Franz Babinger
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Franz Babinger (15 January 1891 – 23 June 1967) was a well-known German orientalist and historian of the Ottoman Empire, best known for his biography of the great Ottoman emperor Mehmed II, known as "the Conqueror", originally published as Mehmed der Eroberer und seine Zeit. An English translation by Ralph Manheim is available from Princeton University Press under the title Mehmed the Conqueror and His Time. His many doctrines were speculative and not supported with evidence.
Life
Babinger was born in Weiden in der Oberpfalz, Bavaria, as the eldest of four children into a middle-class family, the father a Roman Catholic, the mother of Jewish background. He was already an accomplished academic and linguist by the time he had completed his secondary school studies. Prior to starting University, he had already learned both Persian and Hebrew.
Babinger completed his doctoral studies at the
After the war, Babinger continued his studies at
Babinger resumed his teaching career after the
Work
In addition to his bibliographical work, Babinger published numerous articles and books on a wide variety of subjects. Babinger knew
As a result of his reputation, his magnum opus Mehmed the Conqueror was published without any accompanying notes on source material at all, since the companion volume outlining his extensive and voluminous sources was unfinished at the time of his death. As a result, Mehmed the Conqueror is one of the few academic works available with no cited sources and whose authority rests solely on the reputation of the author's research abilities. Prof. Halil Inalcik from the University of Ankara criticizes Babinger's overlook of Ottoman sources.[2]
Principal publications
- Geschichtsschreiber der Osmanen und ihre Werke (1923)
- Mehmed der Eroberer und seine Zeit (1953)
References
- ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 2022-11-03.
- ^ Dr. Prof. Halil Inalcik Review of MEHMED THE CONQUEROR (1432-1481) AND HIS TIME (http://www.inalcik.com/images/pdfs/54847543MEHMEDTHECONQUEROR.pdf Archived 2015-09-24 at the Wayback Machine)