Aloys Sprenger

Aloys Sprenger (born 3 September 1813, in Nassereith, Tyrol; died 19 December 1893 in Heidelberg) was an Austrian Orientalist.

Sprenger studied medicine, natural sciences as well as oriental languages at the University of Vienna. In 1836 he moved to London, where he worked with the Earl of Munster on the latter's Geschichte der Kriegswissenschaften bei den mohammedanischen Völkern, ‘History of Military Science among the Muslim Peoples’, and thence in 1843 to Calcutta, where he became principal of Delhi College. In this capacity he had many textbooks translated into Hindustani from European languages.

In 1848 he was sent to Lucknow, to prepare a catalogue of the royal library there, the first volume of which appeared in Calcutta in 1854. This book, with its lists of Persian poets, its careful description of all the chief works of Persian poetry and its valuable biographical material, became a worthy guide for the exploration of Persian literature.

In 1850 Sprenger was named examiner, official government interpreter, and secretary of the Asiatic Society of Calcutta. He published many works while holding this latter position, among them “Dictionary of the Technical terms used in the sciences of the Musulmans” (1854) and “Ibn Hajar's biographical dictionary of persons who knew Mohammed” (1856).

Sprenger took a position as professor of oriental languages at the University of Bern in 1857, moving in 1881 to Heidelberg. His voluminous collection of Arabic, Persian, Hindustani and other manuscripts and printed material was eventually acquired by the Berlin State Library.

Literature

 * Norbert Mantl (Editor): Aloys Sprenger, der Orientalist und Islamhistoriker aus Nassereith in Tirol. Selbstverlag der Gemeinde (self-published by the municipality), Nassereith 1993
 * Meyers Konversationslexikon, public-domain encyclopaedia entry on Aloys Sprenger, on which this article (and its German-language counterpart) is based.