Austrian Pioneers of South Arabian Studies

The primary goal of this article which is a continuation of the article published in issue 4 of this journal is to evaluate the role played by the most eminent scholars representing the classical Austrian school of South Arabic studies of the late 19th – early 20th centuries, first and foremost – regarding the study of modern South Arabian languages (also commonly referred to as live in contrast to dead languages of the ancient states of Yemen). Major focus here is on the South Arabian expedition commissioned by the Austrian Imperial Academy of Sciences, whose academic findings were reflected in numerous publications. The Austrian scholars traveled to that region over the same period both as team members of the expedition during field seasons or several times on their own. Profoundly assessed in the article is the value of the important results achieved by these scholars in the course of their expedition activities, that were subsequently processed and released by them, for science in general and, in particular, for the research of the Russian linguists that has been carried out during the last decades on the island of Socotra island in Yemen, whose results are widely recognized in the world today. The role of such factors as competition, rivalry and personal ambitions and aversion that negatively affected the work of the expedition team members, who were inspired by the anticipation of unique discoveries, is also revealed, alongside tight connection of some scholars with politics, in which they were involved to a greater or less degree, while periodically performing very sensitive missions from their own or other governments

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