Editing Johann Jakob Reiske (section)

==Biography==
Reiske was born at [[Zörbig]], in the [[Electorate of Saxony]].

From the [[orphanage]] in [[Halle, Saxony-Anhalt|Halle]] he passed in 1733 to the [[University of Leipzig]], and there spent five years. He tried to find his own way in middle [[Greek language|Greek]] literature, to which German schools then gave little attention; but, as he had not mastered the [[grammar]], he soon found this a sore task and took up [[Arabic language|Arabic]]. He was poor, having almost nothing beyond his allowance, which for the five years was only two hundred [[thaler]]s. But everything of which he could cheat his appetite was spent on Arabic books, and when he had read all that was then printed he thirsted for manuscripts, and in March 1738 started on foot for [[Hamburg]], joyous though totally unprovided, on his way to [[Leiden]] and the treasures of the [[Leiden University Library|Warnerianum]].{{sfn|Wellhausen|1911|p=57}}

At Hamburg, he got some money and letters of recommendation from the Hebraist [[Johann Christoph Wolf]], and took ship to [[Amsterdam]]. There d'Orville, to whom he had an introduction, proposed to retain him as his amanuensis at a salary of six hundred [[Dutch gulden|guilder]]s. Reiske refused, though he thought the offer very generous; he did not want money, he wanted manuscripts. When he reached [[university of Leiden|Leiden]] (6 June 1738), he found that the lectures were over for the term and that the manuscripts were not open to him.{{sfn|Wellhausen|1911|p=57}}

But d'Orville and [[Albert Schultens]] helped him to private teaching and reading for the press, by which he was able to live. He heard the lectures of A. Schultens, and practised himself in Arabic with his son J.J. Schultens. Through Schultens too he got at Arabic manuscripts, and was even allowed ''sub rosa'' to take them home with him. Ultimately he seems to have got free access to the collection, which he catalogued—the work of almost a whole summer, for which the curators rewarded him with nine guilders.{{sfn|Wellhausen|1911|p=57}}

Reiske's first years in Leiden were not unhappy, until he got into serious trouble by introducing emendations of his own into the second edition of Burmann's ''Petronius'', which he had to see through the press. His patrons withdrew from him, and his chance of perhaps becoming professor was gone; d'Orville indeed soon came round, for he could not do without Reiske, who did work of which his patron, after dressing it up in his own style, took the credit. But A. Schultens was never the same as before to him; Reiske indeed was too independent, and hurt him by his open criticisms of his master's way of making Arabic mainly a handmaid of [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]]. Reiske himself, however, admitted that Schultens always behaved honourably to him. In 1742, by Schultens' advice Reiske took up medicine as a study by which he might hope to live if he could not do so by [[philology]]. In 1746, he graduated as M.D., the fees being remitted at Schultens' intercession. It was Schultens too who conquered the difficulties opposed to his graduation at the last moment by the faculty of [[theology]] on the ground that some of his theses had a materialistic ring.{{sfn|Wellhausen|1911|p=57}}

On 10 June 1746 he left the [[Netherlands]] and settled in [[Leipzig]], where he hoped to get medical practice. But his shy, proud nature was not fitted to gain patients, and the Leipzig doctors would not recommend one who was not a Leipzig graduate. In 1747, an Arabic dedication to the electoral prince of [[Saxony]] got him the title of professor, but neither the faculty of arts nor that of medicine was willing to admit him among them, and he never delivered a course of lectures. He had still to go on doing literary task-work, but his labour was much worse paid in Leipzig than in Leiden. Still he could have lived and sent his old mother, as his custom was, a yearly present of a piece of leather to be sold in retail if he had been a better manager. But, careless for the morrow, he was always printing at his own cost great books which found no buyers. In his autobiography "Lebensbeschreibung" he depicted his academical colleagues as hostile; and suspected [[Johann August Ernesti|Ernesti]], under a show of friendship, secretly hindered his promotion. On the other hand, his unsparing reviews made bad blood with the pillars of the university.{{sfn|Wellhausen|1911|p=57}}

In 1755 to 1756 he turned his attention to Oriental coins. The custodian at the [[Münzkabinett|Royal Coin Cabinet]] in Dresden, Richter, invited him  to study the coins with Arabic inscriptions. Richter asked him to explain the texts on the coins. His resulting "letters on Arabic coinage (Briefe über das arabische Münzwesen)" were posthumously published by [[Johann Gottfried Eichhorn]]. He did it very eagerly with the hope to find a suitable bread job in Dresden. However, the [[Seven Years' War]] ended all hopes to find anything in Oriental studies. His "letters on Arabic coinage" were the first serious attempt to compare the historical information gathered from the Islamic coins - bearing up to 150 words – with the information from chronicles, to achieve new insights in medieval Islamic history. Among the Orientalists at his time he was now known as someone knowledgeable on Islamic coins. He was later approached by [[Carsten Niebuhr]] to identify the coins which he brought with him from his travels. But Reiske never came back seriously to this topic.{{Citation needed|date=May 2024}}

At length in 1758 the magistrates of Leipzig rescued him from his misery by giving him the rectorate of St. Nicolai, and, though he still made no way with the leading men of the university and suffered from the hostility of men like [[David Ruhnken|Ruhnken]] and [[Johann David Michaelis|J.D. Michaelis]], he was compensated for this by the esteem of [[Frederick the Great]], of [[Gotthold Ephraim Lessing|Lessing]], Niebuhr, and many foreign scholars.{{sfn|Wellhausen|1911|p=57}}

The last decade of his life was made cheerful by his marriage with [[Ernestine Christine Reiske|Ernestine Müller]], who shared all his interests and learned [[Greek language|Greek]] to help him with collations. In proof of his gratitude, her portrait stands beside his in the first volume of the ''Oratores Graeci''. Reiske died in Leipzig on 14 August 1774, and his manuscript remains passed, through Lessing's mediation, to the Danish historian [[Peter Frederik Suhm|P.F. Suhm]], and are now in the [[Royal Library, Copenhagen]].{{sfn|Wellhausen|1911|p=57}}