page_title: Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall
section_title: Life
hierarchical_section_title: Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall / Life
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Die Vorderseite zeigt die Büste Jospeh von Hammer-Purgstalls im Profil nach links. Umlaufend stehen sein Name und die Künstlersignatur mit Prägejahr. Die Rückseite zeigt in einem Tondo einen Memnonskoloss in Frontalansicht mit einem umlaufenden Zitat aus dem Koran auf deutsch. Um den Tondo sind orientalische Muster und 12 Ellipsen mit Tiersymbolen platziert. Auf dem Rand (nicht abgebildet) befindet sich eine griechische Legende (s.h. Originalquelle: https://www.ikmk.uni-tuebingen.de/object?id=ID1832) English: The front side depicts a bust of Jospeh von Hammer-Purgstall surrounded by his name, the signature of the engraver and year of coinage. The back side shows in a circle a Coloss of Memnon enclosed by a quote of the Koran in German. The circle is surrounded by oriental patterns and 12 ovals picturing animals. Not shown is an ancient Greek quote placed on the rim of the medal (cf. https://www.ikmk.uni-tuebingen.de/object?id=ID1832).
context_page_description: Baron Joseph Freiherr von Hammer-Purgstall was an Austrian orientalist and historian.
context_section_description: Born Joseph Hammer in Graz, Styria (now Austria), he received his early education mainly in Vienna. Entering the diplomatic service in 1796, he was appointed in 1799 to a position in the Austrian embassy in Istanbul, and in this capacity he took part in the expedition under Admiral William Sidney Smith and General John Hely-Hutchinson against France. In 1807 he returned home from the East, after which he was made a privy councillor.
  In 1824 he was knighted (Chevalier).
  For fifty years Hammer-Purgstall wrote prolifically on the most diverse subjects and published numerous texts and translations of Arabic, Persian and Turkish authors. He was the first to publish a complete translation of the divan of Hafez into a western language. By traversing so large a field, he laid himself open to the criticism of specialists, and he was severely handled by Heinrich Friedrich von Diez (1751–1817), who, in his Unfug und Betrug in der morgenländischen Litteratur, nebst vielen hundert Proben von der groben Unwissenheit des H. v. Hammer zu Wien in Sprachen und Wissenschaften (1815), devoted to him nearly 600 pages of abuse. He also came into friendly conflict on the subject of the origin of The Thousand and One Nights with his younger English contemporary Edward William Lane.
  Hammer-Purgstall supported the foundation of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna and became the Academy's first president (1847–1849). The Austrian Oriental Society, founded in 1959 to foster cultural relations with the Near East, is formally named 'Österreichische Orient-Gesellschaft Hammer-Purgstall' in recognition of Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall's accomplishments.
  In 1847 he received a medal commissioned by a friend of his, Ludwig August von Frankl. The reverse references some of his works in pictures.
  He died in Vienna on 23 November 1856.
caption: Medal Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall 1847
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