Carl Brockelmann

Born Sept. 17, 1868, in Rostock; died May 6, 1956, in Halle. German orientalist. Worked in the areas of Oriental history, the history of Arabic literature, and Semitic studies.

From 1900 to 1923, Brockelmann was a professor at the universities of Breslau, Königsberg, Halle, and Berlin; from 1923 to 1936 at the University of Breslau; and from 1946 at the University of Halle (German Democratic Republic). Brockelmann’s major work was the bibliographical reference work History of Arabic Literature (vols. 1-2, 1898-1902), a summary of materials on Arab and Arabic-speaking poets, writers, and scholars and of their works from the sixth to the 20th centuries. His History of Muslim Peoples and Governments (1939) also contains much factual information.