Salomon Munk (14 May 1803 – 5 February 1867) was a German-born Jewish-French Orientalist.

Biography

Munk was born in Gross Glogau in the

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (, ) was a German state that existed from 1701 to 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Rev. ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1946. It played a signif ...

. He received his first instruction in

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

from his father, an official of the Jewish community; and on the latter's death he joined the

Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...

class of R. Jacob Joseph Oettinger. At the age of fourteen he was able to officiate as " ba'al ḳoreh" (reader of the Torah) in the synagogue of the Malbish 'Arummim society at Gross Glogau. In 1820 he went to Berlin, where he came into friendly relations with

Leopold Zunz Leopold Zunz (—''Yom Tov Tzuntz'', —''Lipmann Zunz''; 10 August 1794 – 17 March 1886) was the founder of academic Judaic Studies ('' Wissenschaft des Judentums''), the critical investigation of Jewish literature, hymnology and ritual. Nah ...

and with the philologist A. W. Zumpt, studying

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

and

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

with E. Gans. Two years later he entered the Joachimsthaler Gymnasium, supporting himself at the same time by tutoring. In 1824 he entered the

University of Berlin The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humbol ...

, attending the lectures of Böckh,

Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a 19th-century German idealism, German idealist. His influence extends across a wide range of topics from metaphysical issues in epistemology and ontology, to political phi ...

, and especially of

Bopp Polypropylene (PP), also known as polypropene, is a thermoplastic polymer used in a wide variety of applications. It is produced via chain-growth polymerization from the monomer propylene. Polypropylene belongs to the group of polyolefins and is ...

. As no Jews were at that time eligible for government positions in Prussia, Munk left the university without taking a degree, deciding to go to France. However, he first spent one term at the

University of Bonn The University of Bonn, officially the Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (), is a public research university in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the () on 18 October 1818 by Frederick Willi ...

, studying Arabic with Freytag and Sanskrit with

Lassen Lassen is a Danish language, Danish and Norwegian language, Norwegian patronymic surname meaning "son of Lars" (equivalent of Laurentius), and thus a parallel form of the more common surname Larsen. Notable people with the surname include: * Ander ...

. On passing through

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state (Germany), German state of Thuringia, in Central Germany (cultural area), Central Germany between Erfurt to the west and Jena to the east, southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together w ...

he visited

Goethe Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...

, who notes that fact in his journal. In 1828 he went to Paris with the assistance of the young poet Michael Beer, the brother of

Meyerbeer Giacomo Meyerbeer (born Jakob Liebmann Meyer Beer; 5 September 1791 – 2 May 1864) was a German opera composer, "the most frequently performed opera composer during the nineteenth century, linking Mozart and Wagner". With his 1831 opera ''Ro ...

. Here also, as in Berlin, he at first supported himself by tutoring, among his pupils being the young brothers Alphonse and

Gustave de Rothschild Gustave Samuel James de Rothschild, Baron de Rothschild (17 February 1829 in Paris – 28 November 1911 in Paris), was a French banker and scion of the French branch of the Rothschild family. Early life He was the second son of James Mayer de ...

. In 1838 he was appointed cataloguer of

, Chaldaic, Syriac, and

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

manuscripts in the

Bibliothèque Nationale A library is a collection of books, and possibly other materials and media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or digital (soft copies) materials, and may be a p ...

de Paris. Munk now devoted himself to the study of the Judæo-Arabic literature of the Middle Ages and to the works of

Maimonides Moses ben Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (, ) and also referred to by the Hebrew acronym Rambam (), was a Sephardic rabbi and Jewish philosophy, philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah schola ...

, more especially the latter's ''

Moreh Nebukim ''The Guide for the Perplexed'' (; ; ) is a work of Jewish theology by Maimonides. It seeks to reconcile Aristotelianism with Rabbinical Jewish theology by finding rational explanations for many events in the text. It was written in Judeo-Arabic ...

''. He went direct to the Arabic original, supplementing the texts he found at the Bibliothèque from texts he had copied at Oxford. At the same time he made a thorough study of

Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...

, who is constantly quoted by

. In this way he gathered the necessary material for his edition of the Arabic text of the ''Moreh'', with translation and annotations, which he published in three large volumes, long after he had become blind (1856, 1861, 1866). He had lost his eyesight in 1850 while in the course of cataloguing the

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

and Hebrew manuscripts in the possession of the library.

Journey to Egypt

Munk accompanied

Montefiore Montefiore may refer to: People * Montefiore (surname), several people with the surname Montefiore, in particular **Sir Moses Montefiore (1784–1885), a prominent British financier, stockbroker, banker and philanthropist Places * Montefiore, a ...

and

Crémieux Crémieux is a French surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Adolphe Crémieux, (1796–1880) French lawyer and statesman * Fernand Crémieux (1857–1928), French lawyer and politician * Hector-Jonathan Crémieux, French playwright an ...

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

in connection with the Damascus affair; and it was due to his knowledge of Arabic (although some claim that the credit is due to

Louis Loewe Louis Loewe (1809–1888; also Louis Löwe) was a Silesian linguist. He served as principal and director of Judith Theological College for twenty years; he was a member of the Royal Asiatic Society, Numismatic Society and of the Asiatic Soc ...

) that the word "justice" was substituted for "mercy" in the ''

firman A firman (; ), at the constitutional level, was a royal mandate or decree issued by a sovereign in an Islamic state. During various periods such firmans were collected and applied as traditional bodies of law. The English word ''firman'' co ...

'' of Mohammed Ali which exculpated the accused from the charge of

ritual murder Human sacrifice is the act of killing one or more humans as part of a ritual, which is usually intended to please or appease deity, gods, a human ruler, public or jurisdictional demands for justice by capital punishment, an authoritative/prie ...

. It was also largely due to his efforts that schools modeled on European methods of instruction were established by the

Egyptian Jews The history of the Jews in Egypt goes back to ancient times. Egyptian Jews or Jewish Egyptians refer to the Jewish community in Egypt who mainly consisted of Egyptian Arabic-speaking Rabbanites and Karaites. Though Egypt had its own community ...

. At

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

he purchased a considerable number of Arabic and Hebrew manuscripts on behalf of the Bibliothèque Nationale. On his return Munk was elected secretary of the Consistoire Central des Israélites de France; on December 3, 1858, he was elected a member of the

Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres The () is a French learned society devoted to history, founded in February 1663 as one of the five academies of the . The academy's scope was the study of ancient inscriptions (epigraphy) and historical literature (see Belles-lettres). History ...

; and a few years later he was appointed professor of Hebrew at the

Collège de France The (), formerly known as the or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment () in France. It is located in Paris near La Sorbonne. The has been considered to be France's most ...

, in succession to Renan. He died in Paris.

Quotes

* 1845: ''Palestine, Description Géographique, Historique et Archéologique," in "L'Univers Pittoresque'' ;

Under the name ''Palestine'', we comprehend the small country formerly inhabited by the Israelites, and which is today part of Acre and Damascus pachalics. It stretched between 31 and 33° N. latitude and between 32 and 35° degrees E. longitude, an area of about 1300 . Some zealous writers, to give the land of the Hebrews some political importance, have exaggerated the extent of Palestine; but we have an authority for us that one can not reject.
St. Jerome Jerome (; ; ; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was an early Christian priest, confessor, theologian, translator, and historian; he is commonly known as Saint Jerome. He is best known for his translation of the Bible ...
, who had long traveled in this country, said in his letter to Dardanus (ep. 129) that the northern boundary to that of the southern, was a distance of 160 Roman miles, which is about 55 . He paid homage to the truth despite his fears, as he said himself, of availing the ''Promised Land'' to pagan mockery, "".

Works

Munk's works include the following: *Le Guide des égarés (his edition of the ''Moreh'')
Volume 1 (1856)

Volume 2 (1861)

Volume 3 (1866)
*"Reflexions sur le Culte des Anciens Hébreux," in vol. iv. of the Bible of

S. Cahen Samuel Cahen (4 August 1796, Metz, France – 8 January 1862, Paris) was a French Hebraist and journalist. Early life Cahen was brought up at Mainz. He pursued a course of rabbinical studies while simultaneously devoting much attention to moder ...

*"Notice sur R. Saadia Gaon et sur une Version Persane d'Isaie" (ib. vol. ix) *"Palestine, Description Géographique, Historique et Archéologique," in "L'Univers Pittoresque," 1845 (translated into German by M. A. Levy, 1871–72) (Volume 4 of "L'Univers pittoresque ou histoire et description de tous les peuples, de leurs religions, moeurs, coutumes, industries: Asie") *"Mélanges de Philosophie Juive et Arabe," 1859 *"Notice sur Abul Walid Merwan ibn Djanah et d'Autres Grammairiens Hébreux du X. et du XI. Siècle," 1850-51 (crowned by the Institut with the "Prix Volney") *"Rapport sur les Progrès des Etudes Sémitiques en France de 1840-1866," in the "Recueil de Rapports" of the Exposition of 1867. Between 1834 and 1838 he contributed to the ''Temps'' articles on Biblical, Hebrew, and Sanskrit literature. Mention must also be made of his interpretations of Phoenician inscriptions at Marseilles and on the sarcophagus of Eshmun'azar, King of Sidon, which he deciphered after losing his sight; of his discovery of the Arabic manuscript of

Al-Biruni Abu Rayhan Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Biruni (; ; 973after 1050), known as al-Biruni, was a Khwarazmian Iranian scholar and polymath during the Islamic Golden Age. He has been called variously "Father of Comparative Religion", "Father of modern ...

's description of India, written in the first part of the eleventh century; and of his letter to F. Arago, of the Academy of Sciences, relating to a question on the history of astronomy, which gave rise to a controversy between

Biot The British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) is an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom situated in the Indian Ocean, halfway between Tanzania and Indonesia. The territory comprises the seven atolls of the Chagos Archipelago with over 1,000 ...

and Sédillot.

References

External links

Digitized works by Salomon Munk
at the

Leo Baeck Institute, New York The Leo Baeck Institute New York (LBI) is a research institute in New York City dedicated to the study of German-Jewish history and culture, founded in 1955. It is one of three independent research centers founded by a group of German-speaking J ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Munk, Salomon 1803 births 1867 deaths Emigrants from the Kingdom of Prussia Immigrants to France French orientalists German orientalists Jewish orientalists 19th-century German Jews People from Głogów People from the Province of Silesia Members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres Academic staff of the Collège de France German male non-fiction writers Judeo-Arabic literature Historical geographers Humboldt University of Berlin alumni