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Johann Gottfried Wetzstein
Image: Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Johann Gottfried Wetzstein

يوهان غوتفريد فتسشتاين

Notable figure 1815–1905 · Source: Najib al-Aqiqi, al-Mustashriqun, 3rd ed. (Cairo: Dar al-Maʿarif, 1964), vol. 2, p. 717; Yahya Murad, Muʿjam asmaʾ al-mustashriqin, p. 779 · Second source: Bibliothèque nationale de France, authority record: Wetzstein, Johann Gottfried (1815-1905)

From Germany; worked in Syria

Field: Phonetics and dialects

Affiliation

Bedouin dialects of Syria; editor of al-Zamakhshari

Biography

He studied theology in Leipzig but turned to Arabic under Fleischer, qualifying as a lecturer with an edition of al-Zamakhshari's Muqaddimat al-adab (1847). As Prussian consul in Damascus (1849–1861) he perfected his Arabic and travelled in the Hawran and the Syrian desert, copying inscriptions and recording Bedouin speech, which he classified systematically. He translated Arabic poems into German verse and acquired major collections of Arabic manuscripts for German libraries.