“And Who Knows Where else”: Peter Frederik Suhm on Slavs
Abstract
This paper analyzes the writings on the Slavs by Peter Frederik Suhm (1728–1798), often regarded as the father of Danish historiography. Although Suhm is best known for his extensive historical writings, he was in fact a polymath who, in the 1760s and 1770s, developed a lesser-known political doctrine infused with radical Enlightenment ideas. These encompassed freedom of expression and of religion, the rule of law, constitutional monarchy, parliament, and the separation of powers. In his approach to history, Suhm integrated and intersected diverse fields – economics, geography, mythology, literature, philology, and etymology. This interdisciplinarity is evident in his interest in the Slavs, discussed most directly in Om Slaverne (1779), but also in works on other peoples, such as the Pechenegs (1770), the Khazars (1781), and his account of the Kingdom of Galicia and Ludomeria (1783). Suhm was a friend of the Danish official and lexicographer Christian Friedrich Temler, who was deeply involved in the Illyrian language; their acquaintance influenced Suhm’s approach to the past, culture, and language of the Slavs, and by extension of the Serbs.
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