Friedrich Carl Andreas (14 April 1846 in Batavia – 4 October 1930 in Göttingen) was an orientalist of German, Malay and Armenian parentage (descendant of the Bagratuni or Bagratid royal family ( Armenian: Բագրատունի). He was the husband of psychoanalyst Lou Andreas-Salomé. He received his education in Iranian and other oriental studies at several German universities, obtaining his doctorate at Erlangen in 1868 with a thesis on the Pahlavi language. Following graduation, he continued his research of Pahlavi in Copenhagen. From 1875 he spent several years conducting field studies in Persia and India, during which time, he also worked as a postmaster.Andreas, Friedrich Carl
In: Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB). Band 1, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1953, , S. 284.Andreas, Friedrich Carl
Iranica Online From 1883 to 1903 he gave private lessons in

Turkish Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities and mi ...

and Iranian in Berlin, and afterwards became a professor of Iranian philology at the University of Göttingen. Here, he was tasked with deciphering manuscript fragments that were collected by the German Turfan expeditions in western China. Not a prolific author of books, he preferred to share his knowledge with students and colleagues orally. His primary focus were the Iranian languages in their development from antiquity to the present; e.g. Afghan,

Balochi Balochi, sometimes spelt in various other ways, may refer to: * Balochi language, a language of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan * an adjective for something related to the Baloch people, an ethnic group of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan * an adjecti ...

, Ossetian and Kurdish languages. He was also thoroughly familiar with Sanskrit,

Hindustani Hindustani may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Hindustan (another name of India) * Hindustani language, an Indo-Aryan language, whose two official norms are Hindi and Urdu * Fiji Hindi, a variety of Eastern Hindi spoken in Fiji, and ...

, Arabic, Aramaic, Hebrew, Armenian and

. In addition, he was considered an excellent decipherer of manuscripts and inscriptions. Due to his linguistic talents, he was appointed to the "Königlich Preußische Phonographische Kommission" (Royal Prussian Phonographic Commission). The purpose of the commission was to record the approximately 250 languages spoken by the prisoners of German WWI PoW camps.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Andreas, Friedrich Carl 1846 births 1930 deaths People from Batavia, Dutch East Indies University of Erlangen-Nuremberg alumni University of Göttingen faculty German orientalists Iranologists Members of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities