WALLENIUS, Ivar Ulrik. Akaa 30.1.1793 — Helsinki 23.5.1874. Finnish Orientalist (originally Arabic Scholar). Son of Rev. Johan W. and Anna Lovisa Favorin (d. 1798). School (from 1804) and studies (from 1811) in Turku. M.A. 1815, Docent of Arabic 1817, Associate Professor of Oriental Literature 1824. In 1817-24 Assistant in University Library. In 1828 moved with the University from Turku to Helsinki. Forced to retire in 1852, when all Associate Professorships were suspended. In the 1820s and early 1830s he taught Arabic and Hebrew. On several occasions acted as a deputy for the chair of Oriental Literature. Unmarried, a shy man who mostly avoided society.
Wallenius started Sanskrit teaching at Helsinki University in 1835 (using Nala as text), in the 1840s he also taught New Persian and Armenian. His Sanskrit, supposedly modest, he had learnt from books. His only student to continue with Sanskrit studies was Kellgren.
Publications: Never published anything except a dissertation in two parts, Corani Sura LVII Arabice et Suethice. 2+12 & 2+13-20 p. Aboae 1816-19.
Sources: Carpelan & Tudeer, Helsingin yliopisto. Opettajat ja virkamiehet vuodesta 1828. Helsinki 1925; K. Karttunen, “From the Early Days of Finnish Indology. III. Ivar Ulrik Wallenius”, Studia Orientalia 82, 1997, 209–214; K. Karttunen in D. Thomas & Cl. Chesworth (eds.), Christian-Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History. Vol. 17. Great Britain, the Netherlands and Scandinavia (1800–1914). Leiden & Boston 2021, 573-575.
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