Oriental seminar at the University of Frankfurt am Main

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The Oriental Seminar is an institution of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main in the Faculty 9 Linguistics and Cultural Studies . It belongs to the Institute for Oriental and East Asian Philologies .

The Frankfurt Oriental Studies deals in research and teaching with the science of the languages ​​and literatures of the Middle East. In addition, Islamic studies is another focus.

In the last few months before its final closure after moving out of the cultural and linguistic building in Dantestrasse, the seminar is now in the Juridicum on the Bockenheim campus .

Overview of the professorships

history

The seminar is shaped by an eventful history, which a number of important and globally respected scientists have drawn with their handwriting.

Foundation: A Jewish foundation

The Frankfurt-born Jewish banker Jakob Heinrich Schiff , one of the founders of Goethe University, donated one on July 15, 1913

"Ordinary chair for Semitic Philology with consideration of the Targumischen and Talmudischen literature at the university to be founded in Frankfurt am Main, and, if an amount is still available from the annual interest after its endowment, any institutes or facilities affiliated to the chair".

In advance, in the journal Jüdisches Litteratur-Blatt (Jg. 33, 1911, pp. 49-54) founded by Rabbi Moritz Rahmer , Hans Bahr had already discussed the need for a chair for talmudic research at the planned Frankfurt University, albeit as Help for the exegesis of the New Testament, which was written in a Jewish environment . This discussion will later be specified in such a way that the chair holder to be won must be someone

“Who is familiar with the innermost spirit of these (Sc. Talmudic) traditions, possibly through a rabbinical upbringing, and yet is a Semitist in the strict sense , so that what is usually lacking in those amateurish endeavors, besides Hebrew, also the other Semitic languages really mastered Arabic and Syriac ”.

Targeted structure

This chair founded by Schiff marks the beginning of Oriental Studies in Frankfurt, which already had a well-known representative in the person of Josef Horovitz . Horovitz built the seminar as director from 1915 until his death in 1931. He became known for his Arabic editions of a prophet biography and for his research on the Koran and its Jewish background . He also worked on a concordance on ancient Arabic poetry, a project that was completed long after his death, also with the participation of the Frankfurt Oriental Seminar.

Courses included an introduction to Arabic as well as exercises on Syrian grammar and the Aramaic dialects. In addition to the Turkish, Persian and Hebrew courses that are still offered today , Sanskrit was also taught at that time . An important part, however, was the introduction to the early history of Islam .

In 1931, the orientalist Martin Plessner qualified as a professor at Horovitz for Semitic Philology and Islamic Studies ; he held the same year his inaugural lecture to obtain the venia legendi on "The History of Science in Islam as a task of modern Islamic studies" so that an idea anticipating that 1982 in Frankfurt, by Fuat Sezgin financed founded and Arabic by a foundation Countries Institute for History of the Arab-Islamic Sciences has been realized.

The history of the sciences, including Arabic, was the specialty of Willy Hartner , who was appointed " Full Professor of the History of Natural Sciences" after the Second World War in 1946. He was succeeded in 1985 by David King , whose main focus was Islamic astronomy and Islamic astronomical instruments. With his departure, the position was canceled.

At the same time as this tradition in the history of science , Gotthold Weil represented research on the history of linguistics and the history of literature in Frankfurt's orientalist academic community. Weil, successor to Josef Horovitz, was director of the seminar from 1931 to 1935, the time of his emigration to Palestine . This flight from Nazi rule , which was due to his forced dismissal, but was certainly also necessary , led him to the Hebrew University in Jerusalem .

Standstill in the Third Reich

After Weil, the endowed professorship for Semitic Philology in the Third Reich and as a result of the chaos of war was no longer filled; only Johann Fück held a teaching position for Arabic and Islamic studies from 1935 to 1938. In 1939 the foundation assets of the general university foundation, the Dr. Adolf Varrentrapp Foundation .

Revival after 1950

In 1950, Hellmut Ritter, an internationally renowned orientalist and connoisseur of Arabic-Persian-Turkish philology, made a special contribution to the development of Arabic and Persian literature through manuscript catalogs, editions and translations. He brought his collection of around 5,000 volumes, which is still unique today, mainly Arabic and Persian, but also Turkish works with him from Istanbul , where he had previously worked as the head of the branch of the German Oriental Society .

After Ritter's retirement in 1956, he was followed by Rudolf Sellheim , whose main work is the cataloging and evaluation of Arabic manuscripts for the history of literature.

Continuity at the turn of the millennium

Since 1995 Hans Daiber , who also deals with the cataloging of Arabic manuscripts and focuses in his work on the role of Islam between antiquity and the Middle Ages, has been entrusted with the leading position. According to a judgment by Martin Plessner, in his dissertation he discovered the Greek-Arabic translation literature as a source for the history of Greek language. Daiber is among other things editor of the series Aristoteles Semitico-Latinus (since 1975) and Islamic Philosophy, Theology and Science. Texts and Studies (since 1982).

Closure of the seminar

In the course of the establishment of centers for smaller subjects in Hesse, by a decision of the CDU-led Hessian government in 2005, the Oriental Seminar in Frankfurt as well as Oriental Studies at the University of Gießen were given up in favor of a major project at the University of Marburg . There was then an immediate freeze on admission for freshmen of Oriental Studies in Frankfurt.

Against this political decision there was resistance on the part of scientists and partly also among the students regarding the choice of location and the approach of the ministry, which was not given in.

After the completion of the last year, teaching will cease as planned from mid-2009. The unique library, built up by specialists over decades and comprising around 45,000 volumes, was relocated to the new location in Marburg in February 2008, despite major protests from students.

Current teaching

Most recently, in addition to Arabic philology, the history of language and literature, the history of Islamic science was the focus of the courses. The seminar offers language courses in Arabic , Persian and Syriac-Aramaic , as well as within the department in Hebrew and Turkish .

The events are aimed primarily at students of Oriental Studies and Empirical Linguistics with a focus on Oriental Philologies, but also related subjects such as Islamic Religious Studies, Jewish Studies and Turkology. The language courses in particular are open to listeners from all disciplines and are very popular.

Scientific character

The historical overview reveals the directions of Frankfurt oriental studies, the complex Judaism-Islam (Horovitz, Weil, Daiber), the history of Arabic language (Weil, Daiber), the history of literature (Horovitz, Ritter, Sellheim, Sezgin, Daiber), the Arabic -Islamic history of science (Plessner, Hartner, King, Sezgin, Daiber) or Islamic philosophy and theology (Daiber).

Well-known former lecturers (selection)

  • Richard Nelson Frye (* 1920), American historian and orientalist, Professor Emeritus at Harvard University

Well-known former students (selection)

  • Gerhard Johannes Botterweck (* 1917; † 1981), theologian, professor at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Bonn
  • Dan Diner (* 1946), historian and writer, director of the Leipzig Simon Dubnow Institute for Jewish History and Culture
  • Shlomo Dov Goitein (* 1900; † 1985), Arabist and Orientalist
  • Stefan Leder (*), orientalist and author, former professor at the University of Halle, chairman of the German Oriental Society, director of the Orient Institute in Beirut
  • Josef Matuz (* 1925; † 1992), historian, orientalist and author, professor of Islamic studies at the University of Freiburg i. Brsg.
  • Friedemann Rex (* 1931), professor of natural sciences at the University of Tübingen
  • Gregor Schoeler (* 1944), historian and orientalist, professor at the University of Basel

See also

Web links