Rosenthal, Erwin
ROSENTHAL, ERWIN
ROSENTHAL, ERWIN (Isaac Jacob ; 1904–1991), Orientalist. Rosenthal, born in Heilbronn, Germany, emigrated in 1933 to England, where he became lecturer in Hebrew at University College, London. From 1936 to 1944, he lectured on Semitic languages and literature at Manchester University, and during World War ii carried out various educational tasks for the British army and foreign office. Rosenthal taught (from 1948) Oriental studies at Cambridge University. From 1961 to 1991, he was a fellow, and then emeritus fellow, of Pembroke College, Cambridge.
Rosenthal wrote the following works on Arabic political philosophy: his dissertation, Ibn Khalduns Gedanken ueber den Staat (1932), Political Thought in Medieval Islam (1958), and Islam in the Modern National State (1965), and he published a critical edition of Averroës' commentary on Plato's Republic (1956). He also wrote Judaism and Islam (1961) as well as works on Christian Hebraists. Rosenthal edited the third volume of Judaism and Christianity (Law and Religion, 1938, repr. 1969). His other works include: a biography, Don Isaac Abravanel (1937); Griechisches Erbe in der juedischen Religions-philosophie des Mittelalters, the F. Delitzsch lectures which he gave in 1957; and Studia Semitica (2 vols., 1971). He also edited Saadya Studies (1943).