Brockelmann, Carl (1868–1956)

Abstract

The German Orientalist Brockelmann was born in Rostock on September 17, 1868. While still at school, his imagination was fired by the great geographical discoveries then being made, and he showed an early interest in exotic languages. However, on entering Rostock University in 1886 he began with the study of classics as offering more secure career prospects. The award of a scholarship allowed him to move shortly to Breslau (now Wroclaw) where he studied Semitic and Indo–European philology. At this time he also taught himself Turkish, a language which was to remain an abiding interest. In 1888 he went to Strasbourg (then in Germany) in order to study under Nöldeke ( see Nöldeke, Theodor ). Here he occupied himself with Sanskrit, Armenian, and Ancient Egyptian. By 1892 he was once again in Breslau where he completed his Habilitation (on Ibn al-Jawzi), wrote his Lexicon Syriacum , and traveled for the first time to Turkey. While in Constantinople he made the acquaintance of Jahn, to whose chair in Königsberg he was later to succeed. These years in Breslau saw in particular the preparation of his edition of Ibn Qutayba's ‘ Uyūn al-Akhbār (Berlin/Strasbourg, 1900–1908) and the first edition of his Geschichte der Arabischen Litteratur (Weimar/Berlin, 1898–1902).