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Johann Ludwig Burckhardt
Image: Etched by Angelica Clarke, after a drawing by Joseph Slater, Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Johann Ludwig Burckhardt

يوهان لودفيغ بوركهارت

Notable figure 1784–1817 · Source: Najib al-Aqiqi, al-Mustashriqun, 3rd ed. (Cairo: Dar al-Maʿarif, 1964), vol. 2, p. 545; Yahya Murad, Muʿjam asmaʾ al-mustashriqin, p. 285 · Second source: Bibliothèque nationale de France, authority record: Burckhardt, Johann Ludwig (1784-1817)

From Switzerland; worked in the United Kingdom and Egypt

Field: Proverbs and dialect

Affiliation

Compiler of Arabic Proverbs, with translation (1830)

Biography

Born in Lausanne, he studied at Leipzig and Göttingen, learned Arabic at Cambridge (1806–1809) and perfected it in Aleppo, then lived in Syria, Egypt and the Hijaz until his death in Cairo. He collected the proverbs of Cairo, published after his death in Arabic with an English translation and commentary (London, 1830) and translated into German (1834). He left his Arabic manuscripts to Cambridge University Library.