Gustav Leberecht Flügel (February 18, 1802 – July 5, 1870) was a German
orientalist.
Life
After attending high school in his native city Flügel studied theology and philosophy in
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...
. He soon discovered his passion for oriental languages, which he studied in
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
and
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...
. In 1832 he became a professor at the ''
Fürstenschule'' (''Ducal'' or ''Princely school'') of
St. Afra
Saint Afra (died 304) was martyred during the Diocletian persecution. Along with Saint Ulrich, she is a patron saint of Augsburg. Her feast day is August 7. Afra was dedicated to the service of the goddess, Venus, by her mother, Hilaria. Throu ...
in
Meissen
Meissen (in German orthography: ''Meißen'', ) is a town of approximately 30,000 about northwest of Dresden on both banks of the Elbe river in the Free State of Saxony, in eastern Germany. Meissen is the home of Meissen porcelain, the Albre ...
. However, he resigned in 1850 on health grounds. From 1851 he worked at the ''Fürstenbibliothek'' in Vienna on the cataloguing of
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
,
Turkish and
Persian manuscripts. In December 1857 he became a corresponding member of the
Russian Academy of Sciences
The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; russian: Росси́йская акаде́мия нау́к (РАН) ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across t ...
in
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
and, in 1859, a full member of the Saxon Academy of Sciences. In 1864 he was admitted as a foreign member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences.
Flügel 's main work was the creation of a bibliographic and encyclopaedic lexicon of
Haji Khalfa, with Latin translation (London and Leipzig, 1835-1858). Particular importance was attached to his edition of the Qur’ān, printed in Leipzig (1834 and 1893) by the printer and publisher Carl Christoph Traugott Tauchnitz. This made a reliable Quranic text available for the first time to European science. In the following years, almost all translations into European languages were based on Flügel's edition.
He died at
Dresden
Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...
.
[
]
Family
Flügel was married. His son Josef died in 1910 at Oberlandesgerichtsrat in Dresden.
Works, Translations, Critical Essays and Articles
* The Quran
The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , ...
, (Leipzig, 1834 and 1893)
*''Bibliographical and Encyclopaedic Lexicon'' - (Arabic title ''Kaşf az-Zunūn'' by Hadi Khalfa; Arabic with parallel Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
translation in 7 vols., London and Leipzig, 1835–1858). Flügel's magnum opus.
*''Dissertatio de Arabicis Scriptorum Graecorum Interpretibus,'' in Memoriam Anniversariam Scholae Regiae Afranae. (Meisen, Klinkicht, 1841)[''Concordantiae Corani arabicae''. Leipzig 1842, 1898]
digitalized
Kitab al-Fihrist
The ''Kitāb al-Fihrist'' ( ar, كتاب الفهرست) (''The Book Catalogue'') is a compendium of the knowledge and literature of tenth-century Islam compiled by Ibn Al-Nadim (c.998). It references approx. 10,000 books and 2,000 authors.''The ...
'' by Isḥāq al-Nadīm, ed. Flügel (Leipzig, Vogel, 1871)
Publications
''Lexicon bibliographicum et encyclopaedicum''
(Translation of "Al-Kashf Az-Zunun" by Kâtip Çelebi) (Vol.,1; Leipzig, 1835
(Vol.,2; Leipzig, 1837)(Vol.,3; London, 1842)(Vol.,4; London, 1845)(Vol.,5; London, 1850)(Vol.,6; London, 1852)''Corani Textus Arabicus''
(Leipzig, 1834, various reprints down to 1922)
''Concordantiae Corani arabicae''
(Leipzig, 1842 and 1898)
''Mani, Seine Lehren und Seine Schriften''
(Mani
Mani may refer to:
Geography
* Maní, Casanare, a town and municipality in Casanare Department, Colombia
* Mani, Chad, a town and sub-prefecture in Chad
* Mani, Evros, a village in northeastern Greece
* Mani, Karnataka, a village in Dakshina ...
, his teachings and his writings) (Leipzig, 1862)
''Die Grammatischen Schulen der Araber''
(The Grammar Schools of Arabic) (London, 1862)
*''Ibn Kutlulbugas Krone der Lebensbeschreibungen'' (Leipzig, 1862)
''Kitab al-Fihrist''
(published posthumously)
References
External links
Correlation of Cairo and Flugel editions''Concordantiae Corani arabicae''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Flugel, Gustav
1802 births
1870 deaths
People from Bautzen
People from the Electorate of Saxony
German Arabists
German orientalists
German male non-fiction writers
19th-century German translators