É. Apor , I. Ormos (ed.): Goldziher Memorial Conference, June 21–22, 2000, Budapest.

HOPKINS, Simon: The Language Studies of Ignaz Goldziher

THE LANGUAGE STUDIES OF IGNAZ GOLDZIHER 6. Goldziher's studies in Arabic philology to 1878

1 "

8 But let us return to the first period of Goldziher's career, viz. the period which began in 1868 with his studies in Berlin and Leipzig, was followed by his manuscript researches in European libraries, the Middle Eastern tour of 1873-4, Der Mythos bei den Hebräern (1876) and ended with the publication of A nyelvtudomány történetéről az araboknál [On the History of Grammar among the Arabs] in 1878, Goldziher's one and only monograph devoted to the Arabic language sciences. Having derived but little inspiration from the Arabic instruction offered in Berlin, Goldziher moved to Leipzig in order to study at the feet of H. L. Fleischer (18011888),

19

9 perhaps the greatest Arabic philologist of the 19th century. Fleischer at once recognized in Goldziher a pupil of phenomenal talent, and so did his fellow students, who would refer to Fleischer as "the great sheikh" and to Goldziher as the "little sheikh". Fleischer's regard for the accomplishments of his brilliant young pupil continued to grow over the years, not only by way of detached scholarly admiration for his genius but also by way of friendly concern for his family affairs and of practical help during Goldziher's professional difficulties after his return to Hungary.-"" The publication which first brought Goldziher's name before the wider circles of oriental scholarship in Europe was the previously mentioned (§50) work on Tanhum Yerushalmi. For his Inauguraldissertation Goldziher chose to investigate, under Fleischer's supervision, the 13th-century Jewish Bible exegete and lexicographer Tanhum Yerushalmi and his Judaeo-Arabic writings. Goldziher's Studien über Tanchűm Jerüschalmi was published in Leipzig in 1870 and bore two dedications: one to Baron J. v. Eötvös, the Hungarian government minister who had been instrumental in arranging Goldziher's German Wanderjahre, and another to his erstwhile teacher Vámbéry "in dankbarer Ergebenheit".-"

1 19

8 For this period cf. T. Iványi, The Arabist 23 (2001), 117-124. 19

9 Tagebuch 3 9, 41 ff. :(<

l Tagebuch 77, 115-116; Simon, Letters 38; see too Fleischer's letter to Steinthal dated 17.12.1878 on behalf of "den geist- und kenntnißreichsten aller meiner bisherigen Schüler" published by H. Loewe, Igna: Goldziher. Ein Wort des Gedenkens (n.p., n.d., no pagination [Soncino-Gesellschaft c. 1929]; DeSomogyi in GS 1 xvi and Hanisch, Briefwechsel xiv n. 1. Goldziher wrote two obituaries of his great teacher, one an independent Hungarian pamphlet of over forty pages, Emlékbeszéd Fleischer Leberecht Henrik, a M. Tud. Akadémia kültagja felett [Memorial Speech on Heinrich Leberecht Fleischer, External Member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences], Budapest 1889 = A: arabok 1 415 (synopsis in Heller no. 130), the other in German in the Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie 48 (Leipzig 1904), 584-594 = GS VI 190. l" In the light of Goldziher's subsequent estrangement from Vámbéry, this dedication (1870) is noteworthy. Noteworthy too are the dedications of Der Mythos bei den Hebräern and its English translation: the German original (1876) was inscribed to M. Kármán [= Kleinmann; cf. Tagebuch 286 and see J. Waldapfel in: Semitic Studies in Memory of Immanuel Low, ed. A. Scheiber, Budapest 1947, 175fr.], whereas the translation (1877) 125