Sprenger, Aloys

Sprenger, Aloys 

Born Sept. 3, 1813, in Nassereith; died Dec. 19, 1893, in Heidelberg. Austrian Orientalist and physician.

Sprenger studied medicine and Oriental languages in Vienna. After working on Arabic manuscripts, he defended a dissertation on the history of Arab medicine in Leiden in 1840. From 1843 to 1854, Sprenger worked for the British East India Company in India.

Sprenger taught Oriental languages at the University of Bern from 1858 to 1881; in 1881 he began teaching in Heidelberg. His chief work is a biography of Muhammad. Sprenger was especially interested in the influence of Islamic culture on the culture of the European Middle Ages.

WORKS

Das Leben und die Lehre des Mohammad, vols. 1–3. Berlin, 1861–65.
Die Postund Reiserouten des Orients. Leipzig, 1864.
Die alte Geographie Arabiens. Bern [1875].
Mohammed und der Koran. Heidelberg, 1889.

REFERENCES

Batunskii, M. A. “Iz istorii zarozhdeniia zapadnoevropeiskogo burzhuaznogo islamovedeniia.” Nauchnye raboty i soobshcheniia AN Uzb. SSK, 1961, book 3.
Fück, J. Die arabischen Studien in Europa. Leipzig, 1955.