512 MEMOIR OF FLEISCHER. 



by that combination of wide knowledge and philological accuracy which 

 had marked De Sacy's work, and which — in case his death occurred as 

 early as was feared,* would have to be the characteristics of a successor, 

 whose influence was to counteract Hammer's. Kosegarten approached 

 this ideal most closely, unless we except Riidiger, who if not totally in- 

 dependent of De Sacy, had at least not been trained in his school. But 

 neither devoted himself exclusively to Arabic- Mohammedan philology; 

 and the same objection, to a still stronger degree, holds of Kiickert, 

 whose interests were chiefly poetic. Thus it was Fleischer alone in 

 whom the ideal was fully realized. To him therefore naturally fell the 

 task of placing our science upon the same eminence in Germany that 

 it had occupied under De Sacy in France, — a task rendered difficult by 

 the necessity of guiding it so that it might permanently be rescued from 

 the crooked path into which it might have been forced under Hammer's 

 influence. 



It is impossible for me to judge whether Fleischer, at the time of en- 

 tering upon the duties of his Leipzig professorship, had conceived his 

 mission as clearly as we can now formulate it after its accomplish- 

 meut. At all events, the two essays with which he introduced himself 

 upon the arena of his future successes seems to bear unequivocal signs 

 that this was his conscious goal. When he was no more than " Pro- 

 fessor-elect of Oriental languages at the University of Leipzig," he pub- 

 lished, while at Dresden, his translation of Zamachshari's Golden Neclc- 

 laces, with a preface and notes, containing a sharp attack on Hammer's 

 edition and translation of the same text. Almost at the same time he 

 reviewed Habicht's glosses, in which there is surely no lack of grave 

 mistakes. In this last review bis tone was the mildest imaginable, 

 and later, even when dealing with bunglers of the worst sort, he never 

 became vehement. If then in opposing Hammer he made use of more 

 violent language, he must have been actuated by serious and far-reach- 

 ing considerations. In fact, he states them at the beginning of the 

 preface in these words : '' If highly esteemed scholars in possession of 

 eveiy facility, at a time when science has reached its manhood, give 

 thoroughly useless work to the world, what should be the attitude of 

 criticism? It is our opinion that its sharpest weapons should be di- 

 rected against such abuses, and in this case it should combat even such 

 as are really beneath criticism, in order that their becoming contagious 

 may be prevented." The man, comparatively speaking a novice, who 

 thus met a scholar, universally looked upon as the most eminent orien- 

 talist in Germany, must have felt the assurance of victory. The con- 

 tents of his essay justified his bold language, and a still further justifi- 

 cation was furnished by his Dissertatio critica de glossis Hahiclitianis 

 in qnatuor priores tamos MI noctium, which appeared in the following 

 year (183(5), on tlie occasion ot his entering upon the duties of his chair. 

 On account of the minutiie of meditBval Muslim life described, the 



* He died iu 1838. 



