Gustaf Hermann Dalman (9 June 1855 – 19 August 1941) was a German
Lutheran
Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...
theologian and
orientalist. He did extensive field work in
Palestine before the First World War, collecting inscriptions, poetry, and proverbs. He also collected physical articles illustrative of the life of the indigenous farmers and herders of the country, including rock and plant samples, house and farm tools, small archaeological finds, and ceramics. He pioneered the study of biblical and early post-biblical
Aramaic
The Aramaic languages, short Aramaic ( syc, ܐܪܡܝܐ, Arāmāyā; oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; tmr, אֲרָמִית), are a language family containing many varieties (languages and dialects) that originated i ...
, publishing an authoritative grammar (1894) and dictionary (1901), as well as other works. His collection of 15,000 historic photographs and 5,000 books, including rare 16th century prints, and maps formed the basis of the Gustaf Dalman Institute at the
Ernst Moritz Arndt University,
Greifswald, which commemorates and continues his work.
Dalman was appointed by
Kaiser Wilhelm II
Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert; 27 January 18594 June 1941) was the last German Emperor (german: Kaiser) and King of Prussia, reigning from 15 June 1888 until his abdication on 9 November 1918. Despite strengthening the German Emp ...
as director of the ''Deutsches Evangelisches Institut für Altertumswissenschaft des heiligen Landes zu Jerusalem'' (German Evangelical Institute for Ancient Studies of the Holy Land in Jerusalem), where he served from 1902 to 1917. Dalman experienced the outbreak of World War I on a home leave in Germany. Events prevented a return to Jerusalem. From 1917 he was Professor of Old Testament and Palestine Studies in
Greifswald , where in 1920 he founded the Institute for Biblical Geography and Antiquity (today: Gustaf Dalman Institute). In 1921 he was acting provost of the
Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem. From 1905 to 1926 he was editor of the journal ''Palästinajahrbuch des Deutschen Evangelischen Instituts für Altertumswissenschaft des Heiligen Landes zu Jerusalem'' (Palestine Yearbook of the German Evangelical Institute for Archeology of the Holy Land in Jerusalem).
In his detailed appreciation of Palestine's customs and agricultural practices, Dalman was not limited to biblical illustrations or the recording of Arabic terms but took his examples to the pre-monotheistic past, as did other ethnographers of the time. In the preface to Volume 1, Dalman alerts the reader to this: "Whoever undertakes such a task as a theologian cannot let himself be seduced by concentrating only on those points that at a first and perhaps very superficial glance seem to show biblical connections. How often does a closer look show that the connections point in another direction? It is also not permitted to report in the descriptions only those aspects that contribute to explaining biblical expressions and statements." Throughout his text, he provides examples of how the most ancient customs are preserved by Palestinian and regional farmers, aspects that have either been forgotten or appropriated today to distance these farmers who have been turned into refugees after 1948 from the deepest antiquity.
Dalman drew his wealth of knowledge on Palestinian Arab agriculture and peasant life from his extensive communications with
Tawfiq Canaan, enlarging on the same with other academic sources, such as the
cosmographical
The term cosmography has two distinct meanings: traditionally it has been the protoscience of Mapping (cartography), mapping the general features of the cosmos, heaven and Earth; more recently, it has been used to describe the ongoing effort to de ...
work of
Zakariya al-Qazwini, and the botanical works of
George Edward Post
George Edward Post (1838–1909) was an American surgeon, academic and botanist.
Biography
George Edward Post was born in New York City on December 17, 1838, the son of Alfred Charles Post.
He was a Professor of Surgery at the Syrian Prot ...
and
Immanuel Löw.
The theologian and translator
Franz Delitzsch, who translated the
New Testament
The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...
into
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
, entrusted to Dalman the work of "thoroughly revising" the Hebrew text.
Works
* ''Grammatik des Jüdisch-Palästinischen Aramäisch.'' 1894. 2nd edition. Leipzig, 1905
* ''Aramäische Dialektproben: unter dem Gesichtspunkt neutestamentlicher Studien (mit Wörterverzeichnis)'' Leipzig, 1896 (reprint: )()
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* (volume of Palestinian folksong, folk-tunes and dialect poetry, Arabic text with German translation collected by Dalman 1899-1900)
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* ''Jesus-Jeschua.'' Leipzig, 1922. English trans., Jesus-Jeshua. Studies in the Aramaic Gospels. London, 1929.
*
[For a description of this work, se]
Directory of the Palestinian Photo Holdings of the Bavarian War Archive
* ''Arbeit und Sitte in Palastina.''
'Work and Customs in Palestine''1937. Reprinted 1964. (in 7 volumes)
* () (two volumes)
*
*
* (being a translation of: ''Orte und Wege Jesu'')
*
** ''Aramäisch-Neuhebräisches Handwörterbuch zu Targum, Talmud und Midrasch.'' 1901. 2nd revised and expanded edition. Frankfurt am Main, 1922 ()
* (reprinted from 1937 edition)
Articles
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See also
*
Tawfiq Canaan
*
Lewis Larsson
References
External links
*
* Marcel Serr
Gustaf Dalman's Palestine.Jerusalem 2016.
* Marcel Serr
Understanding the Land of the Bible: Gustaf Dalman and the Emergence of the German Exploration of Palestine.In: Near Eastern Archaeology, Vol. 79, No. 1 (2016), pp. 27–35.
Universität Greifswald: Gustaf Dalman Collection
Dalman's Aramaic Grammar and Reader(article)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dalman, Gustaf
1855 births
1941 deaths
German orientalists
German ethnographers
German Lutheran theologians
20th-century German Protestant theologians
University of Greifswald faculty
Old Testament scholars
Place of birth missing
German male non-fiction writers
Consuls-general of Sweden
Lutheran biblical scholars
German ethnologists
Palestine ethnographers
Palestinologists
German expatriates in Mandatory Palestine
Early photographers in Palestine
Natural history of Palestine (region)