Johann Jakob Reiske
He tried to find his own way in middle Greek literature, to which German schools then gave little attention; but, as he had not mastered the grammar, he soon found this a sore task and took up Arabic.
But everything of which he could cheat his appetite was spent on Arabic books, and when he had read all that was then printed he thirsted for manuscripts, and in March 1738 started on foot for Hamburg, joyous though totally unprovided, on his way to Leiden and the treasures of the Warnerianum.
It was Schultens too who conquered the difficulties opposed to his graduation at the last moment by the faculty of theology on the ground that some of his theses had a materialistic ring.
In 1747, an Arabic dedication to the electoral prince of Saxony got him the title of professor, but neither the faculty of arts nor that of medicine was willing to admit him among them, and he never delivered a course of lectures.
In his autobiography "Lebensbeschreibung" he depicted his academical colleagues as hostile; and suspected Ernesti, under a show of friendship, secretly hindered his promotion.
His resulting "letters on Arabic coinage (Briefe über das arabische Münzwesen)" were posthumously published by Johann Gottfried Eichhorn.
[1] The last decade of his life was made cheerful by his marriage with Ernestine Müller, who shared all his interests and learned Greek to help him with collations.
Interested in the history and the realia of the literature, he cared less for the verse of the poets than for the historical notices to be found in their scholia - the much praised poetry of Hariri seemed to him a grammatical pedant.
[3] Although Abulfeda as a late epitomator afforded no starting point for methodical study of the sources, Reiske's edition with his version and notes laid the foundation for research into Arab history, and a historical criticism of Oriental numismatics with his letters on Arabic coinage (in J. G. Eichhorn's Repertorium, vols.
He himself designates the Animadversiones in scriptores Graecos as flos ingenii sui, and in truth these thin booklets outweigh his big editions.
[3] Closely following the author's thought he removes obstacles whenever he meets them, but he is so steeped in the language and thinks so truly like a Greek that the difficulties he feels often seem to us to lie in mere points of style.
His criticism is empirical and unmethodical, based on immense and careful reading, and applied only when he feels a difficulty; and he is most successful when he has a large mass of tolerably homogeneous literature to lean on, while on isolated points he is often at a loss.
His corrections are often hasty and false, but a surprisingly large proportion of them have since received confirmation from manuscripts, and, though his merits as a Grecian lie mainly in his conjectures, his realism is felt in this sphere also; his German translations especially show more freedom and practical insight, more feeling for actual life, than is common with the scholars of that age.
