Aloys Sprenger in London
Keywords:
SDUK, Edward Conolly, Theodor Noldeke, Biography DictionaryAbstract
The article presents 12 letters (July 29, 1942-May 11, 1943) of Aloys Sprenger sent to Edward Conolly, the incharge of the office of the Society of Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (SDUK) preserved in the London University Library. After the death of Earl of Munster, Sprenger soon contacted SDUK and became one of the contributors of its voluminous project, titled, Biographical Dictionary. He authored many articles, mostly on Muslim writers for the first volume starting from alphabet A of the dictionary. This article provides a list of articles for the dictionary. He wrote all these articles mostly in two years (1843-1843) and continued this contact till he set sail for India. A renowned German orientalist Theodor Noldeke paid a tribute on his return to Europe in 1856 as he brought back with him probably the most systematic and comprehensive collection of Oriental manuscripts and printed books that have ever come from the Orient. His return was termed as instrumental in augurating a new era of Islamic studies in Germany.