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Otto Spies

أوتّو شبيس

Notable figure 1901–1981 · Source: Najib al-Aqiqi, al-Mustashriqun, 3rd ed. (Cairo: Dar al-Maʿarif, 1964), vol. 2, p. 802; Yahya Murad, Muʿjam asmaʾ al-mustashriqin, p. 727 · Second source: Bibliothèque nationale de France, authority record: Spies, Otto (1901-1981)

From Germany; worked in India

Field: Literature and poetry

Affiliation

Scholar of Arabic and folk literature

Biography

Born in Kreuznach, he took his doctorate at Bonn, taught at the Muslim University of Aligarh in India (1932–1934) and at Breslau, and returned to Bonn in 1951 to the chair of Oriental studies. He worked on Arabic literature and comparative folk literature: he edited Mughaltay's al-Wadih al-mubin and Avicenna's Risalat al-tayr, and wrote on Arabic poetry (1935), on Arabic legends (1960) and on the history of shadow and puppet theatre in the East.