Ignaz Goldziher

He was educated at the universities of Budapest[?], Berlin, Leipzig[?] and Leiden, and became privat docent at Budapest in 1872. In the next year, under the auspices of the Hungarian government, he began a journey through Syria, Palestine and Egypt, and took the opportunity of attending lectures of Mahommedan sheiks in the mosque of el-Azhar in Cairo.

He was the first Jewish scholar to become professor in the Budapest University[?] (1894), and represented the Hungarian government and the Academy of Sciences at numerous international congresses. He received the large gold medal at the Stockholm Oriental Congress in 1889. He became a member of several Hungarian and other learned societies, was appointed secretary of the Jewish community in Budapest. He was made Litt. D. of Cambridge[?] (1904) and LL.D. of Aberdeen (1906). His eminence in the sphere of scholarship is due primarily to his careful investigation of pre-Mahommedan and Mahommedan law, tradition, religion and poetry, in connexion with which he published a large number of treatises, review articles and essays contributed to the collections of the Hungarian Academy.

Among his chief works are:

• Beiträge zur Literaturgeschichte der Shi'a (1874)
• Beiträge zur Geschichte der Sprachgelehrsamkeit bei den Arabern (Vienna, 1871-1873)
• Der Mythos bei den Hebyhern und seine geschichtliche Entwickelung (Leipzig, 1876; Eng. trans., R Martineau, London, 1877)
• Muhammedanische Studien (Halle, 1889-1890, 2 vols.)
• Abhandlungen zur arabischen Philologie (Leiden, 1896-1899, 2 vols.)
• Buch v. Wesen d. Seele (ed. 1907).

Reference

• This entry incorporates public domain text originally from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica.