy", discovered in 1974; "Selam", 2000). Among the earliest archaeologically documented settlements in Ethiopia is the metalworking center of Mai Adrasha (1250 BC, discovered in 2002). The Ethiopian Empire was founded by the Habesha tribe, who migrated from South Arabia in the 1st millennium BC. From around 980 BC, the Kingdom of Dʿmt existed in Ethiopia, followed in the 1st century AD by the long-lasting Kingdom of Aksum, considered one of the most important world empires of its time. Aksum was Christianized early on and owed a significant portion of its wealth to trade with India. Gobineau is keen to ensure that the migration of the Kushite and Himyarite Arabs already occurred in ancient Egyptian times and therefore deals particularly intensively with the question of its dating. Joseph Justus Scaliger had dated this migration to the age of Justinian (6th century AD). Along with Hiob Ludolf, whose arguments he subsequently adopts, Gobineau contradicts this and suspects that it occurred much earlier.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 131 Scaliger had argued, first, that Greek historiography had not yet mentioned such a migration, and that it must therefore have occurred later. According to Ludolf and Gobineau, however, this silence means nothing at all, because, in their opinion, Greek historians could hardly have been informed about an event that took place so long ago in such a distant region of the world.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 132 Second, they argue linguistically, pointing out that the "Aryan echoes" of Ethiopia's language did not necessarily have to have been brought late from the Arabian Peninsula, but could just as easily have been due to Egyptian influence—in the case of an early arrival of the Arabs.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 133 Abyssinia experienced significant Egyptian immigration, among other things, during the time of Psamtik I and during Roman rule.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 135f While the subsequent Christianization had little civilizing effect on the Ethiopians, according to Gobineau's assessment, their blood was once again whitened to a certain extent by the immigration of Muslim Arabs around 600 AD, although Muslim civilization was barely absorbed.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 137f Gobineau emphasizes that he treated the Ethiopian example primarily because it is exemplary for all lesser peoples within the sphere of influence of a superior one:Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 140 Far from attributing the fatal stagnation which has always weighed with greater or lesser force on the civilized peoples of East Africa to the pressure of external circumstances, one must rather convince oneself that it is a defect closely inherent in their nature; that those peoples have never been perfectly civilized from within; that most of their racial elements have always been radically incapable of perfection; that the feeble achievements of fertility which came to them through veins of better blood were too small to last long; that their group has merely played the role of unintelligent, temporary imitators of peoples formed from nobler elements. Arthur de Gobineau Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Second volume, 1902, p. 140 Despite his deprecatory judgment against them, Gobineau concedes that the Ethiopians have "shaked off the lowest characteristics of the black race" and thereby occupy the highest rank among all black peoples.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 141 Egypt's stagnation and decline this sectionGobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 144ff Heinrich Brugsch John Gardner Wilkinson Karl Richard Lepsius Julius AfricanusSextus Julius (3rd century) Africanus Chronographiae https://ia804607.us.archive.org/34/items/adler-2004-africanus-roman-near-east/Adler_2007_Julius_Africanus_Fragments.pdf Christian von Bunsen Franz Karl Movers thumb|left|Hieroglyphs; the script in the lower part of the image is Demotic. In another chapter, Gobineau goes into further detail and discusses Menes, who, according to tradition, unified the previously fragmented Egypt and established the kingdom.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 142f He admits that civilization had already existed in Egypt at a low level before this time, but reports that it experienced a steep upswing during the first dynasties, developing so rapidly that hieroglyphic writing was invented.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 144 However, he immediately criticizes this writing system as underdeveloped because it is purely pictorial and has not achieved a higher level of abstraction, such as the scripts that represent sounds.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 144f He attributes this to the fact that the Egyptians were not gifted with the "faculty of abstraction" that allowed European peoples, for example, to develop alphabets like the Greek. He also considers the Semitic writing systems to be decidedly superior to hieroglyphs, and even the cuneiform writing of the Assyrians.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 145 He then cites the "inability of the black race" to successfully assert itself against the "natural tendency of the Aryans to perfect everything" as the ultimate cause of the rudimentary state of development of the ancient Egyptian writing system. He blames the Blacks not only for the early stagnation of the development of writing, but also for the fact that the arts as a whole did not develop more strongly in Egypt. It is innovation, in particular, that he finds lacking in Egyptian art.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 146 The Egyptian spirit aged, but did not change. Elevated, indeed directed toward the more sublime, as long as the white element asserted its predominant influence; stagnant as long as this illustrious element could at least still assert itself on the battlefield of the civilizing powers; sinking whenever the black spirit happened to gain the upper hand, it was ultimately never able to rise again. Arthur de Gobineau Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Second volume, 1902, p. 146 Gobineau reports that Egypt's cultural stagnation was also noticed by the Greeks and Romans, who blamed the Egyptian priesthood, and he admits that this priesthood—like any other aristocracy—hated innovation.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 146f However, influential priestly classes also existed in other societies—Hamitic, Semitic, and in India—without the progress of civilization and art being slowed down. There, unlike in Egypt, however, "the reserves of the blood of the whites, that inexhaustible source of life and strength," were able to exert their influence in an uninterrupted succession, and there, among others, it was the priests themselves who invented and created.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 147 According to Gobineau, Egypt's stagnation and decline caused by the increasing influence of the Blacks had been evident since the Second Dynasty (c. 2890 – c. 2686 BC). As an example, he cites a law from the reign of Nebra, recorded by Julius Africanus, which formalized the veneration of sacred animals such as the Apis ox and the Mendesian ram.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 148f From a white society, the active part of the society had become a mixed society and, as it sank more and more into the Blacks, had secretly made them acquainted with the idea that a bull and a ram deserved altars. Arthur de Gobineau Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Second volume, 1902, pp. 149f To the extent that the Blacks mingled with the white tribe that controlled the destinies of the Egyptian people, they, according to Gobineau, paralyzed the discoveries and inventions of the Whites, "curbing their genius and allowing them only the works of patience and industry." Even the pyramids, for which the Whites brought inspiration from the Urals and the Altai, had already been built under such unfavorable conditions. Gobineau dates the end of Egypt's greatness to the end of the reign of Ramesses III, which he mistakenly places in the 13th century BC.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 151 The decline of Egypt was completed in the 7th century AD.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 161 Gobineau then devotes particular attention to the fact he observed that ancient Egypt lived almost completely isolated from the other, eastern "civilized countries of its time" (primarily Assyria), and did so "by force of its own will."Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 152, 158 Despite Herodotus's reports on the alleged conquests of the (not clearly identified) King Sesostris, he writes that there is no evidence of Egyptian advances beyond Palestine.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 153f Major military campaigns, apart from the Sinai region, were undertaken only to the south, i.e., to Nubia.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 156 From this, and from the fact that they devoted great effort solely to canalization and land reclamation, Gobineau concludes that the Egyptians had little inclination or leisure for the military conquest and the civilization of neighboring territories and attests to the "worshippers of Ptah" as having a "peaceful disposition and a soft, effeminate laxity."Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 156f Egypt and Assyria in comparison Racial situation Gobineau concludes the second book of his essay with a comparison between Egypt and Assyria. While the Egyptians only exerted a certain influence on the area bordering to the south, the Assyrians gained a sphere of influence of considerable extent, which included Central Asia, Africa, and Europe.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 158f He sees a key difference between these two cultures in the fact that in Assyria, the influx of white blood continued permanently, while in Egypt the black element increasingly prevailed.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 159 A "rejuvenation of white blood" in Egypt was hampered in particular by immigration laws, which denied entry to "unpure" people, and the caste system, which prevented whites arriving from the north from entering the leadership ranks. In contrast, in Assyria, the integration of different ethnic groups, often dominated by Hamites and Semites, promoted a fruitful intermixture that strengthened the vitality of the empire.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 160 Gobineau sees the most important commonality between Assyria and Egypt in their shared "civilizing spirit." Due to profound racial differences, however, their creations also differed significantly. Despite the differences between the respective black populations, who had a strong presence in both cultures, Gobineau rules out that these played any role in the differences between Assyria and Egypt that interest him, because he fundamentally does not attribute any "civilizing capacity" to black people.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 164 In both Assyria and Egypt, he detects the expression of the strong black presence, noting that the two countries are similar in this respect. This applies primarily to art—characterized by the sensual and material—but also to the love of both peoples "for sumptuous finery, for magnificent harems," their "tendency toward tranquility, the growing aversion to war and its labors, and finally, the same system of government: an ever-boundless despotism, exercised sometimes by the priests, sometimes by the kings, sometimes by the nobility; insane arrogance in the upper classes, boundless subservience in the lower."Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 165 Gobineau locates the source of the differences between the two countries in the white race. He rates the Aryans of Egypt, whom he characterizes as "more regulated, gentler, more peaceful, but above all, more practical in spirit," higher than the Hamites and Semites of Assyria.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 164f Poetry and art this sectionGobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 166 Otto BlauOtto Blau 1849 Die Inschrift von Eryx. Versuch einer Erklärung Zeitschrift der Deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft 3 429–449 10.25673/111062 Gobineau considers both Assyrian and Egyptian art to be born from the encounter of white peoples with black. He assumes that black people are materialistic and strongly driven by their emotions and senses, and believes he recognizes the expression of these qualities in Assyrian and Egyptian art: in the "great monuments," in the "representation of humans and animals, painting and sculpture in temples and palaces," which were "lavish" and immensely popular with the people. He writes similarly about the poetry of these two countries, citing a Phoenician epitaph as an example; in it, "the complete devotion of the mind to the impressions of the outside world reigns."Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 166 Everything in this poetry is fiery, everything aims to captivate the senses, everything is superficial. Such verses do not aim to awaken the spirit and transport one to an ideal world. If, upon listening to them, one does not weep, scream, tear one's clothes, or cover one's face with ashes, then they have failed in their purpose. Arthur de Gobineau Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Second volume, 1902, p. 166 He also criticizes the fact that the poetry of both countries had only two forms: a lyrical one and a didactic one, the latter being "frosty and dull historical" and pursuing no other purpose than "to enclose facts in a rhythmic form convenient for the memory." In all this "lyrical outpouring," he misses, apart from "intellectual contemplation," great epic poems, which, in his opinion, have been produced exclusively by Aryan peoples. With some regret, however, he admits that "fire" and "brilliance" can apparently only enter lyric poetry when—as in Assyria and Egypt—white peoples are touched by the mixture with Blacks.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 167 thumb|Part of the Khorsabad Relief After literature, Gobineau turns to the visual arts. The art form of relief, which is frequently found in tombs in Assyria and Egypt, strikes him as a poor substitute, a "shortcut" for the sculpture that actually belongs here.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 167f As with Assyrian and Egyptian poetry, he also criticizes the visual arts of these countries for their "almost senseless" excess of sensuality and visual stimuli.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 168 Gobineau does not completely reject excess in art because it can appeal to the masses, but he condemns it when intoxication prevents viewers from perceiving beauty.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 169 Using the example of the Khorsabad Relief (Nineveh), he attempts to demonstrate how Assyrian art only desires "the brilliant, the magnificent, the gigantic, the sublime, not the beautiful" and that in this art only the body, not the soul, is depicted, only the fact, not the thought.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 169f It is the "spiritual idealization" that is missing here.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 170 Thus, the civilizations along the Euphrates and the Nile are equally characterized by the victorious predominance of imagination over reason and of sensuality over the spiritual. Arthur de Gobineau Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Second volume, 1902, p. 171 Gobineau argues that the lack of spiritual idealization in Assyria ultimately resulted in certain works of art that were simply ugly and horrific, because peoples like the Hamites did not shy away from "tickling their sensuality even with the disgusting."Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 170f He is convinced that never again in human history was the imagination so unbridled and the propensity for corruption so great as in Assyria and Egypt.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 172 Gobineau's art theory In the last chapter of the second book, Gobineau also casually presents his theory of art, revealing a highly ambivalent attitude toward art as such. Following the Greeks, he assumes that the basic state of genius, when perfect, consists of exaltation and enthusiasm, bordering on madness. What drives him creatively are not "organizing-wise impulses" but rather "effervescences of the senses." This leads us to the irrefutable conclusion that the source from which the arts sprang lies far removed from the civilizing instincts. It lies hidden in the blood of the black people. That omnipotence of the imagination which we see encompassing and permeating the primitive civilizations has no other cause than the ever-increasing influence of the black element. Arthur de Gobineau Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Second volume, 1902, p. 173 Gobineau then proceeds to rank the peoples according to the originality of their artistic creation. The Assyrians and Egyptians are followed by the ancient Indians, the ancient Greeks, the medieval Italians, the Spanish, and finally the modern French. All other cultures exhibit, at best, "secondhand inspiration" and "learned imitation."Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 173 The fact that he attributes an indispensable key role to black people in the creation of art does not mean that he holds them in higher esteem than he has previously indicated. For he immediately qualifies this merit, declaring that while "the Negro" is "the human creature most energetically seized by artistic excitement," he lacks the intellect required to fathom its meaning and grasp its significance.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 174 Since his "mind is dull and incapable of rising above the lowest level as soon as it is called upon to reflect, learn, compare, and draw conclusions," works of art such as Polykleitos' Hera or the Odyssey leave him untouched.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 174f This leads us to the irrefutable conclusion that the source from which the arts sprang lies far removed from the civilizing instincts. It lies hidden in the blood of the black people. That omnipotence of the imagination which we see encompassing and permeating the primitive civilizations has no other cause than the ever-increasing influence of the black element. Arthur de Gobineau Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Second volume, 1902, p. 177 This also applies to music, which "the Negro" "loves very much" and "enjoys to excess," although he does not even begin to understand the "artful refinements" of European music, such as Domenico Cimarosa's aria Pria che spunti in ciel l'aurora.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 175 Gobineau writes similarly about the relationship of the black race to dance, pointing out that unbridled dance played a major role among the Assyrians and Egyptians, then among the Romans, and still today "among the Semitic populations of Spain, and especially in Cadiz."Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 177 Thus, the Negro possesses the sensual disposition, without which no art is conceivable, to the highest degree; but on the other hand, the lack of intellectual abilities makes him completely unsuited for the cultivation of art, indeed even for the appreciation of all the sublime qualities that this noble application of the human spirit can produce. To bring his talents to fruition, he must unite with a differently gifted race. Arthur de Gobineau Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Second volume, 1902, p. 177 In this union, which he also calls "marriage," Gobineau connects the Blacks with the "feminine principle," while the Whites with the "masculine principle." However, he also immediately cautions that high-quality art emerges from this only in rare, very fortunate cases, citing the ancient Greeks as an example.Gobineau Arthur de Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen. Zweiter Band 2 1902 Stuttgart Fr. Frommann 178, 180 Continue reading Continue to Book 3. Back to Book 1. References Category:Book:Scientific racism in Germany