Georg Jacob (26 May 1862 – 4 July 1937) was a scholar of

Islamic studies Islamic studies refers to the academic study of Islam, and generally to academic multidisciplinary "studies" programs—programs similar to others that focus on the history, texts and theologies of other religious traditions, such as Easter ...

and an Orientalist. He founded

Turkology Turkology (or Turcology or Turkic studies) is a complex of humanities sciences studying languages, history, literature, folklore, culture, and ethnology of people speaking Turkic languages and Turkic peoples in chronological and comparative conte ...

as a modern academic discipline in Germany.

Life

Jacob studied Arabic geography at the Universität Greifswald, achieving his ''

Habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...

'' in 1892. In 1896 he became an Extraordinary Professor at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität in

Erlangen Erlangen (; East Franconian German, East Franconian: ''Erlang'', Bavarian language, Bavarian: ''Erlanga'') is a Middle Franconian city in Bavaria, Germany. It is the seat of the administrative district Erlangen-Höchstadt (former administrative d ...

, and in 1888-90 he was assistant librarian at the Royal Library in Berlin. In 1911 he was made Chair of Oriental Studies at the

Christian-Albrechts-Universität Kiel University, officially the Christian-Albrecht University of Kiel, (german: Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, abbreviated CAU, known informally as Christiana Albertina) is a university in the city of Kiel, Germany. It was founded in ...

Kiel Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021). Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the J ...

, succeeding . As (''ordinarius'') for 'Semitic and Islamic Philology' at the university, Jacob was the first German professor to have a chair incorporating Islamic studies, reflecting a tentative institutional willingness to allow the field of Semitic language study to expand to include the Islamic world, including the non-Semitic, Turkic-speaking world. In Kiel, Jacob 'was director of the Oriental institute at the university .. which consisted of one room serving as his office, as classroom and as library. Luckily the room had a high ceiling, thus ample wall space was available for the book shelves'. 1922–23 saw him serving as Rector of the university, and he was the honorand of a Festschrift in 1932. Though beginning with research on Arabic history and literature, Jacob turned his attention progressively towards Persian and Turkish studies, especially the latter. His work was characterised by its wide-ranging, internationalist outlook, and 'the customs and institutions of the common people'.Charles C. Torrey, review of ''Festschrift Georg Jacob'' by Theodor Menzel and ''The Macdonald Presentation Volume'', ''Journal of the American Oriental Society'', 54 (1934), 89–91 (p. 89), DOI: 10.2307/594329
/ref> In 1892, Jacob attended a

shadow puppet Shadow play, also known as shadow puppetry, is an ancient form of storytelling and entertainment which uses flat articulated cut-out figures (shadow puppets) which are held between a source of light and a translucent screen or scrim. The cut-ou ...

performance in Istanbul. That experience led him to a lifetime fascination with, and scholarly research into, the subject of shadow play. Jacob was rare in the German academy of his day for specialising in Ottoman-Turkish studies, and was the first translator and editor of modern Turkish literature in the German-speaking world, founding the Türkische Bibliothek series published by Mayer & Müller in Berlin.

Major works

* ''Das Leben der vorislâmischen Beduinen.'' (Studien in arabischen Dichtern, Heft III) Mayer & Müller, Berlin 1895 * ''Das türkische Schattentheater.'' Berlin, 1900 * ''Die Geschichte des Schattentheaters im Morgen- und Abendland''. 1. Auflage 1907, 2., erweiterte Auflage 1925 (1972), * ''Arabische Berichte von Gesandten an germanische Fürstenhöfe aus dem 9. und 10. Jahrhundert.'' Ins Deutsche übertragen und mit Fussnoten versehen von Georg Jacob. Berlin 1927.

Biographical sources

Ernst Dammann Ernst Karl Alwin Hans Dammann (6 May 1904 in Pinneberg, Holstein – 12 July 2003 in Pinneberg ) was a German Africanist. With Walter Markov, he was one of the founders of African Studies in the DDR, and as a student of Carl Meinhof and the ...

: "Erinnerungen an Georg Jacob (1862–1937)." In:

Klaus Kreiser Klaus is a German, Dutch and Scandinavian given name and surname. It originated as a short form of Nikolaus, a German form of the Greek given name Nicholas. Notable persons whose family name is Klaus * Billy Klaus (1928–2006), American baseb ...

(ed.): ''Germano-Turcica. Zur Geschichte des Türkisch-Lernens in den deutschsprachigen Ländern'', Universitätsbibliothek Bamberg, Bamberg 1987, , pp. 113–118. * Norbert Diekmann: ''Georg Jacob und seine Bedeutung für die Entwicklung der Orientalistik vom 19. zum 20. Jahrhundert.'' In: ''XXX. Deutscher Orientalistentag, Freiburg, 24–28 September 2007. Ausgewählte Vorträge.'' Ed. in association with the DMG by Rainer Brunner, Jens Peter Laut and Maurus Reinkowski, February 2009
PDF
. *

: ''Bektaşî-Miszellen'' (including: ''2. Georg Jacob <1862–1937> als Begründer der Bektaşî-Studien''). In: ''Turcica. Revue d'études turques.'' vols. 21–23, 1991, pp. 115–130; repr. in: ''Istanbul und das Osmanische Reich. Derwischwesen, Baugeschichte, Inschriftenkunde'' (=Analecta Isisiana 14). Isis, Istanbul 1995, pp. 243–256. * Klaus Kreiser: "Jacob, Georg (1862–1937). Alman şarkiyatçısı ve Türkologu." In: ''

Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in S ...

'', vol. 23, Istanbul 2001, pp. 567–568
online
. *

Enno Littmann Ludwig Richard Enno Littmann (16 September 1875, Oldenburg – 4 May 1958, Tübingen) was a German orientalist. In 1906 he succeeded Theodor Nöldeke as chair of Oriental languages at the University of Strasbourg. Later on, he served as a profess ...

: "Georg Jacob (1862–1937)." In: ''Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft.'' vol. 91 (n.F. 16), Nr. 2/3, 1937, pp. 486–500.

References

External links

* * * * C. H. Becker
''Georg Jacob als Orientalist''
ULB Sachsen-Anhalt {{DEFAULTSORT:Jacob, Georg 1862 births 1937 deaths German male non-fiction writers German orientalists