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Gotthelf Bergsträsser | |
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| Born | (1886-04-05)April 5, 1886 Oberlosa, Plauen, Germany |
| Died | August 16, 1933(1933-08-16) (aged 47) Near Berchtesgaden, Germany |
| Occupation(s) | Linguist, professor |
| Known for | Semitic studies, Arabic linguistics |
Gotthelf Bergsträsser (5 April 1886, inOberlosa,Plauen – 16 August 1933, nearBerchtesgaden) was a Germanlinguist specializing inSemitic studies, generally considered to be one of the greatest of the twentieth century. Bergsträsser was initially a teacher ofclassical languages before deciding to approach Semitic.[1]
He was a professor atIstanbul University duringWorld War I, when he was an officer in the German army stationed inTurkey. While there, he studied the spoken dialects ofArabic andAramaic in Syria and Palestine. One of his most well-known works is the 29th (and final) edition ofWilhelm Gesenius'Hebrew Grammar (1918–1929), which remained incomplete, containing only phonology and morphology of the verb. Also widely admired was hisIntroduction to the Semitic Languages (1928, English 1983). These brought him international fame as a scholar. His last position was professor of Semitic languages at theUniversity of Munich.
Bergsträsser mostly engaged in the study of Arabic, focusing on the history of the text of theQur'an. He worked alongsideArthur Jeffrey, a Methodist minister and professor at theAmerican University in Cairo, filming early Qur'anic manuscripts and studyingqira'at literature in preparation to produce a critical edition of the Qur'an.[2] Bergsträsser left many of his planned works unfinished (including the rest of his Hebrew grammar and his grammar of spoken Aramaic), when he disappeared while mountaineering in Bavaria in 1933.
He was also a historian of Islamic law as evinced by hisGrundzüge des islamischen Rechts (Basics of Islamic Law), which was edited and published posthumously by the famous scholar of Islam,Joseph Schacht (Columbia University). He covers topics such as the indigenous history of Islamic law, contractual law, personal law, family law, criminal law, business law, inheritance law, procedural law, etc.[3]
Bergsträsser was an outspoken anti-Nazi and helped to save German Jewish scholars. Gotthelf Bergsträsser died on the 16th of August in 1933.[4] His companion Friedrich Thiersch recorded an account of his death in a 16 page typed statement to the local authorities recounting that Bergsträsser had fallen off a sharp incline during the excursion and had injured his head. Thiersch had remained with him through the night until Bergsträsser died. His death though was the subject of speculation with some arguing that he was killed by a student for his anti-Nazi views while mountaineering in Bavaria.[2]
