Albert Socin

Albert Socin (13 October 1844 in Basel – 24 June 1899 in Leipzig) was a Swiss orientalist, who specialized in the research of Neo-Aramaic, Kurdish and contemporary Arabic dialects.

He also made contributions to the geography, archaeology, religion, art and literature of the Middle East.

[1] He studied philology at the University of Basel and Oriental studies at the universities of Göttingen and Leipzig,[2] receiving his habilitation for Oriental languages in 1871 at Basel.

[1] In 1868–70, with Eugen Prym, he carried out language research in the Levant and Iraq, then in 1873 returned to the Middle East on behalf of the Baedeker publishing firm.

He was a founding member of the Deutschen Vereins zur Erforschung Palästinas ("German Society for the Exploration of Palestine").