Theodor Nöldeke
Theodor Nöldeke ( born March 2, 1836 in Harburg, Hamburg today, † December 25, 1930 in Karlsruhe ) was a German orientalist.
Life
Nöldeke studied at the universities of Göttingen, Vienna, Leiden and Berlin. He became in 1864 professor in Kiel and then held from 1872 a professor at the University of Strasbourg - until his retirement at age 70. Nöldeke authored numerous studies ( among other things, the Qur'an) and also wrote reviews for the Encyclopædia Britannica. He worked among others with the Old Testament research, the Semitic languages and the Arabic, Persian and Syriac literature. Nöldeke was involved among other things, the basic Tabari Edition de Goejes and got also a translation of those portions of the Universal History Tabari, who treated the time of the Sassanids. The translation is still of great value, especially since he added numerous annotations.
Nöldeke, who also translated several other important works of oriental literature, was regarded during his lifetime as a very important orientalist. Among his many pupils was, among others, Friedrich Schwally, whom he entrusted with the continuation of his standard work history of Qorans. Although he dedicated his life to the study of the Orient, Nöldeke however, was convinced of the superiority of Western civilization of his day; as not a few former Liberal he was of the view that Judaism have many primitive and negative traits and possess in the modern era no longer exist. It should therefore be desirable if Jewish citizens would give up their faith. Noeldeke antisemitism - if one can use that term here - so we had no racist roots, but was fed by a general Western sense of superiority (see also Orientalism ). Negative value judgments about Jews and other " Orientals " are therefore also reflected in some of his works, although Nöldeke at the same time several men of the Jewish faith was one of his friends.
Nöldeke was honored with the Order Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts ( 1888 ) and since 1879 a foreign member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. In 1893 he was also appointed foreign member of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei in Rome. In 1926 he was made an honorary citizen of the city at that time Harburg (now part of Hamburg). Nöldeke had ten children, but six of them died before him. His son Arnold Nöldeke became a judge and was in the Weimar period Hamburg senator.
Works ( selection)
- History of Qorans, 1860. Reprint Hildesheim 2005. ISBN 3-487-00105-5
- Contributions and new contributions to Semitic linguistics. In 1981. ISBN 90-6022-184-2
- The Iranian national epic, 1920
- Oriental Sketches, 1892
- Sketches from Eastern History, 1977. ISBN 0-87991-461-0
- The Life of Muhammad, 1863
- Contributions to the knowledge of the poetry of the ancient Arabs, 1864
- The Old Testament Literature, 1868
- Studies on the Criticism of the Old Testament, 1869
- History of the Persians and the Arabs at the time of the Sassanids. From the Arab chronicle of Tabari translated, 1879 (reprint Leiden 1973)
- For the grammar of classical Arabic, 1896
- Five Mo'allaqat, translated and explained, 1899-1901
- James A. Crichton (translator ): Compendious Syriac grammar. With a table of characters by Julius Euting, 1904
- Mandaean grammar; with a panel of Mandaean characters lithographirten, 1875