Jan Rypka,
PhDr.,
Dr.Sc. (28 May 1886 in
Kroměříž
Kroměříž (; german: Kremsier) is a town in the Zlín Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 28,000 inhabitants. It is known for the Kroměříž Castle with castle gardens, which are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The town centre with the ...
– 29 December 1968 in
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...
) was a prominent Czech
orientalist, translator, professor of
Iranology
Iranian studies ( fa, ايرانشناسی '), also referred to as Iranology and Iranistics, is an interdisciplinary field dealing with the research and study of the civilization, history, literature, art and culture of Iranian peoples. It ...
and
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 cont ...
at
Charles University, Prague.
Jan Rypka was a participant in
Ferdowsi Millenary Celebration
The Ferdowsi millennial celebration ( fa, جشن هزاره فردوسی) was a series of celebrations and scholarly events in the year 1934 to commemorate the thousandth anniversary of Ferdowsi's birth. The Ferdowsi millennial was held at the ...
in
Tehran
Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...
in 1934.
[''Naše řeč'' no. 1, vol. 32 (1948) (Czech)](_blank)
/ref>
Early life
Rypka's father owned a small business. As a child he was given the ''Arabian Nights''. He described the book's effect on his life as breathing "mysterious forces there." After completing his schooling he enrolled at the University of Vienna
The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich hist ...
.[www.libri.cz (Czech)](_blank)
/ref> He graduated in Oriental studies. Then in 1910 he obtained a Doctor of Philosophy in Islamic languages.[ (Czech)]
After graduation Rypka set up a small business of translating Oriental texts. However, he soon left the business because he found a better job, even if not so closely related to his orientalist background, as he was appointed at the Viennese court and university printing office. Rypka moved to Prague following the establishment of the independent Czechoslovak state. There he devoted himself fully to Oriental studies. He also joined the civil service for a short time. In April 1921, he found work as a librarian
A librarian is a person who works professionally in a library providing access to information, and sometimes social or technical programming, or instruction on information literacy to users.
The role of the librarian has changed much over time ...
. That same summer, he was granted a sabbatical leave to travel to Constantinople
la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه
, alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya ( Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis ( ...
. Rypka stayed in Constantinople for nearly a year and a half. In that ancient city he found ample opportunities to know and understand the Orient close up, an experience he put in the book he wrote about his stay in Turkey
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 ...
.
Return From Constantinople
Rypka once again began work at the Ministry of Education
An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...
after returning from Constantinople. He began working on Turkish poetry
Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...
, analyzing the works of such poets as Sabit and Bâkî
Bâḳî (باقى) was the pen name ( Ottoman Turkish: مخلص ''mahlas'') of the Ottoman Turkish poet Mahmud Abdülbâkî (محمود عبدالباقى) . Considered one of the greatest contributors to Turkish literature and Azerbaijani l ...
. Beginning in the 1930s, Rypka moved his focus to Persian poetry. The central figure in his research was the Persian poet Nizami. Another of his key subjects was the medieval poet Ferdowsi. In the fall of 1934 Rypka was invited by the Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
ian government to attend the celebrations of the 1000th anniversary of Ferdous' birth. He ended up spending a full year in Iran, doing academic research. He wrote about his year in Iran in the popular book ''Iranian Pilgrim''.
The Oriental Institute
Rypka was the driving force behind the establishment of the Oriental Institute, of which he was one of the earliest members.www.orient.cas.cz (Czech)
/ref> He contributed to the institute's development, contributing not only as a journalist but as an adviser and patron in its incipient stages. He is even credited with naming the institute's archives, the Archive Oriental.
Works
In 1939 Rypka was appointed dean
Dean may refer to:
People
* Dean (given name)
* Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin
* Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk
* Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean
Titles
* ...
of the Faculty of Arts
A faculty is a division within a university or college comprising one subject area or a group of related subject areas, possibly also delimited by level (e.g. undergraduate). In American usage such divisions are generally referred to as colleges ...
of the Charles University in Prague
)
, image_name = Carolinum_Logo.svg
, image_size = 200px
, established =
, type = Public, Ancient
, budget = 8.9 billion CZK
, rector = Milena Králíčková
, faculty = 4,057
, administrative_staff = 4,026
, students = 51,438
, undergr ...
. During his tenure, he focused the research on Persian poets, notably Labbibi and Farrochi. His biggest achievement was the work on the history of Persian and Tajik literature
Tajik literature and its history is bound up with the standardisation of the Tajik language. Tajik literary centres include the cities of Bukhara and Samarkand, currently in present-day Uzbekistan but with a majority Tajik population and Balkh and ...
, which was published in 1956. The work won critical acclaim from fellow professionals and was translated into many languages.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rypka, Jan
Czech orientalists
Iranologists
Turkish poetry
1886 births
1968 deaths
Members of the Academy of Persian Language and Literature
Academic staff of Charles University