SAINT-MARTIN, Antoine-Jean. Paris 17.1.1791 — Paris 17.7.1832 (Brosset & S. de Sacy say 10.7.). French Oriental (mainly Armenian) Scholar. Son of a tradesman, he first planned commercial career, but at Collège des Quatre-Nations learned Persian, Syriac, Turkish and especially Arabic and Armenian and thus became interested in languages and student…
WULFF, Kurt. Hellerup 4.9.1881 — Copenhagen 4.5.1939. Danish Linguist (Indologist, South-East and East Asian Scholar and Sinologist). Librarian in Copenhagen. Son of Peter Wulff (1841–1898), a cigar manufacturer, and Emma Catharina Mathilde Heydorn (1846–1926), a Holsteinian (German, but politically on Danish side) family. Matriculated in 1900, studied classics at Copenhagen,…
WILSON, Horace Hayman. London 26.9.1786 (date uncertain) — London 8.5.1860. British Indologist. In India 1808-32, then Professor in Oxford. Born in a modest family. Educated at Soho Academy in London and from 1804 studied medicine at St.Thomas’ Hospital, but also learned the elements of minting. In 1808 left forBengal as…
WILKINS, Charles. Frome, Somerset bapt. 21.6.1749 (not 1750!) — London 13.5.1833. Sir. British Pioneer of Indology. In India 1770-86. Son of Hugh Wilkins (Sengupta Walter Wilkins) and Mary Wray, a modest family. Trained as a printer. Joining the E.I.C.’s service he came to India as a printer and writer in…
WILKEN, Friedrich. Ratzeburg, Holstein 23.5.1777 — Berlin 24.12.1840. German Historian and Oriental Scholar. Professor in Heidelberg and Berlin. Of modest origin, son of Christian Erich Wilken, a valet, and his wife Sophie. After Domschule of Ratzeburg from 1795 studies of theology and history at Göttingen, also Oriental languages under J.…
WEISSBACH, Franz Heinrich (until 1890 Weisbach). Chemnitz 25.11.1865 — Markkleeberg near Leipzig 20.2.1944. German Assyriologist. Librarian in Leipzig. Son of Franz Robert Weissbach, a hat maker, and Clara Auguste Leonhardt. Gymnasium in Chemnitz and Zwickau. From 1885 studies of classical and Oriental (F. Delitzsch) philology and theology at Leipzig. Ph.D.…
WEIBGEN, Günther. 1896 — 1948. German Indologist. Studied at Berlin (1921 already there) under Lüders. He was too early employed in Berlin library (succeeding Nobel from 1928) and had never time to complete even his Ph.D. Oberbibliothekar 1944. He was well remembered by colleagues because of his great helpfulness. Served…
ROTH, Walther Rudolf (von). Stuttgart 3.4.1821 — Tübingen 23/24.6.1895. German Indologist. Professor in Tübingen. Son of an official (Oberrevisor), Christoph Wilhelm Roth (1781–1834) and Caroline Regine Walther (d. 1825), of a family of Lutheran priests and teachers, lost his father in the age of 13, but was cared for by…
ROST, Ernst Reinhold. Eisenberg, Sachsen-Altenburg 2.2.1822 — Canterbury 7.2.1896 (thus Wikipedia, Weise & Wollaston; Stache-Weiske 2007 d. London 15.2.1896). German Indologist and South-East Asian Scholar in the U.K. Son of Christian Friedrich Rost, a Lutheran minister. After school in Altenburg studies of theology and Oriental languages at Jena (under Gildemeister). Ph.D. 1847…
RIEU, Charles Pierre Henri. Geneva 8.6.1820 — London 19.3.1902. Swiss Indologist and Oriental Scholar in the U.K. Professor of Arabic in Cambridge. Son of an officer (later the first syndic of Geneva), Jean Louis Rieu (1788–1868), and Marie Françoise Lasserre. After Geneva Academy studies of Arabic (Freytag, Gildemeister), Sanskrit (Lassen),…