Isaac Jakob Schmidt

Schmidt, Isaac Jakob 

(also Iakov Ivanovich Shmidt). Born Oct. 14 (25), 1779, in Amsterdam; died Sept. 8 (20), 1847, in St. Petersburg. Russian linguist. Academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1829).

Schmidt’s main works dealt with the Mongolian and Tibetan languages. He was the author of the first grammar of the Mongolian language (1831), a grammar of the Tibetan language (1839), and a number of dictionaries. He translated the Mongolian epic The Exploits of Bogdy Geser Khan (1836; German translation, 1839) into Russian. Schmidt published, in German translation, the Mongolian Chronicles of Sagan Setsen, 1662 (1829) and the Tibetan work Uligerun-Dalai (1843). The latter was the first Tibetan book translated into a European language.

WORKS

Grammatika mongol’skogo iazyka. St. Petersburg, 1832. (Translated from German.)
Grammatika tibetskogo iazyka. St. Petersburg, 1839.
Tibetsko-russkii slovar’. St. Petersburg, 1843.
Forschungen im Gebiete der älteren religiösen, politischen und literärischen Bildungsgeschichte der Völker Mittel-Asiens, vorzüglich der Mongolen und Tibeter. St. Petersburg—Leipzig, 1824.
Mongolisch-deutsch-russisches Wörterbuch. St. Petersburg, 1835.