
Portrait of Nöldeke
'Theodor Nöldeke' (
March 2,
1836 - December 25, 1930),
German Semitic scholar, was born at
Harburg, and studied at
Göttingen, Vienna, Leiden and
Berlin.
In 1859 his history of the
Qur'an won for him the prize of the French ''
Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres'', and in the following year he rewrote it in German (''Geschichte des Korans'') and published it with additions at Göttingen. In 1861 he began to lecture at the university of this town, where three years later he was appointed extraordinary professor. In 1868 he became ordinary professor at
Kiel, and in 1872 was appointed to the chair of Oriental languages at
Strassburg, which he resigned in 1906.
Nöldeke’s range of studies were wide and varied, but the main focus of his work has followed the two lines indicated by his prize essay, ''Semitic languages, and the history and civilization of Islam''. While a great deal of his work (e.g. his ''Grammatik der neusyrischen Sprache'', 1868, his ''Mandäische Grammatik'', 1874, and his translations from the
Arabian of
Tabari, 1881-1882) is meant for specialists, many of his books are of interest to the general reader.
Some of Nöldeke's studies are included in
The Origins of The Koran: Classic Essays on Islam’s Holy Book edited by
Ibn Warraq.
Several of his essays first appeared in the ''
Encyclopædia Britannica'', and his article on the Qur'an, with some others, was republished in a volume called ''Oriental Sketches''. The articles dealing with
Persia were republished in a German volume, ''Aufsätze zur persischen Geschichte'' (Leipzig, 1887).
Selected Bibliography
★ ''Das Leben Mohammeds'' (1863)
★ ''Beiträge zur Kenntnis der Poesie der alten Araber'' (1864)
★ ''Die alttestamentliche Literatur'' (1868)
★ ''Untersuchungen zur Kritik des Alten Testaments'' (1869)
★ ''Reste Arabischen Heidentums'' (1887)
★ ''Zur Grammatik des klassischen Arabisch'' (1896)
★ ''Fünf Mo'allaqat, übersetzt und erklärt'' (1899-1901)
★ ''Beiträge zur semitischen Sprachwissenschaft'' (1904).
He has contributed frequently to the ''Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft'', the ''Göttingische gelehrte Anzeigen'' and the ''Expositor''.
References
★
Articles
★
THE QUR'AN An Introduction
External links
★
A biography and bibliography of Theodor Nöldeke in the
Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon website
★
Arabic Translation of "History of the Qur'an" from Georges Tamer as free PDF-Download