Johann Jakob Reiske

Johann Jakob Reiske (born Dec. 25, 1716, Zörbig, Prussia—died Aug. 14, 1774, Leipzig) was a preeminent 18th-century European scholar of Arabic literature whose commentary to his Abulfedae Annales Moslemici, 5 vol. (1754; “Abulfeda Muslim Annals”), laid the foundation for Arabic historical scholarship. Reiske was esteemed by his sovereign Frederick the Great, by the German dramatist and critic Gotthold Lessing, and by many foreign scholars, but seems to have provoked animosity from patrons and potential colleagues...