Hartwig Derenbourg


Hartwig Derenbourg was a French Orientalist.

Biography

Hartwig Derenbourg was born in Paris, where he studied Hebrew, Arabic, and other Semitic languages as a pupil of Joseph Toussaint Reinaud, Salomon Ulmann and his father, orientalist Joseph Derenbourg. He furthered his education at Göttingen as a student of Ferdinand Wüstenfeld, Heinrich Ewald and Ernst Bertheau, and at the University of Leipzig under Christoph Krehl and Heinrich Leberecht Fleischer. After receiving his degree, he worked at the Bibliothèque Impériale, where he continued preparation of the catalogue of Arabic manuscripts. From 1875 he taught classes in Arabic grammar at the École spéciale des langues orientales, attaining the chair of Arabic literature in 1879. In 1885 he was named professor of Islamism and of the religions of Arabia at the École pratique des hautes études in Paris. He died in Paris, aged 64.

Published works

He produced a number of important translations of Arabic texts. Among these are the following: