National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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Le Coq, Albert von | |
1860 | |
1930 | |
Germany / Berlin | |
Oriental Studies | |
German explorer and orientalist. Von le Coq was born into a wealthy wine trading family. After studying medicine and other subjects in Britain and the United States, he returned to Germany aged 27 to help in the family business. At the age of 40, he moved to Berlin and began studying oriental languages. At the age of 42, he started working as an unpaid researcher at the Berlin Ethnological Museum. From 1904 onwards, he joined the Central Asian expeditions led by Grünwedel, serving as the leader of the second and fourth expeditions. Von le Coq could understand various languages from Arabia, Turkey and Persia. He translated Turkish manuscripts, and worked feverishly to organize the vast volume of material collected by the four German Turfan expeditions, in addition to publishing a splendid series of illustrated books of that material. In particular, he is known for financing the publication of his work, Postancient Buddhist Culture in Central Asia, during a period of post World War I inflation. He raised funds by by gradually selling off pieces from the collection gained from the expeditions. From 1925, he was director of the Berlin Ethnological Museum, curating scholarly exhibitions, and compiling illustrated publications. | |
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