Max Seligsohn (April 13, 1865 – April 11, 1923

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

) was an American Orientalist, born in

Imperial Russia Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor/empress, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imperial, Nebraska * Imperial, Pennsylvania * ...

. Having received his

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nical training at

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, government ('' guberniya'') of

Minsk Minsk (, ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach (Berezina), Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha, Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the administra ...

, he went in 1888 to New York City, where he studied modern languages till 1894, in which year he went to Paris to study

Oriental languages Asia is home to hundreds of languages comprising several families and some unrelated isolates. The most spoken language families on the continent include Austroasiatic, Austronesian, Japonic, Dravidian, Indo-European, Afroasiatic, Turkic, ...

, especially

Semitic studies Semitic studies, or Semitology, is the academic field dedicated to the studies of Semitic languages and literatures and the history of the Semitic-speaking peoples. A person may be called a ''Semiticist'' or a ''Semitist'', both terms being equi ...

("'' élève diplômé''" of the ''

École des Langues Orientales Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (; ), abbreviated as INALCO, is a French Grand Etablissement with a specializing in the teaching of languages and cultures from the world. Its coverage spans languages of Central Europ ...

'', 1897, and of the ''

École des Hautes Études École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * Éco ...

'', 1900). In 1898 he was sent by the Alliance Israélite Universelle to

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to inquire into the conditions of the Falashas; but, certain difficulties arising, he was able to proceed no farther than

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, where he taught for eighteen months. Returning to Paris, he was invited in 1902 to go to New York to become a member of the staff of office editors of ''The

Jewish Encyclopedia ''The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History, Religion, Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People from the Earliest Times to the Present Day'' is an English-language encyclopedia containing over 15,000 articles on the ...

''.

Literary works

* "''Le Diwan de Ṭarafah ibn al-'Abd''" (Paris, 1900), a translation from the

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into French, with notes and an introduction; a French translation of "''Kitab al-Raml''," an Arabic work on

geomancy Geomancy, a compound of Greek roots denoting "earth divination", was originally used to mean methods of divination that interpret geographic features, markings on the ground, or the patterns formed by soil, rock (geology), rocks, or sand. Its d ...

, with preface and notes * (with E. N. Adler) "''Une Nouvelle Chronique Samaritaine''," Paris, 1903 * (as contributor) "'' Jewish Quarterly Review''" and the "'' Revue des Etudes Juives''", mostly on Judæo-Persian literature

External links

"Seligsohn, Max"
by Cyrus Adler and Frederick T. Haneman. ''

'', 1906. 1865 births 1923 deaths American orientalists Jewish orientalists Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States Linguists from France Linguists from Russia Russian Arabists Russian Hebraists American encyclopedists {{Russia-linguist-stub