Friedrich (von) Spiegel (11 July 1820 in

Kitzingen Kitzingen () is a town in the Germany, German state of Bavaria, capital of the Kitzingen (district), district Kitzingen. It is part of the Franconia geographical region and has around 21,000 inhabitants. Surrounded by vineyards, Kitzingen County i ...

– 15 December 1905 in

München Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

) was a German orientalist. He was one of the pioneers in the field of

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

philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and writing, written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defin ...

Biography

He was born in

, studied at

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 ...

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 wel ...

, and

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...

, then spent five years in the libraries of

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

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. S ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, and

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, and from 1849 to 1890 was professor of oriental languages in the University of Erlangen. His early studies on

Pali Pali () is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pāli Canon'' or ''Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of ''Theravāda'' Buddhism ...

and the publication of the ''Kammavâkya'' (1841) and the ''Ancedota Palica'' (1845) did much for the knowledge of southern

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...

. They were quickly followed by his researches on

Zoroastrianism Zoroastrianism is an Iranian religions, Iranian religion and one of the world's History of religion, oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian peoples, Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster. It has a Dualism in cosmology, du ...

and the

Avesta The Avesta () is the primary collection of religious texts of Zoroastrianism, composed in the Avestan language. The Avesta texts fall into several different categories, arranged either by dialect, or by usage. The principal text in the litu ...

. The edition of the greater part of the extant Avesta, together with the

Pahlavi Pahlavi may refer to: Iranian royalty *Seven Parthian clans, ruling Parthian families during the Sasanian Empire *Pahlavi dynasty, the ruling house of Imperial State of Persia/Iran from 1925 until 1979 **Reza Shah, Reza Shah Pahlavi (1878–1944 ...

translation (1853–58), was followed by a German version (1852–63), and supplemented by a commentary (1865–69). He published a number of Persian works, as well as grammars of the

Old Persian Old Persian is one of the two directly attested Old Iranian languages (the other being Avestan language, Avestan) and is the ancestor of Middle Persian (the language of Sasanian Empire). Like other Old Iranian languages, it was known to its native ...

and Old

Bactrian language Bactrian (, , ) is an extinct Eastern Iranian language formerly spoken in the Central Asian region of Bactria (in present-day Afghanistan) and used as the official language of the Kushan, and the Hephthalite empires. Name It was long thought t ...

s. Then came the valuable linguistic and archaeological works, ''Die altpersischen Keilinschriften'' (1862), ''Erân'' (1863), ''Erânische Altertumskunde'' (1871–78), ''Vergleichende Grammatik der alterânischen Sprachen'' (1882), and ''Die arische Periode und ihre Zustände'' (1887).

Literary works

* ''Kammavâkya'' (Bonn, 1841) * ''Anecdota palica'' (Leipzig, 1845) * ''Kommentar über das Avesta'' (Leipzig, 1865–69, 2 vols.) * ''Grammatik der altbaktrischen Sprache'' (Leipzig, 1867) * ''Chrestomathia persica'' (Leipzig, 1845) * ''Grammatik der Pârsisprache'' (Leipzig, 1851) * ''Einleitung in die traditionellen Schriften der Parsen'' (Leipzig, 1856–60, 2 vols.) * ''Die altpersischen Keilinschriften im Grundtext, mit Übersetzung, Grammatik und Glossar'' (Leipzig, 1862, 2nd ed. 1881) * ''Erân, das Land zwischen dem Indus und Tigris'' (Berlin, 1863) * ''Arische Studien'' (Leipzig, 1873) * ''Erânischen Altertumskunde'' (Leipzig, 1871–78, 3 vols.) * ''Vergleichende Grammatik der alterânischen Sprachen'' (Leipzig, 1882) * ''Die arische Periode und ihre Zustände'' (Leipzig, 1887) * “Beiträgen zur vergleichenden Sprachforschung,” in ''Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft''

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Spiegel, Friedrich 1820 births 1905 deaths People from Kitzingen Old Persian language German orientalists University of Bonn alumni Translators from Old Persian Translators from Avestan 19th-century translators 19th-century German writers 19th-century German male writers German male non-fiction writers