Johann Jakob Reiske facts for kids
Johann Jakob Reiske (born December 25, 1716 – died August 14, 1774) was a German scholar and doctor. He was one of the first to deeply study Arabic and Byzantine (Eastern Roman Empire) texts and languages. He also became a pioneer in understanding old Islamic coins, a field called Islamic numismatics.
Life Story of Johann Jakob Reiske
Reiske was born in a town called Zörbig in Germany.
Early Studies and Challenges
In 1733, after living in an orphanage in Halle, he went to the University of Leipzig. He stayed there for five years. He tried to learn ancient Greek literature, which wasn't taught much in Germany back then. But he found it hard because he hadn't learned the basic grammar well. So, he decided to focus on Arabic instead.
Reiske was very poor. He had very little money, only about 200 thalers (an old German coin) for five years. But he spent almost all the money he saved from food on Arabic books. When he had read all the printed Arabic books, he really wanted to read handwritten ones (manuscripts). So, in March 1738, he bravely walked all the way to Hamburg. He was excited to go to Leiden in the Netherlands, where he hoped to find many rare books in the Warnerianum collection.
Journey to Leiden
In Hamburg, he got some money and letters of recommendation from a scholar named Johann Christoph Wolf. He then took a ship to Amsterdam. There, a scholar named d'Orville offered him a job as his assistant, paying 600 guilders (an old Dutch coin). Reiske thought this was a very kind offer, but he turned it down. He didn't want money; he wanted to study manuscripts!
When he finally reached Leiden on June 6, 1738, he found that the university lectures were over for the term. Even worse, he couldn't easily access the precious manuscripts he longed to read.
Life in Leiden
Luckily, d'Orville and another scholar named Albert Schultens helped him find private teaching jobs and work proofreading books. This allowed him to earn enough to live. He attended lectures by A. Schultens and practiced Arabic with Schultens' son. Through Schultens, he also got access to Arabic manuscripts. He was even allowed to take them home secretly! Eventually, he got full access to the collection. He spent almost a whole summer cataloging these books, and the university paid him nine guilders for his hard work.
Reiske's first few years in Leiden were good. But then he got into trouble. He was helping to prepare a new edition of a book called Petronius by Burmann. He added his own corrections to the text, which upset some people. Because of this, his supporters became distant, and he lost his chance to become a professor. D'Orville soon forgave him, as he really needed Reiske's help with his own work. However, A. Schultens was never quite the same towards him. Reiske was very independent and openly criticized Schultens' way of studying Arabic, which focused too much on Hebrew. Still, Reiske admitted that Schultens always treated him fairly.
In 1742, Schultens advised Reiske to study medicine. This way, he hoped to earn a living if he couldn't make enough money from studying old texts. In 1746, he earned his medical degree. The fees were even waived thanks to Schultens' help. Schultens also helped him overcome problems with the theology faculty, who were worried about some of his ideas.
Return to Leipzig
On June 10, 1746, Reiske left the Netherlands and moved back to Leipzig, hoping to work as a doctor. But he was shy and proud, which made it hard to get patients. Also, the doctors in Leipzig didn't want to recommend someone who hadn't graduated from their university.
In 1747, he dedicated an Arabic book to the prince of Saxony, which earned him the title of professor. However, neither the arts nor the medical faculty at the university would accept him as a full member, so he never taught any classes. He still had to do literary work for others, but it paid much less in Leipzig than in Leiden. He could have lived comfortably and even sent money to his mother every year, but he was not good at managing money. He often printed large books at his own expense that nobody bought.
In his autobiography, "Lebensbeschreibung," he wrote that his university colleagues were against him. He suspected that Ernesti, who seemed friendly, secretly stopped his career progress. Also, Reiske's very critical reviews of other scholars' work made them angry.
Interest in Islamic Coins
From 1755 to 1756, Reiske became interested in Oriental coins. The person in charge of the Royal Coin Cabinet in Dresden, Richter, invited him to study coins with Arabic writing. Richter asked him to explain the texts on these coins. Reiske's writings about this, called "letters on Arabic coinage," were published after he died by Johann Gottfried Eichhorn. He worked very hard on this, hoping to find a good job in Dresden. However, the Seven Years' War (a big war in Europe) ended his hopes for a job in Oriental studies.
His "letters on Arabic coinage" were the first serious attempt to compare historical facts from Islamic coins (which sometimes had up to 150 words on them) with information from old history books. This helped scholars learn new things about medieval Islamic history. Other scholars who studied the Middle East began to see him as an expert on Islamic coins. Later, Carsten Niebuhr asked him to identify coins he brought back from his travels. But Reiske never seriously returned to studying coins after that.
Later Life and Marriage
Finally, in 1758, the city leaders of Leipzig helped him out of his difficulties by making him the rector (head teacher) of St. Nicolai school. Even though he still faced challenges from some university leaders like Ruhnken and J.D. Michaelis, he was respected by important people like Frederick the Great (the King of Prussia), Lessing, and Niebuhr, as well as many scholars from other countries.
The last ten years of his life were much happier because he married Ernestine Müller. She shared all his interests and even learned Greek to help him check old texts. To show his thanks, her picture is next to his in the first volume of his book Oratores Graeci. Reiske passed away in Leipzig on August 14, 1774. His handwritten notes and papers were given to the Danish historian P.F. Suhm through Lessing's help. Today, they are kept in the Royal Library, Copenhagen.
What Reiske Achieved
Reiske was an excellent scholar of Arabic literature. He was very interested in the history and real-life details found in old writings. He cared less about the beautiful poetry itself and more about the historical notes found in the scholia (notes written in the margins of old texts). For example, he thought the famous poetry of Hariri was too focused on grammar. The notes on the poet Jarir gave him information about Buddhist ideas and asceticism (a strict way of life) in Iraq during the Omayyad period.
In his historical notes for his book Abulfeda (called Abulf. Annales Moslemici), he gathered a huge amount of good and original research. He knew the writers from the Byzantine period as well as he knew Arabic authors. He was also familiar with modern travel books in all languages, as well as ancient and medieval historical sources. He was also very interested in numismatics (the study of coins).
Historical Judgment and Arabic Studies
Reiske had a vast knowledge and read widely. He also had excellent historical judgment. Unlike Schultens, he wasn't fooled by claims that some old Yemeni poems were older than they really were. He did make some mistakes, like when he tried to figure out the exact date the dam of Ma'rib broke.
Even though Abulfeda was a later summary of history and not a starting point for deep study of original sources, Reiske's edition of it, with his translation and notes, created the basis for studying Arab history. His "letters on Arabic coinage" also laid the foundation for a critical study of Oriental numismatics. However, the true foundation of Arabic language studies was laid by Silvestre de Sacy, not Reiske. Reiske knew a lot about languages, but he used his knowledge mainly to understand his authors. He didn't focus on the beauty of the language itself or its rhythm.
Greek Studies
In Leipzig, Reiske mainly worked on Greek studies, while still using his knowledge of Arabic that he gained in Leiden. His talent as an Arabist was recognized sooner than his Greek work. Reiske, the Greek scholar, has only been truly appreciated in recent years. Now, people realize he was the first German scholar since Sylburg who had a deep, living understanding of the Greek language.
His reputation doesn't come from his many published editions, which were often done quickly or just to fill booksellers' orders. Instead, his fame comes from his insightful comments and especially his clever guesses about how old texts should be corrected. He himself called his Animadversiones in scriptores Graecos (Notes on Greek writers) the "flower of his genius." These thin books are indeed more valuable than his larger editions.
He followed the author's thoughts closely and fixed problems whenever he found them. He was so deeply immersed in the language and thought so much like a Greek writer that the difficulties he noticed often seem to us to be just small points of style. His way of criticizing texts was based on experience and not always on a strict method. It came from his immense and careful reading, and he only applied it when he felt there was a problem. He was most successful when he had a large amount of similar literature to compare, but on isolated points, he was sometimes unsure. His corrections were often quick and sometimes wrong, but a surprising number of them have since been proven correct by finding new manuscripts. Even though his main strengths in Greek studies were his clever guesses, his realistic approach was also clear in this area. His German translations, especially, show more freedom and practical understanding, and more feeling for real life, than was common among scholars of his time.
Important Works
Arabic Studies
- Abulfedae annales Moslemici. Latinos ex arabicis fecit Io. Iacobus Reiske. (Leipzig, 1754). This was his Latin translation of an Arabic history book by Abulfeda.
Islamic Coin Studies
- Briefe über das arabische Münzwesen von Johann Jacob Reiske mit Anmerkungen und Zusätzen von Johann Gottfried Eichhorn. In: Repertorium für Biblische und Morgenländische Litteratur 9 (1781), pp. 199–268; 10 (1782), pp. 165–240; 11 (1782), pp. 1–44. These were his letters about Arabic coins.
Greek Studies
- Constantini Porphyrogeniti libri II. de ceremoniis aulae Byzant. volume iii. (Bonn, 1829)
- Animadv. ad Graecos auctores (5 volumes, Leipzig, 1751–66) (the rest of this work is still unprinted in Copenhagen)
- Oratorum Graec. quae supersunt (8 volumes, Leipzig, 1770–73)
- Apparatus Criticus et Exegeticus ad Demosthenem (5 volumes, Leipzig, 1774–75)
- Maximus Tyr. (Leipzig, 1774)
- Plutarchus (Leipzig, 1774–79)
- Dionys. Halic. (6 volumes, Leipzig, 1774–77)
- Libanius (4 volumes, Altenburg, 1784–97).
Autobiography
- Von ihm selbst aufgesetzte Lebensbeschreibung. (Leipzig, 1783). This is his autobiography, written by himself.
