ANDREAS, Friedrich Carl. Batavia (Jakarta) 14.4.1846 — Göttingen 3.10.1930. German Iranian Scholar. Professor in Göttingen. Born in Dutch East India as the son of a military physician with Armenian background and German mother, he was sent to Hamburg for school in the age of seven. Matriculated in Geneva. Studies of Oriental languages in 1863-68 at Halle (under Pott), Erlangen (Spiegel & Delitzsch), Göttingen (Ewald & Benfey), and Leipzig (Fleischer). Ph.D. in summer 1868 at Erlangen. Further studies in Copenhagen (also learned Danish), 1870 to army, then 1872-74 in Kiel. In 1874 he was chosen to be the Epigraphist and Archaeologist of an astronomic expedition to Iran, travelled in summer next year to India, where he had to stop in Bombay because of cholera epidemy and was thus able to study the Parsi religion. Arrived in Iran in January 1876. The expedition was concluded in the same year, but Andreas remained in the country making his living giving lessons and having temporary offices, for a while even as the head postmaster of the country. In the fall 1881 he headed the retinue of Persian princes to Europe, travelled through Russia and arrived at Berlin in January 1882. There he became seriously ill and only slowly recovered. Without means he had to give lessons in Oriental languages and do other kinds of jobs for his living. In 1887 he was nominated to the temporary chair of Persian in the just founded Orientalisches Seminar in Berlin, but conflicted with intrigues and had to give up in 1889. A new difficult period of private lessons and such followed. In 1903 a new chair of West Asian Languages was founded at Göttingen University, and this at last gave he a permanent position and an occasion to concentrate on his studies. Married with Lou Salomé (1861–1937), a psychoanalyst, author and friend of Rilke, but the relation was never close and they had no children.
Andreas was a many-sided scholar, mainly a philologist, interested in the modern Persian (much material was collected during his travels and published, partly in collaboration with A. Christensen), in Ossetic, in Iranian Turfan fragments, in Avesta (he emphasized the late date of the extant text and tried to reconstruct the Arsacid text behind it), in Pehlevi, and even in Semitics and Classical philology. He worked hard on his research, but did not care to explain much or to answer to his critics and gained this way the name of “Geheimwissenschaft” for his theories. Some judged them entirely arbitrary, which, according to Lentz, was unfounded. He avoided generalizations and, being a perfectionist, published relatively little. He was unsociable, slept during days and worked during nights, disparaged his colleagues, and was himself very demanding as a teacher. Among his students were: K. Barr, A. Christensen, L. Gaál, W. B. Henning, W. Lentz and H. Lommel.
Publications: Diss. Beiträge zu einer genaueren Kenntnis des mittelpersischen Laut- und Schriftsystems. 1868; The book of the Mainyô-i-Khard, also an old fragment of the Bundehesh. Facs. ed. 79 p. Kiel 1882.
– With F. Stolze: Persepolis. Die achaemenidischen und sasanidischen Denkmäler und Inschriften. 1-2. B. 1882; Die Handelsverhältnisse Persiens. 86 p. Gotha 1885.
– “Die Entstehung des Awesta-Alphabetes und sein ursprünglicher Lautwert”, Verhandlungen des XII. Internationalen Orientalisten-Kongresses in Hamburg 1902. Leiden 1903, 99-106 (the first presentation of his theoriws about the Avesta).
– “Die dritte Ghāthā (sic!) des Zuraxthuštro (Josno 30). Versuch einer Herstellung der älteren Textformen nebst Übersetzung”, NGGW Philol.-hist. Kl. 1909, 42-49; with Wackernagel: “Die vierte Ghāthā des Zuraxthuštro”, NGGW 1911, 1-34; “Die erste, zweite und fünfte Ghāthā des Zuraxthuštro 1.”, NGGW 1913, 363-385 & “2. Anmerkungen”, NGGW 1931, 304–329.
– “Mitteliranische Manichaica aus Chinesisch-Turkestan”, aus dem Nachlass hrsg. von W. B. Henning. SBeAW 1932–34, 3 fasc.; “Bruchstücke einer Pehlevi-Übersetzung der Psalmen”, aus dem N. hrsg. von K. Barr. SBeAW 1933, 91-152.
– Iranische Dialektaufzeichnungen. 1. 503 p. AGGW 3. F. 11. B. 1939; articles on Iranian, etc.
Sources: W. Lentz, ZII 8, 1931, 1–17; W. Lentz, D.N. MacKenzie & B. Schlerath, Encyclop. Iranica 2, 1985, 27-30; E. Littmann, N.D.B. 1, 1953, 284; *G. v. Selle, Idg. Jb. 15, 1931, 366-376 (with photo, also in Rau 50 and in TITUS-Galeria); *uncomplete bibliography by J. Eyser in Festschrift Andreas 1916, 137–142; Wikipedia with photo (more in German version); photo in Pedersen 1959, 186.
*M. Knüppel, Die orientalische Gelehrtenrepublik am Vorabend des Ersten Weltkrieges. Die Briefwechsel zwischen Willi Bang(-Kaup) und Friedrich Carl Andreas aus den Jahren 1889 bis 1914. AAWG 20. B. 2012; *M. Knüppel & A. van Tongerloo, “Fünf Briefe A. Grünwedels an F. C. Andreas aus den Jahren 1904–1916”, ZDMG 162, 2012, 127-140 & *“Einige Briefe F. W. K. Müllers an F. C. Andreas aus den Jahren 1904–1910”, ZDMG 165, 2015, 417-440 & “Aus dem Briefwechsel Walter Bruno Hennings (II) – Briefe an Friedrich Carl Andreas”, RO 70:1, 2017, 171-191.
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