Theodor Nöldeke

Born in Harburg on March 2, 1836, he studied at Göttingen, Vienna, Leiden, and Berlin, and went on to become one of Germany's best-known Orientalists. After several academic posts, he served for decades as professor of Oriental languages at the University of Strasbourg, where he taught until his retirement in 1906.

He is especially remembered for Geschichte des Qorans, an early major study of the Qur'an that became highly influential in the field. His scholarship ranged widely across Semitic and Islamic studies, including Arabic, Syriac, Persian, and Old Testament research, and he was widely respected for his command of several Semitic languages.

He died on December 25, 1930. More than a specialist in one narrow area, he helped define what careful comparative study of languages and texts could look like, and his books continued to be cited long after his lifetime.