Adriaan Reland

Reland was the son of Johannes Reland, a Protestant minister, and Aagje Prins in the small North Holland village of De Rijp. Adriaan's brother, Peter (1678–1714), was an influential lawyer in Haarlem. Reland first studied Latin language in Amsterdam at age 11, and enrolled at University of Utrecht in 1693, at age 17, to study theology and philosophy. Initially interested in Hebrew and Syriac, he later began studying Arabic. In 1699, after obtaining his doctorate in Utrecht, Reland moved to Leiden and tutored the son of Hans Willem Bentinck, 1st Earl of Portland. The latter invited him to move to England, but Reland declined because of his father's deteriorating health.

In 1699, Reland was appointed Professor of Physics and Metaphysics at the University of Harderwijk. By this point, he had achieved a good knowledge of Arabic, Hebrew, and other Semitic languages. In 1701, at age 25, he was appointed Professor of Oriental Languages at the University of Utrecht. Beginning in 1713, he also taught Hebrew Antiquities. This was extended with a chair in Jewish Antiquity. Reland was never able to visit the regions he described in his works, due to his sickly father. Reland gained renown for his research in Islamic studies and linguistics; his work being an early example of comparative linguistics. Additionally, he studied Persian and was interested in the relation of Eastern myths to the Old Testament. He published a work concerning East Asian myths, Dissertationum miscellanearum partes tres, in 1708. Moreover, he discovered the link for the Malay language to the Western Pacific dictionaries of Willem Schouten and Jacob Le Maire.

Reland, through compiling Arabic texts, completed De religione Mohammedica libri duo in 1705. This work, extended in 1717, was considered the first objective survey of Islamic beliefs and practices. It quickly became a reference work throughout Europe and was translated into Dutch, English, German, French and Spanish. Reland also extensively researched Middle Eastern locations and biblical geography, taking interest in Palestine. He published Antiquitates Sacrae veterum Hebraeorum (1708) and Palaestina ex monumentis veteribus illustrata (1714), in which he described and mapped the biblical peoples, and ancient geography of Palestine. Reland retained his professorship for his entire life, and additionally became a noted poet. In 1718, at age 41, he died of smallpox in Utrecht.

Reland also produced several maps based on his research into the geography of Asia and the Near East. His cartographic work formed part of his broader scholarly interest in the languages, history, and religions of eastern regions. Among his geographical works was a map of the Persian Empire published in 1705. The map attempted to reconcile information from Persian and Arabic geographical traditions with existing European cartography and introduced Persian place-names more systematically to European readers. Reland also published a map of Japan in 1715. Unlike many contemporary European maps, it relied heavily on Japanese geographical sources. The map later served as the basis for the map of Japan included in Engelbert Kaempfer's History of Japan (1729). In addition to these works, Reland produced maps relating to Palestine and other parts of Asia, reflecting his attempt to combine linguistic scholarship with geographical reconstruction of regions described in historical texts.