Max Seligsohn (April 13, 1865 – April 11, 1923

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

) was an American Orientalist, born in

Imperial Russia The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. The ...

. Having received his

rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as '' semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form o ...

nical training at

Slutsk Slutsk ( officially transliterated as Sluck, be, Слуцк; russian: Слуцк; pl, Słuck, lt, Sluckas, Yiddish/Hebrew: סלוצק ''Slutsk'') is a city in Belarus, located on the Sluch River south of Minsk. As of 2022, its population i ...

, government ('' guberniya'') of

Minsk Minsk ( be, Мінск ; russian: Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach (Berezina), Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha, Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative stat ...

, he went in 1888 to New York City, where he studied modern languages till 1894, in which year he went to Paris to study Oriental languages, especially

Semitic studies Semitic studies, or Semitology, is the academic field dedicated to the studies of Semitic languages and literatures and the history of the Semitic-speaking peoples. A person may be called a ''Semiticist'' or a ''Semitist'', both terms being equ ...

("'' élève diplômé''" of the ''

École des Langues Orientales Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales ( en, National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations), abbreviated as INALCO, is a French university specializing in the teaching of languages and cultures from the world. ...

'', 1897, and of the '' École des Hautes Études'', 1900). In 1898 he was sent by the

Alliance Israélite Universelle The Alliance Israélite Universelle (AIU; he, כל ישראל חברים; ) is a Paris-based international Jewish organization founded in 1860 with the purpose of safeguarding human rights for Jews around the world. It promotes the ideals of Jew ...

Abyssinia The Ethiopian Empire (), also formerly known by the exonym Abyssinia, or just simply known as Ethiopia (; Amharic and Tigrinya: ኢትዮጵያ , , Oromo: Itoophiyaa, Somali: Itoobiya, Afar: ''Itiyoophiyaa''), was an empire that historica ...

to inquire into the conditions of the Falashas; but, certain difficulties arising, he was able to proceed no farther than

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metr ...

, where he taught for eighteen months. Returning to Paris, he was invited in 1902 to go to New York to become a member of the staff of office editors of ''The

Jewish Encyclopedia ''The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History, Religion, Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People from the Earliest Times to the Present Day'' is an English-language encyclopedia containing over 15,000 articles on th ...

''.

Literary works

* "''Le Diwan de Ṭarafah ibn al-'Abd''" (Paris, 1900), a translation from the

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 ...

into French, with notes and an introduction; a French translation of "''Kitab al-Raml''," an Arabic work on

geomancy Geomancy ( Greek: γεωμαντεία, "earth divination") is a method of divination that interprets markings on the ground or the patterns formed by tossed handfuls of soil, rocks, or sand. The most prevalent form of divinatory geomancy in ...

, with preface and notes * (with E. N. Adler) "''Une Nouvelle Chronique Samaritaine''," Paris, 1903 * (as contributor) "'' Jewish Quarterly Review''" and the "'' Revue des Etudes Juives''", mostly on Judæo-Persian literature

External links

"Seligsohn, Max"
by Cyrus Adler and Frederick T. Haneman. ''

'', 1906. 1865 births 1923 deaths American orientalists Jewish orientalists Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States Linguists from France Linguists from Russia Russian Arabists Russian Hebraists American encyclopedists {{Russia-linguist-stub