BENVENISTE, Émile (born Ezra B.). Aleppo, Syria 25.2. or 27.4.1902 — Versailles 3.10.1976. French Iranian scholar and Linguist. Professor in Paris, naturalized as Frenchman in 1924. Son of Mathieu (Mathatias) Benveniste, of a well known Sephardim family of Turkey (originally of Spain), and Marie Malkenson (an Ashkenazi from Lithuania), both…
BENFEY, Theodor. Nörten bei Göttingen 28.1.1809 — Göttingen 26.6.1881. German Indologist and IE Scholar. Professor in Göttingen. Born in a Jewish family, son of Isaak Benfey (1763–1832), a merchant and Talmud scholar, who also taught Hebrew to his son, and Caroline Salomon (1774–1838). School and from 1824 studies in Göttingen…
BENDER, Ernest. Buenos Aires 2.1.1919 — Newton Square, co. Delaware, PA 18.4.1996. U.S. Indologist. Professor in Philadelphia. Born in Argentina as U.S. citizen, son of Morris A. Bender (1887–1951) and his wife Celia, came to Philadelphia in the age of four. Educated there, began studies of classics at Temple University…
BENARY, Franz Simon Ferdinand. Kassel 22.3.1805 — Berlin 7.2.1880. German Indologist and Orientalist. Professor in Berlin. Born in Kassel in a Jewish family, as a son of the banker Salmon Levy (1770–1828; from 1818 Benary) and Gutheil Meilert (1778–1833), brother of —> Agathon Benary (1807–1860). The family took the name…
BEAMES, John William. Greenwich 21.6.1837 — Clevedon, Somerset 24.5.1902. British Civil servant and Indologist in India, a Pioneer of Comparative NIA Studies. Served in India in 1858-93. The eldest son of the Rev. Thomas Beames (1815–1864) and Susanna Amelia Dewsnap (1811–1868). Educated first at Merchant Taylor’s School, then 1856-57 at…
BAUDOUIN DE COURTENAY, Jan Ignacy Niecisław (Jean, in Russian Ivan Aleksandrovič Boduèn-de-Kurtenè). Radzymin near Warsaw 13.3.1845 — Warsaw 3.11.1929. Famous Polish Linguist. Son of Alexander Baudouin de Courtenay and Jadwiga Dobrzyńska, the family came from France in 1733. Gymnasium in Warsaw (under Leskien). Studies at Jena under Schleicher, then at…
BARTOLI, Matteo Giulio. Albona, Istria (then Austro-Hungarian Empire, now Labin in Croatia) 22.11.1873 — Turin 23.1.1946. Italian Linguist. Son of Vincenzo Bartoli (1840–1926) and Giulia Palisca (1843–1908). Gymnasium in Capodistria, studies in Vienna. Ph.D. 1898 Vienna (Meyer-Lübke). Also studied at Strassburg (Hübschmann) and Paris (Gilliéron). After a short time as…
BARTHOLOMAE, Friedrich Christian Leonhard. Forsthaus in Forstleithen bei Limmersdorf, Landkreis Kulmbach 21.1.1855 — Langeoog, Ostfriesland 9.8.1925. German IE and Iranian Scholar. Professor in Münster, Giessen, and Heidelberg. Son of a forester (Oberforster) Leonhard Bartholomae (d. 1859) and Maria Friederike Aichinger. Gymnasium in Bayreuth. From 1872 studied IE, Indian and Iranian…
BARIĆ, Henrik. Ragusa (now Dubrovnik) 28.1.1888 — Belgrade 3.4.1957. Yugoslavian (Croatian) Linguist. Born of a poor clerical family. Studies at Graz (i.al. Meringer) and Vienna. Ph.D. 1912 Vienna. From 1920 PD, then Professor of Comparative Grammar of IE Languages at Royal Yugoslavian University in Belgrade in the 1930s and till…
BARDELLI, Giuseppe. Brancialino, Pieve S. Stefano, Arezzo 10.4.1815 — Florence 2.10.1865. Abbate. Italian Indologist and Orientalist (Sinologist and Coptic Scholar). Professor at Pisa, one of the first pioneers of Indian studies in Italy. Tuscan, son of Michelangelo Bardelli and Maria Gabrieli. Began his career as a priest after the seminary…