Charles G. Häberl (born June 22, 1976 in

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

, United States) is an American linguist, religious studies scholar, and professor. He is currently Professor of African, Middle Eastern, and South Asian Languages and Literatures ( AMESALL) and Religion at

Rutgers University Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's C ...

. Häberl's primary interests include

Mandaeism Mandaeism (Mandaic language, Classical Mandaic: ),https://qadaha.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/nhura-dictionary-mandaic-english-mandaic.pdf sometimes also known as Nasoraeanism or Sabianism, is a Gnosticism, Gnostic, Monotheism, ...

, Semitic philology, and

Middle Eastern studies Middle Eastern studies, sometimes referred to as Near Eastern studies, West Asian Studies or South Western Asian studies, is a name given to a number of academic programs associated with the study of the history, culture, politics, economies, an ...

. He is known for his translation of the ''

Mandaean Book of John In Mandaeism, the Book of John () is a Mandaean holy book in Mandaic Aramaic which Mandaeans attribute to their prophet John the Baptist. The book contains accounts of John's life and miracles, as well as a number of polemical conversations w ...

'' in collaboration with

James F. McGrath James Frank McGrath is an American scholar of religion. He is the Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University. He is known for his work on Early Christianity, Mandaeism, criticism of the Christ myth t ...

, as well as for his research on the

Neo-Mandaic Neo-Mandaic, also known as Modern Mandaic, sometimes called the "''ratna''" ( "jargon"), is the modern reflex of the Mandaic language, the liturgical language of the Mandaean religious community of Iraq and Iran. Although severely endangere ...

dialect of

Khorramshahr Khorramshahr (; ) is a city in the Central District of Khorramshahr County, Khuzestan province, Iran, serving as capital of both the county and the district. It is also known in Arabic by the local ethnically Arab population as Al-Muhamma ...

, Iran.

Biography

Häberl was born and raised in

, United States. He holds a PhD degree in Semitic philology from the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

. As part of his doctoral research, Häberl documented the

dialect of

, Iran, collaborating with

Nasser Sobbi Nasser Sobbi (; born March 13, 1924, Khorramshahr; died December 22, 2018, Flushing, Queens) was an Iranian-American Mandaean scribe, manuscript collector, and goldsmith who was known as one of the last remaining fully fluent native speakers of ...

as his primary language consultant. Häberl is currently a professor at

. From 2009 to 2012, he was the Director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Rutgers University and in 2013–2019, chair of the department. He was also the Near East Regional Director for the Catalogue of Endangered Languages. In 2007, the first ever awarded

U.S. Department of Education The United States Department of Education is a United States Cabinet, cabinet-level department of the federal government of the United States, United States government, originating in 1980. The department began operating on May 4, 1980, havin ...

Title VIA Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language (UISFL) program grant to support instruction on

Iranian studies Iranian studies ( '), 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 is a part of the wider field ...

was authored by him. He became an Anna-Maria Kellen Fellow at the

American Academy in Berlin The American Academy in Berlin is a private, independent, nonpartisan research and cultural institution in Berlin dedicated to sustaining and enhancing the long-term intellectual, cultural, and political ties between the United States and German ...

in 2016. In 2021, he was elected president of the

International Linguistic Association The International Linguistic Association (ILA) was founded in 1943 as the Linguistic Circle of New York. Its founding members were academic linguists in the New York area, including many members of the École Libre des Hautes Études in exile. The ...

, which publishes ''

Word A word is a basic element of language that carries semantics, meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of what a word is, there is no consensus among linguist ...

'', and currently serves on the board of the Endangered Language Alliance of NYC.

Selected publications

Monographs

The following is a selection of monographs authored by Häberl. *2009. ''The Neo-Mandaic Dialect of

''. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. (published revision of Häberl's 2006 doctoral dissertation) *2020. ''The

: critical edition, translation, and commentary''. Berlin: De Gruyter. (with

) *2022. ''The

Book of Kings Book of Kings may refer to: * Books of Kings in the Bible * ''Shahnameh'', an 11th-century epic Persian poem * ''Pararaton'', the Javanese Book of Kings, a 16th-century Javanese history of southeast Asia * ''The Book of Kings'', a 1999 World War II ...

and the Explanations of This World: A Universal History from the Late Sasanian Empire''. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.

Articles and chapters

The following is a selection of Häberl's journal articles and book chapters. ;Articles authored * *Häberl, Charles G. (2007). ''Introduction to the New Edition, in The Great Treasure of the Mandaeans, a new edition of J. Heinrich Petermann’s ''Thesaurus s. Liber Magni'', with a new introduction and a translation of the original preface by Charles G. Häberl''. Gorgias Press, LLC. * * * * * * ;Book chapters * *

References

External links

Faculty page
at

Academia.edu
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Haberl, Charles G. 1976 births Living people Rutgers University faculty Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Brown University alumni Religious studies scholars Scholars of Mandaeism Grammarians of Aramaic Academics from New Jersey Linguists from the United States Translators from Mandaic Translators of the Ginza Rabba Semiticists