Salomon Munk (14 May 1803 – 5 February 1867) was a German-born Jewish-FrenchOrientalist.
Munk was born inGross Glogau in theKingdom of Prussia. He received his first instruction inHebrew from his father, an official of the Jewish community; and on the latter's death he joined theTalmud class of R.Jacob Joseph Oettinger. At the age of fourteen he was able to officiate as "ba'al ḳoreh" (reader of the Torah) in the synagogue of the Malbish 'Arummim society atGross Glogau.
In 1820 he went to Berlin, where he came into friendly relations withLeopold Zunz and with the philologistA. W. Zumpt, studyingLatin andGreek withE. Gans. Two years later he entered theJoachimsthaler Gymnasium, supporting himself at the same time by tutoring. In 1824 he entered theUniversity of Berlin, attending the lectures ofBöckh,Hegel, and especially ofBopp.
As no Jews were at that time eligible for government positions in Prussia, Munk left the university without taking a degree, deciding to go to France. However, he first spent one term at theUniversity of Bonn, studying Arabic withFreytag and Sanskrit withLassen. On passing throughWeimar he visitedGoethe, who notes that fact in his journal.
In 1828 he went to Paris with the assistance of the young poetMichael Beer, the brother ofMeyerbeer. Here also, as in Berlin, he at first supported himself by tutoring, among his pupils being the young brothersAlphonse andGustave de Rothschild. In 1838 he was appointed cataloguer ofHebrew,Chaldaic,Syriac, andArabic manuscripts in theBibliothèque Nationale de Paris.
Munk now devoted himself to the study of theJudæo-Arabic literature of the Middle Ages and to the works ofMaimonides, more especially the latter'sMoreh Nebukim. He went direct to the Arabic original, supplementing the texts he found at the Bibliothèque from texts he had copied at Oxford. At the same time he made a thorough study ofAristotle, who is constantly quoted byMaimonides. In this way he gathered the necessary material for his edition of the Arabic text of theMoreh, with translation and annotations, which he published in three large volumes, long after he had become blind (1856, 1861, 1866). He had lost his eyesight in 1850 while in the course of cataloguing theSanskrit and Hebrew manuscripts in the possession of the library.
Munk accompaniedMontefiore andCrémieux toEgypt in connection with theDamascus affair; and it was due to his knowledge of Arabic (although some claim that the credit is due toLouis Loewe) that the word "justice" was substituted for "mercy" in thefirman ofMohammed Ali which exculpated the accused from the charge ofritual murder. It was also largely due to his efforts that schools modeled on European methods of instruction were established by theEgyptian Jews.
AtCairo he purchased a considerable number of Arabic and Hebrew manuscripts on behalf of the Bibliothèque Nationale. On his return Munk was elected secretary of the Consistoire Central des Israélites de France; on December 3, 1858, he was elected a member of theAcadémie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres; and a few years later he was appointed professor of Hebrew at theCollège de France, in succession toRenan. He died in Paris.
Under the namePalestine, we comprehend the small country formerly inhabited by the Israelites, and which is today part of Acre and Damascuspachalics. It stretched between 31 and 33° N. latitude and between 32 and 35° degrees E. longitude, an area of about 1300French:lieues carrées. Some zealous writers, to give the land of the Hebrews some political importance, have exaggerated the extent of Palestine; but we have an authority for us that one can not reject.St. Jerome, who had long traveled in this country, said in his letter to Dardanus (ep. 129) that the northern boundary to that of the southern, was a distance of 160 Roman miles, which is about 55French:lieues. He paid homage to the truth despite his fears, as he said himself, of availing thePromised Land to pagan mockery, "Pudet dicere latitudinem terrae repromissionis, ne ethnicis occasionem blasphemandi dedisse uideamur".[1][2]
Munk's works include the following:
Between 1834 and 1838 he contributed to theTemps articles on Biblical, Hebrew, and Sanskrit literature. Mention must also be made of his interpretations of Phoenician inscriptions at Marseilles and on the sarcophagus ofEshmun'azar, King of Sidon, which he deciphered after losing his sight; of his discovery of the Arabic manuscript ofAl-Biruni's description of India, written in the first part of the eleventh century; and of his letter toF. Arago, of the Academy of Sciences, relating to a question on the history of astronomy, which gave rise to a controversy betweenBiot andSédillot.
Sous le nom dePalestine, nous comprenons le petit pays habité autrefois par les Israélites, et qui aujourd'hui fait partie des pachalics d'Acre et de Damas. Il s'étendait entre le 31 et 33° degré latitude N. et entre le 32 et 35° degré longitude E., sur une superficie d'environ 1300 lieues carrées. Quelques écrivains jaloux de donner au pays des Hébreux une certaine importance politique, ont exagéré l'étendue de la Palestine; mais nous avons pour nous une autorité que l'on ne saurait récuser. Saint Jérôme, qui avait longtemps voyagé dans cette contrée, dit dans sa lettre à Dardanus (ep. 129) que de la limite du nord jusqu'à celle du midi il n'y avait qu'une distance de 160 milles romains, ce qui fait environ 55 lieues. Il rend cet hommage à la vérité bien qu'il craigne, comme il le dit lui-même de livrer par laterre promise aux sarcasmes païens. (Pudet dicere latitudinem terrae repromissionis, ne ethnicis occasionem blasphemandi dedisse uideamur)
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906)."Munk, Salomon".The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.
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