MEMOm OF FLElSOHEii. 5l7 



In his kindness of heart he was indefatigable in replying and explain- 

 ing, often himself correcting proof-sheet npon proof-sheet. Each of us 

 was sure to find in hiiu as long as we lived a firm scientific support. 

 I do not care to mar this remembrance of a teacher's touching unselfish- 

 ness and faithfulness by questioning whether these characteristics were 

 always appealed to with the reserve rendered doubly necessary by so 

 ample a benevolence. He himself never gave this question a thought. 

 He existed for his pupils as long as he supposed them at all interested 

 in science. Therefore no one called him anything but " the Sheikh ;" 

 unless led by the exuberant spirits of youth, we translated the Arabic 

 expression by "the old man " (which after all wms indicative of our un- 

 bounded respect for bim), for this Arabic title of honor conveys an idea 

 of the parental relation existing between the teacher and the pupil, 

 which is assumed as a matter of course in the Mohammedan East. 



But he was not our " Sheikh " alone. Long before I was permitted to 

 become one of his disciples, he had been acknowledged the " sheikh- 

 ush shuy ukh," the master of masters. To a certain extent it was natural 

 that he should have come to occupy this rank. His pupils had de- 

 veloped into co-investigators, and they could not well entertain the idea 

 of 8upj)lanting him. But great as was their number, there was still no 

 lack of men, who, having been disciples of Ewald, Rodiger, Freytag, 

 and others, might preserve their independence. In a still higher degree 

 this was true of partial contemporaries, such as Dorn and Rodiger. I^o 

 one will deny that this state of affairs was salutary for our science. 

 Under all circumstances it is baneful for one school, no matter how ex- 

 cellent its principles or its representatives may be, to exercise autocratic 

 sway in a given domain. In some respects it must be onesided, aud 

 one-sidedness is fatal to science. Now, from what has been said of 

 Fleischer as a teacher, it follows that nothing was further removed from 

 his mind than to force his pupils into a narrow-minded course. If 

 nevertheless any one is disposed to harbor this opinion, let him but 

 read Fleischer's preface to Behrnauer's translation of the Forty Viziers 

 to learn differently. But as was natural, his disciples at first had-to 

 abandon themselves to his guidance. The necessity was constantly 

 arising to refer them to the Arabic grammar, wiien once they began to 

 do independent work in the preparation of texts, always of a grammati- 

 cal nature, since such are easiest for a well-trained Arabist. Tlius it 

 had to come about that for a time Arabic grammar seemed to thrive 

 almost too luxuriantly in these circles. Since then it has become ap- 

 parent that the danger was not very great. It must be conceded how- 

 ever that its complete avoidance was greatly due to the efforts of those 

 scholars who remained independent of Fleischer; that is to say, inde- 

 pendent of his instruction, not of his influence. It could not be gain- 

 said ; he was the most learned of the learned, the most accurate of the 

 accurate. It is therefore not remarkable that the recognition of his 

 scientific superiority, readily yielded by all prominent scholars, with 



