IGNAZ

GOLDZIHER (1850– )  , Jewish Hungarian orientalist, was born in Stuhlweissenburg on the 22nd of June 185o . 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(19o4)and LL.D. of Aberdeen (1906) . His eminence in the sphere of scholarship is due primarily to his careful investigationofpre-Mah'ommedan andMahommedanlaw,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: Beitrdge zur Literaturgeschichte der Schi'a (1874); Beitrage zur Geschichte der Sprachgelehrsamkeit bei den Arabern (Vienna, 1871–1873); Der Mythos bei den Hebraern and seine geschichtliche Entwickelung (Leipzig, 1876; Eng. trans., R . Martineau, London, 1877) ; Muhammedanische Studien (Halle, 1889-189o, 2 vols.); Abhandlungen zur arabischen Philologie (Leiden, 1896–1899, 2 vols.) Buch v . Wesen d .

Seek (ed . 1907) .