1908.25

Om de oude wereldzee. II. Het raadsel van den Islam—Het land der pharao’s—Soedan—De Hellenen—Sicilië—Het Protectoraat van Tunis—De Algerijnsche kolonie—Marokko—Spanje—Portugal.

Amsterdam, Van Holkema & Warendorf [1908]. VIII, 516 pp., ills., folding map, 30cm.—12 installments, each ƒ0.50; in two unbound parts ƒ6.-; bd. in one volume ƒ7.25; half leather binding ƒ8.-.

This second volume adds a colored fold-out map to show the course of Kuyper’s journey. The dotted line indicates where the journey was resumed (cf. 1906.05). However, as mentioned in the description to 1907.13, these volumes are not a travelogue, but a series of essays on the nations and peoples Kuyper encountered. In broad outline Kuyper describes the confrontations between the Semitic (with its Judeo-Christian and Islamic division) and the Aryan peoples. He concludes by typifying the division within the Semitic race as a confrontation between “the cross” and “the crescent,” contending that its resolution “cannot come but from the shores of the Mediterranean.” He also briefly describes his journey home, which took him through Paris, in his concluding entry of October 28, 1908 (see 1907.06).

In his Levensbericht van Dr. A. Kuyper (Leiden, 1923), Kuyper’s successor in politics H. Colijn (1869–1944) points out that Kuyper’s vision of the universal scope of Calvinist principles was repeatedly borne out in Om de oude Wereldzee: “Thus, as a natural concluding development of his basic principles, the journey to the East brought the ascending line of Kuyper’s career to a close in a dignified way.”

Purchasers of Om de oude Wereldzee I–II were offered a discounted copy of Varia Americana for ƒ0.75 (see 1899.15).