C. (Christiaan) Snouck Hurgronje

Born in Oosterhout in 1857, Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje studied theology and Semitic languages at Leiden and went on to become one of Europe's best-known scholars of Islam. Britannica describes him as a pioneer in the scientific study of Islam, and Leiden University Library notes that he earned his doctorate with a dissertation on the hajj.

While teaching at Leiden, he traveled to Arabia in 1884–85 and spent time in Mecca. That experience shaped his best-known work, Mekka (1888–89), a major study of the city, its society, and early Islamic traditions.

Snouck Hurgronje later served as an adviser to the colonial government in the Dutch East Indies, especially on Muslim communities and policy. Because of that role, his legacy is complicated: he is remembered both for influential scholarship and for his close involvement with Dutch colonial power in what is now Indonesia.