Hartwig Hirschfeld was born to a
Jewish family in
Thorn,
Prussia. His father, Dr. Aron Hirschfeld, was a
rabbi from
Dirschau, and his maternal grandfather was the distinguished rabbi
Salomon Plessner. After graduating from the Royal Marien Gymnasium in
Posen, Hirschfeld studied Oriental languages and philosophy at the
University of Berlin, at the same time attending lectures at
Azriel Hildesheimer's
Rabbiner-Seminar. He received his doctorate from the
University of Strasburg in 1878 and, after a year's compulsory service in the
Prussian Army, he obtained a travelling scholarship in 1882 which enabled him to study
Arabic and
Hebrew at
Paris under
Joseph Derenbourg. After teaching in Posen for a few years, Hirschfeld immigrated to
England in 1889, where he became professor of
Biblical exegesis,
Semitic languages, and
philosophy at the
Montefiore College. In 1901, he was invited by the Syndicate of
Cambridge University to examine the Arabic fragments in the
Taylor-
Schechter collection. That same year, he was appointed
librarian and professor of Semitic languages at
Jews' College, a position he occupied until 1929. At the same time, he became a
lecturer in
Semitic epigraphy at
University College London in 1903, a lecturer in
Ethiopic in 1906, and
full professor and Goldsmid Lecturer in Hebrew there in 1924. ==Publications==