[2] In 1911 he was made Chair of Oriental Studies at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität in Kiel,[1] succeeding Georg Hoffmann (orientalist) [de].
[3] In Kiel, Jacob 'was director of the Oriental institute at the university [...], which consisted of one room serving as his office, as classroom and as library.
Luckily the room had a high ceiling, thus ample wall space was available for the book shelves'.
[6] Though beginning with research on Arabic history and literature, Jacob turned his attention progressively towards Persian and Turkish studies, especially the latter.
[8][7] Jacob was rare in the German academy of his day for specialising in Ottoman-Turkish studies,[9] and was the first translator and editor of modern Turkish literature in the German-speaking world, founding the Türkische Bibliothek series published by Mayer & Müller in Berlin.