Josef Markwart (originally spelled Josef Marquart: December 9, 1864 in Reichenbach am Heuberg – February 4, 1930 in

Berlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...

) was a German

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

and orientalist. He specialized in Turkish and Iranian Studies and the

history of the Middle East The Middle East, interchangeable with the Near East, is home to one of the Cradles of Civilization and has seen many of the world's oldest cultures and civilizations. The region's history started from the earliest human settlements and continue ...

. The ''

Encyclopædia Iranica ''Encyclopædia Iranica'' is a project whose goal is to create a comprehensive and authoritative English language encyclopedia about the history, culture, and civilization of Iranian peoples from prehistory to modern times. Scope The ''Encycl ...

'' wrote that "His books are full of profound and nearly inexhaustible erudition, revealing that their author was a learned historian, philologist, geographer, and ethnologist." The encyclopedia cited his 1901 book ''Ērānšahr'' as "still an authoritative work and probably his most important."

Biography

He attended

Tübingen University 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 ...

in Germany, where he studied

Catholic theology Catholic theology is the understanding of Catholic doctrine or teachings, and results from the studies of theologians. It is based on canonical scripture, and sacred tradition, as interpreted authoritatively by the magisterium of the Catholic ...

, and then later switched his studies to classical

philology 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 especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as ...

and history. In 1889 he worked as an assistant to Eugen Prym, an orientalist author. His doctoral

thesis A thesis ( : theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144 ...

''Assyriaka des Ktesias'' was accepted and he graduated in 1892. In 1897 he began as a lecturer in

ancient history Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history to as far as late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient history co ...

. In 1900 he moved to

Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wit ...

, The Netherlands and became a

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at the

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(Ethnographical Museum). In 1902 he was appointed to the position of assistant professor for languages of the Christian Orient at Leiden University. In 1912 he moved to

and became a full Professor of

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkm ...

ian and

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n studies at

Berlin University The Humboldt University of Berlin (german: link=no, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick Willi ...

. He taught in Berlin for the remainder of his life, even giving a noon lecture on the day of his death in 1930. In 1922 he changed his last name from "Marquart" to "Markwart". The ''Encyclopædia Iranica'' stated that this paralleled "his tendency to make use of an idiosyncratic

orthography An orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation. Most transnational languages in the modern period have a writing system, and mo ...

in his writings." His most famous pupil was the Italian Orientalist

Giuseppe Messina Giuseppe Messina (born 12 February 1993) is an Italian footballer who plays for Enna Calcio. Biography Messina was a youth product of Calcio Catania. Messina was a player of their under-15 team in 2007–08 season. After a loan to Milazzo, Messi ...

Works

* ''Ērānšahr nach der Geographie des Ps. Moses Xoranacʽi'' (1901) * ''Osteuropäische und ostasiatische Streifzüge'' (1903, reprinted 1961) * ''Südarmenien und die Tigrisquellen'' (1930) * ''A catalogue of the provincial capitals of Ērānshahr'' (published posthumously, 1931)

References

German orientalists 1864 births 1930 deaths Iranologists Armenian studies scholars {{Germany-academic-bio-stub