Friedrich Carl Andreas (14 April 1846 in Batavia – 4 October 1930 in

Göttingen Göttingen (, ; ; ) 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. According to the 2022 German census, t ...

) was an orientalist of German, Malay, and

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian diaspora, Armenian communities around the ...

parentage (descendant of the Bagratuni royal family). He was the husband of psychoanalyst Lou Andreas-Salomé. He received his education in

Iranian Iranian () may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Iran ** Iranian diaspora, Iranians living outside Iran ** Iranian architecture, architecture of Iran and parts of the rest of West Asia ** Iranian cuisine, cooking traditions and practic ...

and other oriental studies at several German universities, obtaining his doctorate at

Erlangen Erlangen (; , ) is a Middle Franconian city in Bavaria, Germany. It is the seat of the administrative district Erlangen-Höchstadt (former administrative district Erlangen), and with 119,810 inhabitants (as of 30 September 2024), it is the smalle ...

in 1868 with a thesis on the

Pahlavi language Middle Persian, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg ( Inscriptional Pahlavi script: , Manichaean script: , Avestan script: ) in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasanian ...

. Following graduation, he continued his research of Pahlavi in

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 ...

. From 1875 he spent several years conducting field studies in

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

and

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

, during which time, he also worked as a postmaster.Andreas, Friedrich Carl
In: Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB). Band 1, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1953, , S. 284.Andreas, Friedrich Carl
Iranica Online From 1883 to 1903 he gave private lessons in Turkish and Persian in Berlin, and afterwards became a professor of Iranian philology at the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen (, commonly referred to as Georgia Augusta), is a Public university, public research university in the city of Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1734 ...

. Here, he was tasked with deciphering manuscript fragments that were collected by the German Turfan expeditions in western China. Not a prolific author of books, he preferred to share his knowledge with students and colleagues orally. His primary focus were the

Iranian languages The Iranian languages, also called the Iranic languages, are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family that are spoken natively by the Iranian peoples, predominantly in the Iranian Plateau. The Iranian langu ...

in their development from antiquity to the present; e.g. Afghan, Balochi, Ossetian, and

Kurdish languages Kurdish (, , ) is a Northwestern Iranian language or group of languages spoken by Kurds in the region of Kurdistan, namely in southeast Turkey, northern Iraq, northwest Iran, and northern Syria. It is also spoken in northeast Iran, as well a ...

. He was also thoroughly familiar with

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 ...

, Hindustani,

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 ...

Aramaic Aramaic (; ) is a Northwest Semitic language that originated in the ancient region of Syria and quickly spread to Mesopotamia, the southern Levant, Sinai, southeastern Anatolia, and Eastern Arabia, where it has been continually written a ...

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 ...

, and Turkish. In addition, he was considered an excellent decipherer of manuscripts and inscriptions. Due to his linguistic talents, he was appointed to the "Königlich Preußische Phonographische Kommission" (Royal Prussian Phonographic Commission). The purpose of the commission was to record the approximately 250 languages spoken by the prisoners of German WWI PoW camps.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Andreas, Friedrich Carl 1846 births 1930 deaths People from Batavia, Dutch East Indies University of Erlangen–Nuremberg alumni Academic staff of the University of Göttingen German orientalists Iranologists Members of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities Academic staff of the Humboldt University of Berlin