Karl Vilhelm Zetterstéen (18 August 1866 – June 1, 1953) was a Swedish professor and orientalist.

Biography

Zetterstéen was born at Orsa in

Dalarna Dalarna (; ), also referred to by the English exonyms Dalecarlia and the Dales, is a (historical province) in central Sweden. Dalarna adjoins Härjedalen, Hälsingland, Gästrikland, Västmanland and Värmland. It is also bordered by Nor ...

, Sweden. He began his studies at

Uppsala University Uppsala University (UU) () 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 operation. Initially fou ...

in 1884, became a Ph.D. and

docent The term "docent" is derived from the Latin word , which is the third-person plural present active indicative of ('to teach, to lecture'). Becoming a docent is often referred to as habilitation or doctor of science and is an academic qualifi ...

Semitic languages The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. They include Arabic, Amharic, Tigrinya language, Tigrinya, Aramaic, Hebrew language, Hebrew, Maltese language, Maltese, Modern South Arabian language ...

in 1895. He also studied under professor

Eduard Sachau Carl Eduard Sachau (20 July 1845 – 17 September 1930) was a German orientalist. He taught Josef Horovitz and Eugen Mittwoch. Biography He studied oriental languages at the Universities of Kiel and Leipzig, obtaining his PhD at Halle in 186 ...

(1845–1930) at the

University of Berlin The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humbol ...

. He was acting professor of Oriental languages at

Lund University Lund University () is a Public university, public research university in Sweden and one of Northern Europe's oldest universities. The university is located in the city of Lund in the Swedish province of Scania. The university was officially foun ...

1895-1904 and professor of Semitic languages in Uppsala 1904–1931. He became emeritus 1931. As a semitist, Zetterstéen was foremost an Arabic philologist, but he was also well-oriented in non-Semitic languages such as

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

, Turkish and Nubian. Beside a large number of text editions and studies, he published a Swedish translation of the

Qur'an The Quran, also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation directly from God ('' Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which consist of individual verses ('). Besides ...

and wrote several articles in the

Nordisk familjebok (, 'Nordic Family Book') is a Swedish language, Swedish encyclopedia that was published in print from between 1876 and 1993, and that is now fully available in digital form via Project Runeberg at Linköping University. The public domain edit ...

as well as a number of popular works.

Translations & Editions

* *

(Stockholm, 1917) * * * * *
Shams al-'ulum wa-dawa' kalam al-'Arab min al- kulum
'' (‘The sun of Wisdom and Remedy for the Arabic Language's Lesions’) by Nashwān ibn Saʻīd al-Ḥimyarī*

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zettersteen, Karl Vilhelm Swedish philologists Arabists Linguists from Sweden 1866 births 1953 deaths People from Orsa Municipality Uppsala University alumni Quran translators Swedish orientalists Academic staff of Lund University Academic staff of Uppsala University Members of the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala