Henrik Samuel (H.S.) Nyberg (28 December 1889 – 9 February 1974) was a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

scholar of broad interest and a well known expert 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

Arab studies Arab studies or Arabic studies is an academic discipline centered on the study of Arabs and Arab World. It consists of several disciplines such as anthropology, sociology, linguistics, historiography, archaeology, cultural studies, economics, geog ...

.Carlo G. Cereti, "NYBERG, Henrik Samuel" in Encyclopaedia Iranica
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Life

Nyberg was born in Söderbärke in Southern

Dalecarlia Dalarna () is a '' landskap'' (historical province) in central Sweden. English exonyms for it are Dalecarlia () and the Dales. Dalarna adjoins Härjedalen, Hälsingland, Gästrikland, Västmanland and Värmland. It is also bordered by Norway i ...

(Sweden) on 28 December 1889. When he was 19, he moved to

Uppsala Uppsala (, or all ending in , ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the county seat of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inha ...

to undertake university courses. There, he studied from Classical languages to

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

and to the Semitic idioms. Nyberg set up the

Middle Persian Middle Persian or Pahlavi, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg () in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasanian Empire. For some time after the Sasanian collapse, Middle Per ...

curriculum as a possible subject of study at the University of Uppsala and he felt the need for teaching it by meeting Western scholarly standards. Nyberg’s single most important contribution to the study of Iranian religions is his ''Irans forntida religioner'' (1937). Overall, Nyberg was a scholar of extremely broad interests, competent in a number of different fields, both in Semitic and Iranian studies. He taught at the

Fjellstedt School The Fjellstedt School (Swedish: ) was a private boarding school in Uppsala, Sweden, founded in 1862 and closed in 1982, with the main aim of preparing students for academic studies in theology and the priesthood in the Lutheran Church of Swed ...

and

Uppsala University Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in opera ...

. He was a member of the

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences ( sv, Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien) is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special ...

from 1943, and of the

Swedish Academy The Swedish Academy ( sv, Svenska Akademien), founded in 1786 by King Gustav III of Sweden, Gustav III, is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, Royal Academies of Sweden. Its 18 members, who are elected for life, comprise the highest Swedish lang ...

(on seat number 3) from 1948. Nyberg had many distinguished students in Iranian Studies, among them

Geo Widengren Geo Widengren (24 April 1907 – 28 January 1996) was a Swedish historian of religions, professor of history of religions at Uppsala University, orientalist and Iranist. Widengren wrote a series of works on Iranian religions (in particular Manic ...

, Stig Wikander, Sven S. Hartman, and Bo Utas. His daughters were the language scholar ( Icelandic) and translator Ingegerd Fries and journalist, travel author and Orientalist Sigrid Kahle. Kahle married John Kahle, a West German diplomat and son of

Paul Kahle Paul Ernst Kahle (January 21, 1875 in Hohenstein, Prussia – September 24, 1964 in Düsseldorf) was a German orientalist and scholar. Biography Kahle studied orientalism and theology in Marburg and Halle. He attained his doctorate in 1898. ...

, while Fries married Sigurd Fries, great-grandson of renowned Swedish

mycologist Mycology is the branch of biology concerned with the study of fungus, fungi, including their genetics, genetic and biochemistry, biochemical properties, their Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy and ethnomycology, their use to humans, including as a so ...

Elias Fries Elias Magnus Fries (15 August 1794 – 8 February 1878) was a Swedish mycologist and botanist. Career Fries was born at Femsjö (Hylte Municipality), Småland, the son of the pastor there. He attended school in Växjö. He acquired an ...

Works

*''Kitāb al-Intiṣār by al-Khayyāṭ'' *''Frahang ī Pahlavīg'' (''The Middle Iranian dictionary of ideograms'')

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nyberg, Henrik Samuel Iranologists Academic staff of Uppsala University Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Members of the Swedish Academy 1889 births 1974 deaths Burials at Uppsala old cemetery