Please, I beg you: bring back the classical Orientalists. I really miss them and miss their knowlege and erudition

I sat down yesterday to read Anthony Black's The History of Islamic Political Thought and then I was astonished to read this in the acknowledgement:  "My knowledge of original languages is confined to a limited acquaintances with Arabic.  I have relied almost entirely on translations of original texts.  I have tried to acquaint myself with the nuances of key terms so as to be able to grasp and convey the meaning of the originals.  Since I do not read Arabic, Persian, or Turkish, I am more than usually indebted to other scholars." (p. xviii).  1) At least he is honest. There are many people who write about Arab or Persian culture and even media who--contrary to what they convey--don't know Arabic or Persian and would be hard pressed to produce one decipherable sentence in the language. 2) As Muhsin Mahdi used to tell me: imagine someone writing on Jewish thought who does not know Hebrew. That would be seen as an immediate ground for disqualification.  3) Classical Orientalists (who I still enjoy reading) not only read the texts in the original languages but they even translated them (although the translations were not always great as A.L. Tibawi illustrated in his devastating critique of Franz Rosenthal's translation of Al-Muqaddimah).  4) I shall let you know if I can overcome my initial reaction as my early hopes were dashed.