Ludwig Richard Enno Littmann (16 September 1875, Oldenburg – 4 May 1958,

Tübingen Tübingen (, , Swabian: ''Dibenga'') is a traditional university city in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, and developed on both sides of the Neckar and Ammer rivers. about one in thre ...

) was a German orientalist. In 1906 he succeeded

Theodor Nöldeke Theodor Nöldeke (; born 2 March 1836 – 25 December 1930) was a German orientalist and scholar. His research interests ranged over Old Testament studies, Semitic languages and Arabic, Persian and Syriac literature. Nöldeke translated several ...

as chair of Oriental languages at the

University of Strasbourg The University of Strasbourg (french: Université de Strasbourg, Unistra) is a public research university located in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, with over 52,000 students and 3,300 researchers. The French university traces its history to the ...

. Later on, he served as a professor of Oriental languages at the Universities of

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...

(1914–16),

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...

(1918–21) and

(1921–49). He deciphered and annotated Palmyrene,

Nabataean The Nabataeans or Nabateans (; Nabataean Aramaic: , , vocalized as ; Arabic: , , singular , ; compare grc, Ναβαταῖος, translit=Nabataîos; la, Nabataeus) were an ancient Arab people who inhabited northern Arabia and the southern Le ...

and Syriac inscriptions as well as historical texts of ancient Ethiopian monuments. In 1905 he stayed among the

Tigre people The Tigre people ( tig, ትግረ ''tigre'' or ''tigrē'') are an ethnic group indigenous to Eritrea. They mainly inhabit the lowlands and northern highlands of Eritrea. History The Tigre are a nomadic agro-pastoralist community living in ...

Eritrea Eritrea ( ; ti, ኤርትራ, Ertra, ; ar, إرتريا, ʾIritriyā), officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of Eastern Africa, with its capital and largest city at Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia ...

, and during the following year, directed the German

Aksum Axum, or Aksum (pronounced: ), is a town in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia with a population of 66,900 residents (as of 2015). It is the site of the historic capital of the Aksumite Empire, a naval and trading power that ruled the whole region ...

-Expedition in

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the Er ...

.Littmann, Enno
@ NDB/ADB Deutsche Biographie Littmann gruppenfoto

He published a translation of ''

One Thousand and One Nights ''One Thousand and One Nights'' ( ar, أَلْفُ لَيْلَةٍ وَلَيْلَةٌ, italic=yes, ) is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as the ''Arabian ...

'' from Arabic into German, "''Erzählungen aus den Tausendundein Nächten''" (6 volumes, 1921–28, 3 1954).

Works

* 1897: "Die Pronomina in Tigré", in: ''Zeitschrift für Assyriologie'' 12, pp. 188–230, 291–316. * 1898: "Das Verbum der Tigre-Sprache", in: ''Zeitschrift für Assyrologie'' 13, pp. 133–178; 14, pp. 1–102. * 1902: (ed.) Debtera Zaneb, ''The chronicle of King Theodore of Abyssinia''. Princeton University Library. * 1904: ''Philosophi abessini''. ( Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium, 18–19; Scriptores Aetiopici, 1–2) * 1904: ''Semitic Inscriptions''. New York: The Century Co.
online version
at the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music ...

) * 1905: ''Modern Arabic tales.'' – Vol. 1: ''Arabic Text''. Leyden: Brill.
online version
at the

) * 1910–15: ''Publications of the Princeton expedition to Abyssinia'', 4 vols. Leyden: E. J. Brill. * 1935: ''Abessinien''. Hamburg: Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt. * 1962: (with: Höfner, M.) ''Wörterbuch der Tigrē-Sprache: Tigrē-Deutsch-Englisch''. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag.

References

Sources

* Biesterfeldt, H. H. (1986). "Enno Littmann: Leben und Arbeit. Ein autobiographisches Fragment (1875–1904)", in: ''Oriens'' 29, pp. 1–101. * Ullendorff, E. (1958). Obituary of Enno Littmann, in: ''Africa'' 28, p. 364. * Ullendorff, E. (24 May 1958). Obituary of Enno Littmann, in:

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ...

External links

* For more & detailed info cp. the German version of the Wikipedia entry re Enno Littmann! *
Enno Littmann's Biography
by Eike Haberland, i
Lissan Magazine
(online magazine for Ethiopian art, culture & lifestyle). {{DEFAULTSORT:Littmann, Enno 1875 births 1958 deaths German orientalists People from Oldenburg (state) Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class) Humboldt University of Berlin alumni University of Greifswald alumni Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg alumni University of Strasbourg faculty University of Göttingen faculty University of Bonn faculty University of Tübingen faculty Members of the Prussian Academy of Sciences German male non-fiction writers Members of the German Academy of Sciences at Berlin