Ernst Friedrich Karl Rosenmüller (10 December 1768 in Heßberg (

Hildburghausen Hildburghausen () is a town in Thuringia in central Germany, capital of the Hildburghausen district. Geography It is situated in the Franconian part of Thuringia south of the Thuringian Forest, in the valley of the Werra River. The town centre ...

) – 17 September 1835 in

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

) was a German Orientalist and

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

theologian Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of ...

Biography

He was the eldest son of the rationalist theologian Johann Georg Rosenmüller. His brother Johann Christian Rosenmüller (1771 – 1820) was a prominent German anatomist. He became identified with the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December 1409 by Frederick I, Electo ...

, first as a student, in 1792 as a tutor, extraordinary professor of Arabic in 1796, and ordinary professor of Oriental languages from 1813 to the time of his death, 1835. He promoted the study of the

Arabic language Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

, brought within the reach of theologians the rapidly increasing knowledge of his day with reference to the conditions of the East, and endeavored to raise the exposition of the language and statements of the Old Testament to the level of the science of his day. His Bible commentaries and Arab lexical studies were significant scholarly achievements.

Publications

* ''Scholia in Vetus Testamentum'' (16 pts., 1788–1817; excerpted in 5 pts., 1828–35) * ''Handbuch für die Litteratur der biblischen Kritik und Exegese'' (4 pts., 1797–1800) * ''Institutiones ad fundamenta linguae arabicae'' (1818) * ''Das alte und neue Morgenland, oder Erläuterungen der heiligen Schrift aus der natürlichen Beschaffenheit, den Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuchen des Morgenlands'' (6 vols., 1818–20) * ''Handbuch der biblischen Alterthumskunde'' (4 vols., 1823–31), of which portions concerning the flora, fauna and mineralogy of the Holy Land were translated into English: ** ''Biblical Geography of Asia Minor, Phoenicia, and Arabia'' (1836) ** ''Biblical Geography of Central Asia'' (2 vols., 1836–37) ** ''Mineralogy and Botany of the Bible'' (1840

* ''Analecta Arabica'' (1824) Further, he published editions of Samuel Bochart, Bochart's ''Hierozoicon'' (1796) with notes by himself, and of Lowth's ''Prælectiones'' (Leipsic, 1815), and brought out a pocket edition of the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Hahn's edition of 1830.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rosenmuller, Ernst Friedrich Karl 19th-century German Protestant theologians German orientalists Academic staff of Leipzig University 1768 births 1835 deaths People from Hildburghausen (district) 19th-century German male writers German male non-fiction writers