In 1906 he succeeded
Theodor Nöldeke as chair of Oriental languages at the
University of Strasbourg. Later on, he served as a professor of Oriental languages at the Universities of
Göttingen (1914–16),
Bonn (1918–21) and
Tübingen (1921–49).
He deciphered and annotated
Palmyrene,
Nabataean and
Syriac inscriptions as well as historical texts of ancient Ethiopian monuments. In 1905 he stayed among the
Tigre people in
Eritrea, and during the following year, directed the German
Aksum-Expedition in
Ethiopia.[1]
He published a translation of One Thousand and One Nights from Arabic into German, "Erzählungen aus den Tausendundein Nächten" (6 volumes, 1921–28, 3 1954).[1]
Works
1897: "Die Pronomina in Tigré", in: Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 12, pp. 188–230, 291–316.
1898: "Das Verbum der Tigre-Sprache", in: Zeitschrift für Assyrologie 13, pp. 133–178; 14, pp. 1–102.
1902: (ed.) Debtera Zaneb, The chronicle of King Theodore of Abyssinia. Princeton University Library.