Gotthelf Bergsträsser

Gotthelf Bergstr sser: Neuaram ische M rchen und andere Texte aus Ma'lula Edition Holzinger. Taschenbuch Berliner Ausgabe, 2014, 3. Auflage Vollst ndiger, durchgesehener Neusatz bearbeitet und eingerichtet von Michael Holzinger Leipzig: F. A. Brockhaus, 1915. Textgrundlage ist die Ausgabe: Bergstr sser, G otthelf] (Hg.): Neuaram ische M rchen und andere Texte aus Malula. In deutscher bersetzung, haupts chlich aus der Sammlung E. Pryms u. A. Socins, Leipzig: F. A. Brockhaus, 1915. Herausgeber der Reihe: Michael Holzinger Reihengestaltung: Viktor Harvion Umschlaggestaltung unter Verwendung des Bildes: Mahmoud Hammad, Malula. By Aminhammad (Own work) CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http: //creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http: //www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], http: //commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AMalula.jpg, via Wikimedia Commons Gesetzt aus Times New Roman, 11 pt.

This first complete translation of Theodor Nöldeke’s The History of the Qurʾān offers a foundational work of modern Qurʾānic studies to the English-speaking public. Nöldeke’s original publication, as revised and expanded over nearly three quarters of a century by his scholarly successors, Friedrich Schwally, Gotthelf Bergsträßer and Otto Pretzl, remains an indispensable resource for any scholarly work on the text of the Qurʾān. Nöldeke’s segmentation of the surahs into three Meccan periods and a Medinan one has shaped all subsequent discussions of the chronology of the Qurʾān. The revisions and expansions of Nöldeke’s initial discussions of the orthography and variant readings of the text have found a new audience among those contemporary scholars who seek to create a more sophisticated understanding of the Qurʾān’s textual development.

Gotthelf Bergstrasser (1886–1933) was one of the great Semitic linguists and philologists. This small volume encapsulates his learning, and every page yields concise statements of remarkable insight. He intended the book for elementary classes in Semitic linguistics, but only one familiar with the material can begin to appreciate the achievement in these brief chapters. A translation seemed called for for several reasons: It is generally agreed that Bergstrasser’s “Einfuhrung” has not been superseded, and is unlikely to be. In more than half a century, no similar work has appeared either a chrestomathy or a succinct characterization of each of the major Semitic languages that can be used in an introductory class in Semitic linguistics.