Carl Bezold (18 May 1859 in Donauwörth – 21 November 1922 in

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German: ') is a city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914, of which roughly a quarter consisted of students ...

) was a German orientalist. Known primarily for his research in

Akkadian Akkadian or Accadian may refer to: * Akkadians, inhabitants of the Akkadian Empire * Akkadian language, an extinct Eastern Semitic language * Akkadian literature, literature in this language * Akkadian cuneiform Cuneiform is a logo-syllabic ...

(

Babylonia Babylonia (; Akkadian: , ''māt Akkadī'') was an ancient Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Syria). It emerged as an Amorite-ruled state c ...

Assyria Assyria ( Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the A ...

n), he also researched other

Semitic languages The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken by more than 330 million people across much of West Asia, the Horn of Africa, and latterly North Africa, Malta, West Africa, Chad, and in large immigrant ...

: Syriac, Ge'ez (Ethiopic) and

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

.Bezold, Carl Christian Ernst
@ NDB/ADB Deutsche Biographie

Biography

He was educated at the Universities of

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and ...

and

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

, where he studied with Assyrologist Friedrich Delitzsch. In 1883, he obtained his

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including ...

at Munich with a thesis titled ''Die Schatzhöhle; aus dem syrischen texte dreier unedirten Handschriften'' ("The Treasure Trove", second part issued in 1888). Later on, he spent several years working at the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. In 1894, he became a full professor at the

University of Heidelberg } Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, ...

Contributions

At the British Museum, he arranged and cataloged the large collection of

cuneiform Cuneiform is a logo- syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Middle East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. It is named for the characteristic wedge- ...

texts from the

Library of Ashurbanipal The Royal Library of Ashurbanipal, named after Ashurbanipal, the last great king of the Assyrian Empire, is a collection of more than 30,000 clay tablets and fragments containing texts of all kinds from the 7th century BC, including texts in var ...

Nineveh Nineveh (; akk, ; Biblical Hebrew: '; ar, نَيْنَوَىٰ '; syr, ܢܝܼܢܘܹܐ, Nīnwē) was an ancient Assyrian city of Upper Mesopotamia, located in the modern-day city of Mosul in northern Iraq. It is located on the eastern ba ...

, publishing "Catalogue of Cuneiform Tablets in the Kouyundjik Collection of the British Museum", (1889) as a result. In London, he also recorded the clay tablets of El-Amarna (Egypt), of which he published "The Tell el-Amarna Tablets in the British Museum", (1892). In 1884, along with Fritz Hommel, he founded the journal ''Zeitschrift für Keilschriftforschung und verwandte Gebiete'', which in 1886 was superseded by the ''Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und verwandte Gebiete''. Bezold was sole publisher of the journal in the period from 1886 to 1922, during which 34 volumes were published. In 1909, he edited and printed the Ethiopic epic '' Kebra Nagast'', collating the most valuable texts and with critical notes. In June 1901, he was awarded the honorary degree of

Doctor of Laws A Doctor of Law is a degree in law. The application of the term varies from country to country and includes degrees such as the Doctor of Juridical Science (J.S.D. or S.J.D), Juris Doctor (J.D.), Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), and Legum Doctor ...

(DLL) from the

University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

. In 1926, his Babylonian-Assyrian glossary ("''Babylonisch-assyrisches Glossar''") was published posthumously by his widow, Adele Bezold, and Hittitologist

Albrecht Goetze Albrecht Ernst Rudolf Goetze (January 11, 1897 – August 15, 1971) was a German-American Hittitologist. Goetze was born in Leipzig, Germany in 1897. His father, Rudolf Goetze, was a psychiatrist. He began studies in Munich in 1915, but left to ...

.OCLC WorldCat
Babylonisch-assyrisches Glossar

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bezold, Carl 1859 births 1922 deaths German orientalists German Assyriologists Syriacists German sinologists Heidelberg University faculty People from Donauwörth German male non-fiction writers