Oskar Rescher

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Oskar Rescher (1883–1972), aka Osman Reşer, was a prolific German-Turkish scholar in Arabic, Persian, and Turkish literature who specialized in pre-Islamic Arabic poetry and Ottoman studies. After taking his doctorate at Berlin in 1909 he moved to Istanbul to work in the libraries there. During World War I he served in the German army as censor for Arabic prisoner of war correspondence. After the war, he taught at the University of Breslau, but in 1925 he returned to Turkey. In due course he acculturated to the locale, changing the spelling of his name, and converting to Islam. For many years he was a staff member of the Islamic Institute of the University of Istanbul. There he spent the rest of his life, producing numerous scholarly studies and translating many texts into German. Most of his work appeared in small editions in Turkey but gradually made its way into the mainstream of European oriental scholarship. He devoted much effort over many years to build up a large collection of Arabic and Persian manuscripts. These now form the Rescher Manuscript Collection of the Berlin Staatsbibilothek as well as a collection at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University. His publications include Abriss der arabischen Literaturgeschichte, 2 volumes (Stuttgart 1925, and 1933), as well as an extensive series of Beitröge zur arabischen Poesie, 8 volumes (Stuttgart and Istanbul 1935-1963). Some of his publications are reprinted in: Gesammelte Werke. Eine Sammlung der wichtigsten Schriften Oskar Reschers, 5 fasc (Osnabrück, Biblio-Verlag 1983-95).

[edit] References

Die Handschriften der Sammlung Oskar Rescher in der Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, 3 vol’s (Wiesbaden: Verlag Franz Steiner, 2005-2006)
Leon Nemoy, Arabic Manuscipts in the Yale University Library (New Haven: Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Art and Sciences, vol. 40, 1956).
Leon Nemoy, “The Rescher Collection of Arabic, Persian, and Turkish Manuscripts” Yale University Library Gazette, vol. 47 (no. 2), October 1972), pp. 57-99.