Popper, William

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POPPER, WILLIAM

POPPER, WILLIAM (1874–1963), U.S. Orientalist and biblical scholar. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Popper served from 1902 to 1905 as an associate editor of the Jewish Encyclopedia and acting head of the Oriental Department of the New York Public Library. During this period and again in 1919/20, he also lectured on Semitic languages at Columbia University. From 1905 onward he taught at the University of California, Berkeley, becoming a full professor and head of the Semitic department in 1922. He retired in 1945.

Popper's biblical research centered on the literary and stylistic aspects of Isaiah (Parallelism in Isaiah, 1923), whose text he tried to reconstruct, publishing with an English translation of his own (The Prophetic Poetry of Isaiah, 1931). In the field of Arabic studies his critical editions and translations of Arabic historical texts of the 15^th century have made this period accessible to non-Arabist historians. Among his works are: parts of the critical edition of Yūsuf ibn Taghrī-Birdī's Al-Nujūm Al-Zâhira fi Mulûk Miṣr waal-Kâhira (History of Egypt; 1909) and part of his Hawādith al-Duhūr (4 vols., 1930–42). History of Egypt (8 vols., 1954–63) is the English translation to Taghrī-Birdī's Arabic Annals. The Cairo Nilometer (1951) presents studies in Ibn Taghrī-Birdī's "Chronicles of Egypt." Egypt and Syria under the Circassian Sultans 1382–1468 (2 vols., 1955–57) offers systematic notes to Ibn Taghrī-Birdī's chronicles. In the field of Jewish scholarship he wrote The Censorship of Hebrew Books (1899, reprinted with introduction by M. Carmilly-Weinberger, 1969). On the occasion of his 75^th birthday, Popper was presented with a Jubilee Volume (Semitic and Oriental Studies, ed. by W.J. Fischel, 1951).