Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

Related e

Wikipedia Wiktionary Shop Featured: Rhombicuboctahedron by Leonardo da Vinci

Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall (1774 – 1856) was an Austrian orientalist.

He is the author of The History of the Assassins.

Career

Born Joseph Hammer in Graz, Styria, he received his early education mainly in Vienna. Entering the diplomatic service in 1796, he was appointed in 1799 to a position in the Austrian embassy in Constantinople, and in this capacity he took part in the expedition under Admiral William Sidney Smith and General John Hely-Hutchinson against France. In 1807 he returned home from the East, after which he was made a privy councillor.

For fifty years Hammer-Purgstall wrote prolifically on the most diverse subjects and published numerous texts and translations of Arabic, Persian and Turkish authors. By traversing so large a field, he lay himself open to the criticism of specialists, and he was severely handled by Friedrich Christian Diez (1794–1876), who, in his Unfug und Betrug (1815), devoted to him nearly 600 pages of abuse. He also came into friendly conflict on the subject of the origin of The Thousand and One Nights with his younger English contemporary Edward William Lane.

Hammer-Purgstall supported the foundation of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna and became the Academy's first president (1847–1849). The Austrian Oriental Society, founded in 1959 to foster cultural relations with the Near East, is formally named 'Österreichische Orient-Gesellschaft Hammer-Purgstall' in recognition of Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall's accomplishments.

Works

Hammer-Purgstall's principal work is his Geschichte des osmanischen Reiches (10 vols., 1827–1835). Among his other works are

• "Ancient Alphabets & Hieroglyphic Characters Explained" (1806)
• Geschichte der schönen Redekünste Persiens mit einer Blüthenlese aus zweyhundert persischen Dichtern (Vienna, 1818)
• Morgenländisches Kleeblatt (Vienna, 1819)
• Constantinopolis und der Bosporos (1822)
• Sur les origines russes (St Petersburg, 1825)
• an English language translation (1834) of the first two volumes of Evliya Celebi's travelogue Seyahatname
• The History of the Assassins trans. O. C. Wood (London, 1835), an English language translation of Die Geschichte der Assassinen aus morgenländischen Quellen (Stuttgart und Tübingen, 1818)
• Geschichte der osmanischen Dichtkunst (1836)
• Geschichte des osmanischen Reiches, 10 vols., Pesth, 1827-35.
• Geschichte der Goldenen Horde in Kiptschak (1840)
• Geschichte der Chane der Krim (1856)
• an unfinished Litteraturgeschichte der Araber (1850–1856)
• a four-volume biography of Melchior Cardinal Khlesl titled Khlesls, des Cardinals Leben. Mit der Sammlung von Khlesls Briefen und anderen Urkunden (4 vols., 1847–1851).

For a comprehensive list of his works see: Schlottmann, Constantin. Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall, Zurich, 1857.

Personal life

Hammer married Caroline von Henikstein (1797 - 1844), the daughter of Austrian Jewish financier Joseph von Henikstein in 1816 and he was knighted in 1824. In 1835, upon inheriting the estates of the Countess Purgstall (née Jane Anne Cranstoun), the widow of his late friend Gottfried Wenzel von Purgstall, he acquired the title Freiherr and changed his family name to Hammer-Purgstall.

Linking in as of 2023

Abaza rebellion, Ahmed Resmî Efendi, Alamut Castle, Al-Aqsa Mosque, Albanian piracy, Albert Cohn (scholar), Ali Bey Evrenosoğlu, Baphomet, Basil Hall, Beethoven's Assassins, Capture of Baghdad (1638), Carmilla, Church of the Assumption (Uzundzhovo), Cinci Hoca, Daltaban Mustafa Pasha, Damascus Eyalet, Dawlatshah Samarqandi, Deli Hasan, Diyarbekir Eyalet, Dragoman, Evliya Çelebi, Evrenos, Friedrich Wilhelm Carl Umbreit, Gazi Hüsrev Pasha, Geschichte des osmanischen Reiches, Gonio Fortress, Gustav Weil, Hammer (surname), Hashish and Wine, Haskovo, Helmina von Chézy, Henry George Keene, Historical sources of the Crusades: pilgrimages and exploration, Holy Grail, Ibn Wahshiyya, Ibrahim al-Halabi, Ioan Kalinderu, Isaac Israeli ben Solomon, Johann Schiltberger, Josef Kriehuber, Joseph von Henikstein, K.k. Akademie für Orientalische Sprachen, Kanije Eyalet, Kars Eyalet, Kâtip Çelebi, Kefe Eyalet, Kemankeş Kara Mustafa Pasha, Koca Sinan Pasha, Koçi Bey, Kösem Sultan, Köten, Leca of Cătun, Lyric poetry, Meanings of minor planet names: 6001–7000, Melchior Klesl, Members of the Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art, Military order (religious society), Mongol invasion of the Latin Empire, Morea Eyalet, Mujir al-Din, Munabbih ibn Kamil, Nefise Hatun, Nevesinli Salih Pasha, Nizari Isma'ilism, Nur Devlet, Omar Khayyam, One Thousand and One Nights, Order of Assassins, Osman's Dream, Ottoman Crete, Ottoman decline thesis, Ottoman studies, Ottoman–Venetian peace treaty (1419), Pazardzhik, Pechenegs, Radu Golescu, Rakka Eyalet, Resacralization of knowledge, Samuele Romanin, Sanjak of Nicopolis, Shamakhi, Shamsīyah, Siege of Shkodra, Siege of Thessalonica (1422–1430), Stephan Endlicher, Sufi studies, Tayyar Mehmed Pasha, Temeşvar Eyalet, Temple Mount, Theodore I Palaiologos, Theodore II Palaiologos, Timeline of Ankara, Timeline of Istanbul, Timeline of Tabriz, Timeline of the name Palestine, Timeline of Yerevan, Tomb of Abdul Hamid I, Trebizond Eyalet, Ubykh people, Ulrich Jasper Seetzen, Uyvar Eyalet, Varat Eyalet, Von Hammer (redirect page), Wacław Seweryn Rzewuski, Wassaf, West–östlicher Divan, Yavuz Ali Pasha, Yerevan, Zeytinburnu

See also

• Baphomet