He studied oriental languages at the Universities of
Kiel and
Leipzig, obtaining his PhD at
Halle in 1867. Sachau became a professor extraordinary of
Semiticphilology (1869) and a full professor (1872) at the
University of Vienna, and in 1876, a professor at the
University of Berlin, where he was appointed director of the new Seminar of Oriental languages (1887).[1][2]
Sachau travelled to the
Near East on several occasions (see his book Reise in Syrien und Mesopotamien, published 1883) and became known for his work on
Syriac and other
Aramaic dialects. He was an expert on polymath
Al-Biruni and wrote a translation of Kitab ta'rikh al-Hind, Al-Biruni's encyclopedic work on
India.[3][4] Sachau also wrote papers on
Ibadi Islam.[5]
While a student at Kiel, he became part of the fraternity Teutonia Kiel (1864). He was a member of the
Vienna and the
Prussian Academy of Sciences, and an honorary member of the Royal Asiatic Society in
London and the
American Oriental Society. He worked as a consultant in the planning and construction of the
Baghdad Railway. Among his better known students was
Eugen Mittwoch, a founder of modern Islamic studies in Germany.[6]
Inedita Syriaca. Eine Sammlung syrischer Übersetzungen von Schriften griechischer Profanliteratur, 1870 – A collection of Syriac translations of writings from Greek secular literature.
Chronologie orientalischer Völker, 1878, English translation. Chronology of Ancient Nations, 1879 – Translation of
Abū l-Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī's al-Āthār al-bāqiya ʿan al-qurūn al-ḫāliya (Vestiges of the Past, 1000).
Reise in Syrien und Mesopotamien, Leipzig, F.A. Brockhaus, 1883 – Journey to
Syria and
Mesopotamia.
Muhammedanisches Recht nach schafiitischer Lehre, Stuttgart, Berlin, W. Spemann, 1897 – Islamic law according to
Shafi'i doctrine. German translation and explanation of Mukhtasar Abī Shujāʿ according to
Ibrāhīm al-Bājūrī with the original Arabic text.
Am Euphrat und Tigris : Reisenotizen aus dem Winter 1897-1898, Leipzig : J.C. Hinrichs, 1900 – The
Euphrates and
Tigris, travelogue in the winter of 1897–1898.
"Three Aramaic Papyri from Elephantine, Egypt" in Smithsonian Institution Annual Report (1907): 605–11. [Translated and abstracted, by permission, from Drei Aramäische Papyrusurkunden aus Elephantine by Eduard Sachau in the Abhandlungen der
Königlich Preußischen Akademie der Wissenschaften for the year 1907.]
Alberuni's India. An account of the religion, philosophy, literature, geography, chronology, astronomy, customs, laws and astrology of India about A.D. 1030, (published in English) London, K. Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., 1910.
Die Chronik von Arbela, ein Beitrag zur Kenntnis des ältesten Christentums im Orient, Berlin, Verlag der Königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften, in Kommission bei Georg Reimer, 1915 – The chronicle of
Arbela, a contribution to the knowledge of the oldest Christianity in the Orient.
Arabische Erzählungen aus der Zeit der Kalifen, München: Hyperionverlag, 1920 – Arabic tales from the time of the Caliphs.[8]
Papers related to Ibadism
Sachau, Eduard: (1894) Muhammedanisches Erbrecht nach der Lehre der ibaditischen Araber von Zanzibar und Ostafrika. Sitzungsberichte der Königlich Preussischen Akademie derWissenschaften zu Berlin, VIII (1894), 159–210.
Sachau, Eduard: (1898a) [Yaḥyà ibn Khalfān al-Kharūṣi] Das Gutachten eines muhammedanischen Juristen über die muhammedanischen Rechtsverhältnisse in Ost-Afrika. Mitteilungen des Seminars für Orientalische Sprachen an der königlichen Friedrich Wilhelms-Universität zu Berlin, Jahrgang I (1898), Abt. III, 1–8.
Sachau, Eduard: (1898b) Über eine arabische Chronik aus Zanzibar. Mittheilungen des Seminars für Orientalische Sprachen an der königlichen Friedrich Wilhelms-Universität zu Berlin, Westasiatische Studien (Berlin), I. Band, Abtheilung 2 (1898), 1-19.
Sachau, Eduard: (1899) Über die religiösen Anschauungen der ibadhitischen Muhammedaner in Oman und Ostafrika. Mittheilungen des Seminars für Orientalische Sprachen an derköniglichen Friedrich Wilhelms-Universität zu Berlin, Westasiatische Studien (Berlin), Band II, 2. Abtheilung (1899) 47–82.
^Custers, Martin H. (2016). Al-Ibāḍiyya: A Bibliography. Vol. 3 (Second revised and enlarged ed.). Hildesheim-London-N.Y.: Olms Publishing. pp. 591–592.
ISBN9783487153544.
^"Paragraph based on translated text from an equivalent article at the
German Wikipedia".
^"University intelligence". The Times. No. 36893. London. 8 October 1902. p. 4.