Product Code Database
Gustaf Hermann Dalman (9 June 1855 – 19 August 1941) was a German Lutheran theologian and Oriental studies. He did extensive field work in Palestine before the First World War, collecting inscriptions, poetry, and proverbs. He also collected physical articles illustrative of the life of Palestinians Fellah and herders of the country, including rock and plant samples, house and farm tools, small archaeological finds, and ceramics. He pioneered the study of biblical and early post-biblical Aramaic, publishing an authoritative grammar (1894) and dictionary (1901), as well as other works. His collection of 15,000 historic photographs and 5,000 books, including rare 16th century prints, and maps formed the basis of the Gustaf Dalman Institute at the Ernst Moritz Arndt University, Greifswald, which commemorates and continues his work.
In his detailed appreciation of contemporary Palestinian customs and agricultural practices, Dalman was not limited to biblical illustrations or the recording of Arabic terms but took his examples to the pre-monotheistic past, as did other ethnographers of the time. In the preface to Volume 1, Dalman alerts the reader to this: "Whoever undertakes such a task as a theologian cannot let himself be seduced by concentrating only on those points that at a first and perhaps very superficial glance seem to show biblical connections. How often does a closer look show that the connections point in another direction? It is also not permitted to report in the descriptions only those aspects that contribute to explaining biblical expressions and statements." Throughout his text, he provides examples of how the most ancient customs are preserved by farmers across Palestine and Egypt, aspects that have either been forgotten owing to modernization and continuing conflict in this region that began with World War I.
Dalman drew his wealth of knowledge on Palestinian agriculture and peasant life from his extensive communications with Tawfiq Canaan, enlarging on the same with other academic sources, such as the Cosmography work of Zakariya al-Qazwini, (2025). 9789950385009, Dar Al Nasher. ISBN 9789950385009 and the botanical works of George Edward Post and Immanuel Löw.
The theologian and translator Franz Delitzsch, who translated the New Testament into Hebrew language, entrusted to Dalman the work of "thoroughly revising" the Hebrew text.
|
|
