August Ferdinand Michael van Mehren (6 April 1822 – 14 November 1907 ) was a Danish Orientalist and

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also defined as the study of ...

Early life and education

Mehren was born in

Helsingør Helsingør ( , ; ), classically known in English as Elsinore ( ), is a coastal city in northeastern Denmark. Helsingør Municipality had a population of 63,953 on 1 January 2025, making it the 23rd most populated municipality in Denmark. Helsin ...

, the son of merchant Johann Friedrich van Mehren (1789-1853) and Claudine Amalie Liebmann (1791-1852). He studied at the Universities of

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

and

Kiel Kiel ( ; ) is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein. With a population of around 250,000, it is Germany's largest city on the Baltic Sea. It is located on the Kieler Förde inlet of the Ba ...

, obtaining his doctorate in 1845. In

he was a student of

Heinrich Leberecht Fleischer Heinrich Leberecht Fleischer (21 February 1801 – 10 February 1888) was a German Orientalist. Biography He was born at Schandau, Saxony. From 1819 to 1824, he studied theology and Oriental languages at Leipzig, subsequently continuing his stud ...

(1801-1888), and in

he studied under

Justus Olshausen Justus Olshausen (9 May 1800, Hohenfelde – 28 December 1882) was a German orientalist known for his contributions to Semitic and Iranian philology. Biography Olshausen was born in Hohenfelde, and studied at Kiel, Berlin and Paris, where he wa ...

(1800-1882).

Career

In 1854, he became a professor of

Semitic languages The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. They include Arabic, Amharic, Tigrinya language, Tigrinya, Aramaic, Hebrew language, Hebrew, Maltese language, Maltese, Modern South Arabian language ...

at the University of Copenhagen. In 1854 he became professor of Semitic-Eastern philology, from which position he retired in 1898. In his academic work, Mehren largely focused on

Arabic poetry Arabic poetry ( ''ash-shi‘r al-‘arabīyy'') is one of the earliest forms of Arabic literature. Pre-Islamic Arabic poetry contains the bulk of the oldest poetic material in Arabic, but Old Arabic inscriptions reveal the art of poetry existe ...

and prose. In 1853, he published a major work on Arab

rhetoric Rhetoric is the art of persuasion. It is one of the three ancient arts of discourse ( trivium) along with grammar and logic/ dialectic. As an academic discipline within the humanities, rhetoric aims to study the techniques that speakers or w ...

and

linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

titled ''Die Rhetorik der Araber'', and two decades later (1874), translated into French the

cosmography The term cosmography has two distinct meanings: traditionally it has been the protoscience of mapping the general features of the cosmos, heaven and Earth; more recently, it has been used to describe the ongoing effort to determine the large-sca ...

of the Syrian

geographer A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society, including how society and nature interacts. The Greek prefix "geo" means "earth" a ...

Muhammed al-Dimashqi (1256-1327) in ''Manuel de la cosmographie du moyen âge''. He also published ''Cosmographie de Schem's Eddin Dimasqui'' (1866; with French translation in 1874), During the winter of 1867-68 he resided in

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 ...

where he predominantly cultivated the

Arabic language 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 ...

. With professor

and philologist

Niels Ludvig Westergaard Niels Ludvig Westergaard (27 October 1815 – 9 September 1878) was a Danish Orientalist and professor. Biography Westergaard was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. In 1833, he became a student at Borgerdivskolen in Copenhagen. Westergaard studied Ol ...

(1815-1878), he was responsible for cataloging

Avestan Avestan ( ) is the liturgical language of Zoroastrianism. It belongs to the Iranian languages, Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family and was First language, originally spoken during the Avestan period, Old ...

manuscripts into a collection called ''Codices Orientales Bibliothecae Regiae Havniensis''. Towards the end of his career, Mehren published a handful of books involving the philosophical and mystical writings of

Avicenna Ibn Sina ( – 22 June 1037), commonly known in the West as Avicenna ( ), was a preeminent philosopher and physician of the Muslim world, flourishing during the Islamic Golden Age, serving in the courts of various Iranian peoples, Iranian ...

. He became a Knight of the

Order of the Dannebrog The Order of the Dannebrog () is a Denmark, Danish order of chivalry instituted in 1671 by Christian V of Denmark, Christian V. Until 1808, membership in the Order was limited to fifty members of noble or royal rank, who formed a single cla ...

in 1869, Dannebrogsmand in 1887, Commander of the 2nd degree in 1892 and of the 1st degree in 1898. He spend his last years in

Fredensborg Fredensborg () is a railway town located in Fredensborg Municipality, North Zealand, some 30 kilometres north of Copenhagen, Denmark. It is most known for Fredensborg Palace, one of the official residences of the Danish royal family. As of 1 Janua ...

, where he died in 1907. He was buried in Elsinore.

Personal life

On 7 July 1849, Mehren was married to Johanne (Jenny) Sophie Charlotte Justine Daue (30 June 1816 -10 February 1866), daughter of major Severin Daue (1776-1852) and Anna (Marie) Larsen (1786-1864), in

Trinitatis Church The Trinitatis Church (''Trinitatis Kirke'') is located in central Copenhagen, Denmark. It is part of the 17th century Trinitatis Complex, which includes the Rundetårn astronomical observatory tower and the Copenhagen University Library, in ad ...

in Copenhagen. Andreas Hunæus has painted a portrait of him. His is also one of the fifty scientists depicted in

Peder Severin Krøyer Peder Severin Krøyer (; 23 July 1851 – 21 November 1909), also known as P. S. Krøyer, was a Danish painter. Life Growing up and early training Krøyer was born in Stavanger, Norway, on 23 July 1851 to a single mother, Ellen Cecilie Gjes ...

's monumental 1897 group portrait painting '' A Meeting in the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters''. He spent his last years in

following his retirement in 1898 and is buried in

Helsingør Cemetery Helsingør Cemetery ( Danish: Helsingør Kirkegård) is a cemetery in Helsingør, Denmark. It serves the parishes of St. Olai, St. Mary, Vestervang and Sthen. Founded in the second half of the 16th century, it was originally used as a burial grou ...

Accolades

He was created a Lnight in the Order of the Dannebrog in 1869, a Commander of the Second Class in 1892 and a Commander of the First Class in 1898. He was awarded the Cross of Honour in 1887.

References

Other sources

The Arabic studies in the Nordic countries, from 1850 to 1900
(translated from Danish)

(biographical information)

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mehren, August Ferdinand 1907 deaths 1822 births People from Helsingør Municipality University of Kiel alumni Leipzig University alumni University of Copenhagen alumni Academic staff of the University of Copenhagen Danish Arabists Danish numismatists 19th-century Danish philologists 20th-century Danish philologists Danish orientalists Commanders Second Class of the Order of the Dannebrog Recipients of the Cross of Honour of the Order of the Dannebrog