FURST, Jumus, a distinguished orientalist of Jewish parentage, wash. May 12, 1805, at Zerkowa, in the grand-duchy of Posen, Prussia, where his father was lecturer on circumcision in the synagogue. F. was educated for the rabbinical profession, and dis played at a very early age a most remarkable power of acquiring knowledge. He stud ied at Berlin, where the German philosophy made sad havoc a his previous convic tions. ' The conflict in his mind between science and rabbinical lore ended, in 1829, in the defeat of the latter, and F. immediately proceeded to Breslau, where he continued his oriental, theological, and antiquarian studies, which were completed at Halle in 1831, under Gesenius, Wegscheider, and Tholuck. In 1833, he went to Leipsic, where Ire became professor in the university in 1864. Among his numerous and valuable writings may be mentioned Lehrgebilude der Aramdisehen, Idionte (System of Aramaic Idioms, Leip. 1835), a work which brought the Semitic languages within the sphere of comparative grammar, then in its infancy, and which, besides, sought to establish a system of analytico-historic investigation in regard to these languages themselves; Per lenschniire Aramaischer Gnomen undLieder (Pearl-strings of Aramaic Gnomes and Songs, Leip. 1830), with elucidations and glossary; Concordantim Librorum Sacrorum Veteris lestamenti ifebraice et Chaldaice (Concordances of the Sacred Books of the Old Testa ment in Hebrew and Chaldee, Leip. 1837-40), a work of indefatigable industry and
careful research, which has obtained for its author a great reputation both iu Germany and other countries; Art, il'ithem (Leip. 1840), a polemical treatise on the genuineness of the Saar and the worth of the Cabbala; Die Spritche der (The Sayings of the Fathers, Leip. 1839); Die Israelitische Bibel (The Hebrew Bible, Berlin, 1838), translated into German from the original, by himself, in conjunction with other scholars; Der Orient; Berichte, Studien und Kritiken fur Jitdisehe Geschichte und Literatur (The East; Notices, Studies, and Criticisms in connection with Jewish History and Literature, Leip. 1840); Die Judi.4chen Religionsphilosaphen des Mittelulters (The Jewish Religious Philosophers of the Middle Ages, Leip. 1845); Gesehichte der Juden in Asien (History of the Jews in Asia, Leip. 1849); Bibliotheca Judaica (1849-53); HeOrdiscites und Ghat daisches Handworterbitelt (Hebrew and Chaldee Manual,. Leip. 1851-54); and an edition of Winer's Chaldee Reading-Book (1864). He died in 1873.