Franz Rosenthal
Encyclopedia
Franz Rosenthal was the Louis M. Rabinowitz professor of Semitic languages
at Yale from 1956 to 1967 and Sterling Professor
Emeritus of Arabic
, scholar of Arabic literature
and Islam
at Yale
from 1967 to 1985.
Rosenthal was born in Berlin
, Germany
in to a Jewish family, on August 31, 1914, and was the second son of Kurt W. Rosenthal, a flour merchant, and Elsa Rosenthal (née Kirschstein). He entered the University of Berlin in 1932, where he studied classics and oriental languages and civilizations. His teachers were Carl Becker
(1876–1933), Richard Walzer
(1900–75), and Hans Heinrich Schaeder (1896–1957). He received his Ph.D.
in 1935 with a dissertation, supervised by Schaeder, on Palmyrenian
inscriptions (Die Sprache der Palmyränischen Inschriften).
After teaching for a year in Florence
, Italy, he became instructor at the Lehranstalt (formerly Hochschule) für die Wissenschaft des Judentums
, a rabbinical seminary in Berlin. In 1938, he completed his history of Aramaic
studies, which was awarded the Lidzbarski Medal and Prize from the Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft
. The prize money was withheld from him because he was Jewish, yet on Schaeder's initiative, he was given a prize medal in gold to compensate him for the loss.
Shortly after the infamous Kristallnacht
, Rosenthal left Germany in December 1938 and went to Sweden, where he was invited through the offices of the Swedish historian of religions H.S. Nyberg
(1889–1974). From there he went to England, where he arrived in April 1939, and eventually came to the United States in 1940, having received an invitation to join the faculty of the Hebrew Union College
(HUC) in Cincinnati, Ohio. He became a US citizen in 1943 and during the war worked on translations from Arabic for the Office of Strategic Services in Washington, D.C. Following the war, he returned to academia, first at HUC and then in 1948 moved to the University of Pennsylvania
. In 1956, he was appointed the Louis M. Rabinowitz Professor of Semitic Languages at Yale
. He became a Sterling Professor
in 1967 and emeritus
in 1985.
Professor Rosenthal was a prolific and highly accomplished scholar who contributed much to the development of source-critical studies in Arabic in the US. His publications range from a monograph on Humor in Early Islam to a three-volume annotated translation of the Muqaddimah
of Ibn Khaldun
to a Grammar of Biblical Aramaic. For his translation of the Muqaddimah, he traveled to Istanbul and studied the manuscript there, among them Ibn Khaldun's autograph copy. His 1952 History of Muslim Historiography was the first study of this enormous subject. He wrote extensively on Islamic civilization, including The Muslim Concept of Freedom, The Classical Heritage in Islam, The Herb: Hashish
versus Medieval Muslim Society, Gambling in Islam, On Suicide in Islam and Sweeter Than Hope: Complaint and Hope in Medieval Islam, as well as three volumes of collected essays and two volumes of translations from the history of the medieval Persian
historian al-Tabari
, Knowledge Triumphant: The Concept of Knowledge in Medieval Islam (Leiden: EJ. Brill
, 1970). Rosenthal continued to publish in German and in English. His books have been translated into Arabic, Russian, and Turkish.
Semitic languages
The Semitic languages are a group of related languages whose living representatives are spoken by more than 270 million people across much of the Middle East, North Africa and the Horn of Africa...
at Yale from 1956 to 1967 and Sterling Professor
Sterling Professor
A Sterling Professorship is the highest academic rank at Yale University, awarded to a tenured faculty member considered one of the best in his or her field...
Emeritus of Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
, scholar of Arabic literature
Arabic literature
Arabic literature is the writing produced, both prose and poetry, by writers in the Arabic language. The Arabic word used for literature is adab which is derived from a meaning of etiquette, and implies politeness, culture and enrichment....
and Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
at Yale
YALE
RapidMiner, formerly YALE , is an environment for machine learning, data mining, text mining, predictive analytics, and business analytics. It is used for research, education, training, rapid prototyping, application development, and industrial applications...
from 1967 to 1985.
Rosenthal was born in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
in to a Jewish family, on August 31, 1914, and was the second son of Kurt W. Rosenthal, a flour merchant, and Elsa Rosenthal (née Kirschstein). He entered the University of Berlin in 1932, where he studied classics and oriental languages and civilizations. His teachers were Carl Becker
Carl Heinrich Becker
Carl Heinrich Becker was a German scholar on Islam, with many articles in the first edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam to his credit. As a politician he was minister of culture and education in the state of Prussia.Becker was born in Amsterdam...
(1876–1933), Richard Walzer
Richard Rudolf Walzer
Richard Rudolf Walzer was a German-born British expert on Greek philosophy.Education: Werner-Siemens-Realgymnasium, Berlin-Schöneberg; Frederick William University of Berlin.-Career:...
(1900–75), and Hans Heinrich Schaeder (1896–1957). He received his Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in 1935 with a dissertation, supervised by Schaeder, on Palmyrenian
Palmyra
Palmyra was an ancient city in Syria. In the age of antiquity, it was an important city of central Syria, located in an oasis 215 km northeast of Damascus and 180 km southwest of the Euphrates at Deir ez-Zor. It had long been a vital caravan city for travellers crossing the Syrian desert...
inscriptions (Die Sprache der Palmyränischen Inschriften).
After teaching for a year in Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
, Italy, he became instructor at the Lehranstalt (formerly Hochschule) für die Wissenschaft des Judentums
Wissenschaft des Judentums
Wissenschaft des Judentums , refers to a nineteenth-century movement premised on the critical investigation of Jewish literature and culture, including rabbinic literature, using scientific methods to analyze the origins of Jewish traditions.-The Verein für Cultur und Wissenschaft der Juden:The ...
, a rabbinical seminary in Berlin. In 1938, he completed his history of Aramaic
Aramaic language
Aramaic is a group of languages belonging to the Afroasiatic language phylum. The name of the language is based on the name of Aram, an ancient region in central Syria. Within this family, Aramaic belongs to the Semitic family, and more specifically, is a part of the Northwest Semitic subfamily,...
studies, which was awarded the Lidzbarski Medal and Prize from the Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft
Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft
The Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft , in English the German Oriental Society, is a scholarly organization dedicated to studies of Asia and the broader Orient....
. The prize money was withheld from him because he was Jewish, yet on Schaeder's initiative, he was given a prize medal in gold to compensate him for the loss.
Shortly after the infamous Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht, also referred to as the Night of Broken Glass, and also Reichskristallnacht, Pogromnacht, and Novemberpogrome, was a pogrom or series of attacks against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on 9–10 November 1938.Jewish homes were ransacked, as were shops, towns and...
, Rosenthal left Germany in December 1938 and went to Sweden, where he was invited through the offices of the Swedish historian of religions H.S. Nyberg
Henrik Samuel Nyberg
Henrik Samuel Nyberg was a Swedish scholar of broad interest and a well known expert of Iranology and Arab studies.-Life:Nyber was born in Söderbärke in Southern Dalecarlia on the 28th of December 1889. When he was 19, he entered Uppsala to undertake university coures. There he studied from...
(1889–1974). From there he went to England, where he arrived in April 1939, and eventually came to the United States in 1940, having received an invitation to join the faculty of the Hebrew Union College
Hebrew Union College
The Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion is the oldest extant Jewish seminary in the Americas and the main seminary for training rabbis, cantors, educators and communal workers in Reform Judaism.HUC-JIR has campuses in Cincinnati, New York, Los Angeles and Jerusalem.The Jerusalem...
(HUC) in Cincinnati, Ohio. He became a US citizen in 1943 and during the war worked on translations from Arabic for the Office of Strategic Services in Washington, D.C. Following the war, he returned to academia, first at HUC and then in 1948 moved to the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
. In 1956, he was appointed the Louis M. Rabinowitz Professor of Semitic Languages at Yale
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
. He became a Sterling Professor
Sterling Professor
A Sterling Professorship is the highest academic rank at Yale University, awarded to a tenured faculty member considered one of the best in his or her field...
in 1967 and emeritus
Emeritus
Emeritus is a post-positive adjective that is used to designate a retired professor, bishop, or other professional or as a title. The female equivalent emerita is also sometimes used.-History:...
in 1985.
Professor Rosenthal was a prolific and highly accomplished scholar who contributed much to the development of source-critical studies in Arabic in the US. His publications range from a monograph on Humor in Early Islam to a three-volume annotated translation of the Muqaddimah
Muqaddimah
The Muqaddimah , also known as the Muqaddimah of Ibn Khaldun or the Prolegomena , is a book written by the Maghrebian Muslim historian Ibn Khaldun in 1377 which records an early view of universal history...
of Ibn Khaldun
Ibn Khaldun
Ibn Khaldūn or Ibn Khaldoun was an Arab Tunisian historiographer and historian who is often viewed as one of the forerunners of modern historiography, sociology and economics...
to a Grammar of Biblical Aramaic. For his translation of the Muqaddimah, he traveled to Istanbul and studied the manuscript there, among them Ibn Khaldun's autograph copy. His 1952 History of Muslim Historiography was the first study of this enormous subject. He wrote extensively on Islamic civilization, including The Muslim Concept of Freedom, The Classical Heritage in Islam, The Herb: Hashish
Hashish
Hashish is a cannabis preparation composed of compressed stalked resin glands, called trichomes, collected from the unfertilized buds of the cannabis plant. It contains the same active ingredients but in higher concentrations than unsifted buds or leaves...
versus Medieval Muslim Society, Gambling in Islam, On Suicide in Islam and Sweeter Than Hope: Complaint and Hope in Medieval Islam, as well as three volumes of collected essays and two volumes of translations from the history of the medieval Persian
Persian people
The Persian people are part of the Iranian peoples who speak the modern Persian language and closely akin Iranian dialects and languages. The origin of the ethnic Iranian/Persian peoples are traced to the Ancient Iranian peoples, who were part of the ancient Indo-Iranians and themselves part of...
historian al-Tabari
Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari
Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari was a prominent and influential Sunni scholar and exegete of the Qur'an from Persia...
, Knowledge Triumphant: The Concept of Knowledge in Medieval Islam (Leiden: EJ. Brill
Brill Publishers
Brill is an international academic publisher founded in 1683 in Leiden, the Netherlands. With offices in Leiden and Boston, Brill today publishes more than 134 journals and around 600 new books and reference works each year...
, 1970). Rosenthal continued to publish in German and in English. His books have been translated into Arabic, Russian, and Turkish.
Selected Works
- "Humor in Early Islam" 1956.
- The Muslim Concept of Freedom Prior to the Nineteenth Century 1960.
- A Grammar of Biblical Aramaic 1961.
- An Aramaic handbook 1967.
- The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History 1967 The first complete translation in English of Introduction to the History of the World by 14th century Islamic scholar and statesman Ibn KhaldunIbn KhaldunIbn Khaldūn or Ibn Khaldoun was an Arab Tunisian historiographer and historian who is often viewed as one of the forerunners of modern historiography, sociology and economics...
. - Knowledge Triumphant: The Concept of Knowledge in Medieval Islam 1970 (reprinted 2007 with a Preface by Dimitri Gutas).
- "Sweeter Than Hope"": Complaint and Hope in Medieval Islam 1983.
- General Introduction, And, From the Creation to the Flood, translation of the History of Tabari 1985.
- The Classical Heritage in Islam 1994.
External links
- http://books.google.com/books?id=2eIUAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA7&dq=mutanabbi&ei=62wLSfOSIIGSyAS-i9HUBQ#PPP9,M1 "Sweeter Than Hope" By Franz Rosenthal
- http://opa.yale.edu/news/article.aspx?id=3711 In Memoriam: Franz Rosenthal
- http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DEFD6123AF933A15757C0A9659C8B63 Franz Rosenthal, 88, Interpreter and Scholar