Hammer-Purgstall, Joseph Von

Born June 9, 1774, in Graz; died Nov. 23, 1856, in Vienna. Austrian Orientalist and diplomat.

From 1799 to 1807, Hammer-Purgstall was in the Austrian diplomatic service in the Ottoman Empire. Between 1847 and 1849 he was president of the Vienna Academy of Sciences. His chief works were devoted to the history of the Ottoman Empire. His most important work, based on the study of Turkish sources and research in the Austrian archives (the ten-volume work History of the Ottoman Empire), was favorably mentioned by K. Marx (see K. Marx and F. Engels, Soch., 2nd ed., vol. 9, p. 20, and vol. 10, p. 262).