# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Loewe, Louis

​LOEWE, LOUIS (1809–1888), linguist, was born of Jewish parents at Zülz, Prussian Silesia, in 1809. After attending successively Rosenburg Academy and the colleges of Lissa, Nicolsburg, and Presburg, he matriculated at the university of Berlin, where he took the degree of Ph.D. His knowledge of languages and numismatics was even at this period considerable, and on his paying a visit to Hamburg he was entrusted with the task of arranging the oriental coins in the Sprewitz collection. Coming to London, he obtained introductions to the Duke of Sussex and Admiral Sir Sydney Smith, through, whom he became known to many leading scholars and patrons of learning in England. In prosecution of his researches Loewe subsequently visited Oxford, Cambridge, and Paris. In 1836 he undertook, under the auspices of the Duke of Sussex and Sir S. Smith, a three years' tour in the East for the purpose of extending his knowledge of languages. Near Safed he was ill-treated and robbed by some Druses, and had to continue his journey through Palestine in the garb of a Bedouin. In 1839 the Duke of Sussex appointed him his lecturer on the oriental tongues.
On his return from his travels in 1839 Loewe went to study in the Vatican Library. At the time Sir Moses Montefiore passed through Rome on his second journey to the Holy Land. Loewe had been Montefiore's guest at Ramsgate in 1835, and he now readily accepted his invitation to accompany him to Palestine as his secretary. The intimate relations thus created with Sir Moses ceased only at the latter's death. In the memorable mission to Damascus and Constantinople in 1840, and on every succeeding journey, thirteen in all, extending from 1839 to 1874, Loewe accompanied Montefiore, to whom his linguistic acquirements and shrewd sense proved invaluable. He is said in 1840 to have addressed a large mixed congregation in the synagogue at Galata in four languages. His services in connection with the missions and philanthropic schemes of Montefiore were frequently acknowledged by the Jewish board of deputies. On 25 March 1841 he was presented by Montefiore to Queen Victoria.
In 1846 Loewe delivered two lectures on the Samaritans at Sussex Hall, Leadenhall Street, and in the same year he preached in the great synagogue at Wilna, on the occasion of Montefiore's mission to Russia. He was appointed first principal of Jews' College, Finsbury Square, in 1856, but soon resigned the office. He became examiner for oriental languages to the Royal College of Preceptors in 1858, and in the same year opened a Jewish boarding-school at Brighton.
When in 1868 Montefiore founded the Judith Theological College at Ramsgate, he chose Loewe as principal and director, and Loewe filled that office for twenty years. Early in 1888 he removed to London, and he died on 5 Nov. 1888 at 53 Warwick Road, Maida Hill. He was buried at Willesden. He married in 1844, and his widow survived him, together with three sons and four daughters. Loewe, a quiet, laborious scholar, had an aversion to public life, and was considered ​by those who little knew him cold and unsympathetic. He was a member of the Royal Asiatic and Numismatic Societies, and of the Asiatic Society of Paris.
Sir Moses Montefiore by his will not only named Loewe one of his executors, but directed that he should be entrusted with all his diaries and other private papers to enable him to undertake the task of writing a biography of Lady Montefiore. This naturally became a biography of Sir Moses also. It was completed in June 1888, and published in 1890 as 'Diaries of Sir Moses and Lady Montefiore. Edited by L. Loewe,' 2 vols. 8vo.
In 1841 Loewe prepared an English translation of 'Efés Dammîm,' a series of conversations at Jerusalem between a patriarch of the Greek church and a chief rabbi of the Jews, written in Hebrew by J. B. Levinsohn in 1839, on the occasion of the revival of the blood accusation in Soslow, Poland. The translation was extensively circulated, chiefly at the cost of Montefiore. In 1842 Loewe translated the first two conversations in 'Matteh Dan' by Chacham David Nieto, under the title of 'The Rod of Judgment.' He likewise published 'Observations on a unique Cufic Gold Coin, issued by Mustali, tenth Caliph of the Fatimite Dynasty,' 8vo, London, 1849, and 'A Dictionary of the Circassian Language,' 8vo, London, 1854, originally printed in the 'Transactions of the Philological Society.'
[Jewish Chron. 9 Nov. 1888; Times, 6 Nov. 1888; Morais's Eminent Israelites, pp. 208-11; Men of the Time, 11th edit.; Preface to Diaries of Sir M. and Lady Montefiore, and elsewhere.]
G. G.