Karl Jahn (orientalist)

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Karl Emil Oskar Jahn (born March 26, 1906 in Brno ; † November 7, 1985 in Utrecht ) was an orientalist , Islamic scholar , Iranist and Turkologist . One focus of his work was Rashīd ad-Dīn .

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Karl Jahn was the son of a regional finance councilor. After attending elementary school and the humanistic grammar school , he began studying chemistry at the University of Brno , but went to Prague a year later , where he first studied art history, history and archeology, then oriental studies (Semitic and Arabic with Adolf Grohmann and Max Grünert, as well as Persian and Turkish with Jan Rypka and Grünert). At the same time he developed an interest in Slavic languages ​​and literature, especially Czech and Russian.

In 1929 he studied Arabic with August Fischer , Assyriology with Heinrich Zimmer and Hittitology with Johannes Friedrich and Arabic dialectology with Hans Stumme at the University of Leipzig . After completing his doctorate with a dissertation, Studies in Arabic Epistology , Jahn studied in Berlin in 1931 with Hans Heinrich Schaeder and Willi Bang-Kaup . He also made the acquaintance of Zeki Velidi Togan . In 1934 he stayed in Istanbul to study manuscripts , and later he traveled to Turkey again and again for this purpose. From 1935 and 1936 to 1942 Jahn taught Turkish as a lecturer at the German University in Prague ; at the same time he was employed at the university library. In 1937 he became a member of the German Oriental Society . In 1938 he completed his habilitation at the German University in Prague with a thesis on Raschīd ad-Dīns Dschami 'at-tawarich . In April 1939 he joined the NSDAP (membership number 7.165.101). On October 18, 1940, the Reich Ministry of Science, Education and National Education appointed him as a lecturer (previously an unpaid activity) or as a civil servant on revocation according to Section 30 (1) of the German Civil Service Act .

In 1942, Jahn became assistant librarian at the University Library in Halle . At the same time he was acting head of the library of the German Oriental Society in Halle. From 1942 until the end of the war, he also worked as an interpreter for Turkish for the Wehrmacht . This led him to the German-occupied Netherlands, where he was assigned to a unit of Azerbaijanis who worked on the German fortifications on the Dutch coast. After a short trip to Prague, he returned to the Netherlands in April 1945 and was taken prisoner of war . He was soon dismissed and worked as a language teacher in the Netherlands until he, with the help of orientalists, at the University of Utrecht , including Jan Gonda and Johan Hendrik Kramers , from 1947 and 1948, initially as a private lecturer, from March 1, 1950 as an honorary professor for Turkic languages and Slavic languages ​​at the University of Utrecht. On July 1, 1951, Jahn became a scientific officer at the University of Leiden (as a Turkish teacher), whereby the previously stateless person probably acquired Dutch citizenship . On July 24, 1953, Jahn was appointed associate professor for Turkish and Persian at the University of Leiden (at the same time he remained active in Utrecht).

From 1955 Jahn was editor-in-chief of the Central Asiatic Studies, which he founded, and of the Central Asiatic Journal ; In 1957 he was a co-founder of the Permanent International Altaistic Conference . In the 1960s, Jahn supervised the preparations for History of Iranian Literature , the 1968 English-language edition of the literary history written by Rypka and other Iranists, which was a standard work in the 20th century. In 1965 and 1967 he was visiting professor for the history of Central Asia at Istanbul University; he also received honorary membership in the Türk Tarih Kurumu . In 1967 Jahn became a corresponding member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences . In 1969 he traveled to Iran for the first time , where he took part as a guest of honor at a symposium on Rashīd ad-Dīn in Tehran and Tabriz . Jahn and John Andrew Boyle published the accompanying report Rashīd Al-Dīn commemoration volume . In 1971 he again traveled to Iran to take part in the 2500th anniversary of the Persian monarchy. In 1979 he received the Prize for Altaic Studies from Indiana University .

Jahn was co-editor of Die Welt des Islams for several years .

From 1969 Jahn stayed mainly in Vienna , where he moved in 1973 after his retirement from his Dutch professorships. From 1969 and 1974 to 1983 he taught as a visiting professor at the University of Vienna .

Approx. In 1980, at the invitation of the Soviet Academy of Sciences , Jahn was able to travel to Uzbekistan , where he stayed in Samarqand and Buxoro .

In 1983 Jahn returned to the Netherlands.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o JTP de Bruijn: Jahn, Karl Emil Oskar . In: Ehsan Yarshater (ed.): Encyclopædia Iranica . Volume XIV (4), as of April 10, 2012 (English, including references)
  2. ^ Andreas Tietze: Karl Jahn . In: Almanach of the Austrian Academy of Sciences 136, 1986, p. 421 ( PDF ).
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g Ekkehard Ellinger: German Oriental Studies at the Time of National Socialism 1933–1945 . Deux-Mondes-Verlag, Edingen-Neckarhausen 2006, p. 494f.
  4. ↑ a b Andreas Tietze: Karl Jahn . In: Almanach of the Austrian Academy of Sciences 136, 1986, p. 422 ( PDF ).
  5. ↑ Ekkehard Ellinger: German Oriental Studies at the Time of National Socialism 1933–1945 . Deux-Mondes-Verlag, Edingen-Neckarhausen 2006, p. 38.
  6. ↑ Ekkehard Ellinger: German Oriental Studies at the Time of National Socialism 1933–1945 . Deux-Mondes-Verlag, Edingen-Neckarhausen 2006, p. 163.
  7. ↑ a b c d e Andreas Tietze: Karl Jahn . In: Almanach of the Austrian Academy of Sciences 136, 1986, p. 423 ( PDF ).
  8. ↑ a b c Andreas Tietze: Karl Jahn . In: Almanach of the Austrian Academy of Sciences 136, 1986, p. 424 ( PDF ).
personal data
SURNAME Jahn, Karl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Jahn, Karl Emil Oskar (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian-Dutch orientalist, Islamic scholar, Iranist and Turkologist
DATE OF BIRTH March 26, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Brno , Austria-Hungary
DATE OF DEATH November 7, 1985
Place of death Utrecht , Netherlands