A Dictionary of the Circassian Language

£1,250 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

The very scarce first edition of this groundbreaking work on Circassian linguistics. The author, Dr. Louis Loewe (1809-1888), was a Jewish philologist born in Prussian Silesia. After completing his PhD at the University of Berlin, he travelled to London in order to seek further learning. There he became acquainted with the Duke of Sussex and Admiral Sydney Smith, and with their patronage he undertook a three year tour of Central Asia and the Middle East, where he acquired a deeper understanding of such languages as Arabic, Coptic, Nubian, Turkish and Circassian. Whilst conducting research at the Vatican Library, he met the great Jewish financier and philanthropist Sir Moses Montefiore, who engaged him as his secretary for a trip to Palestine. Sir Moses found Dr. Loewe’s extraordinary polyglot skills to be invaluable, and thus began a lifelong relationship of patronage, travel and companionship. Dr. Loewe became a naturalised British citizen in 1862. It is notable that of the many languages which Dr. Loewe studied, this English - Circassian -Turkish dictionary is the only such grammar which he published. It was perhaps the challenge of mastering this largely undocumented language which attracted the great philologist. As he says in the preface: “The Circassian language is considered one of the most difficult in the world; it differs both in the nature of the words and the syntactical constructions from all other Caucasian languages. More than this, the pronunciation is so diff

• Year: 1854

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