THOMAS CHRISTIAN TYCHSEN

Born on 8 May 1758 in Kirchdorf Horsbüll, district of Tondern
Died on 23 October 1834 in Göttingen

• Son of a pastor
• studied theology and philology in Kiel and Göttingen with Michaelis and others
• 1783 – received a travel grant and visited France, Spain, Lombardia, and Vienna
• 1784 – Professor of Theology
• 1788 – Professor and Chair of Oriental Languages at Göttingen

Among Tychsen’s students were such well-known Orientalists as H. Ewald and W. Gesenius. Tychsen’s educational activities found further expression in a Grammatik der arabischen Schriftsprache (Göttingen 1823), which became a much-used teaching tool. His most important publications were in the field of theology, but he was also interested in Oriental numismatics (he even started a coin collection at the University), the history of the ancient Iranian religions, and the question of the origin of the Afghans.