Ben Segal: Public-spirited scholar of Aramaic and Hebrew studies†
Geoffrey
Khan
Cambridge University
Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute
George A. Kiraz
James E. Walters
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Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute
2004
Vol. 7, No. 1
For this publication, a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
license has been granted by the author(s), who retain full
copyright.
https://hugoye.bethmardutho.org/article/hv7n1obsegal
Geoffrey Khan
Ben Segal: Public-spirited scholar of Aramaic and Hebrew studies†
https://hugoye.bethmardutho.org/pdf/vol7/HV7N1OBSegal.pdf
Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies
Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute,
vol 7
issue 1
Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies is an electronic journal dedicated to the study
of the Syriac tradition, published semi-annually (in January and July) by Beth
Mardutho: The Syriac Institute. Published since 1998, Hugoye seeks to offer the
best scholarship available in the field of Syriac studies.
Syriac Studies
Judah Benzion 'Ben' Segal
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OBITUARY
[1] Judah
Benzion 'Ben' Segal, scholar of semitic languages, born June 21
1912; died October 23 2003.
[2] Judah
"Ben" Segal, who has died aged 91, was a leading scholar in the
field of Aramaic and Hebrew studies. He was professor of
semitic languages at the School of Oriental and African Studies
(SOAS), in the University of London, from 1961 until his
retirement in 1979.
[3] Among
much else, he was largely responsible for a degree course that
allowed students to study all the major languages of the
semitic family, including Arabic, Hebrew, Aramaic, Akkadian and
Ethiopic. This course, which sadly no longer exists, was unique
in a British university at the time, and provided an excellent
training for those who wished to undertake a research degree in
semitic philology. It ensured that students gained a thorough
knowledge of the languages and were able to read the most
challenging texts, rather than simply learning "about" the
languages.
[4] Segal's
own research was wide ranging. Several of his publications
concerned the Christian Aramaic dialect known as Syriac, and
the culture and literature of eastern Christianity. His first
book, The Diacritical Point and the Accents in Syriac
(1953), a study of the vowels of Syriac, is greatly admired by
semitic philologists and often regarded as one of his best
works.
[5] In 1970,
he published Edessa: The Blessed City, an erudite but
very accessible historical study of the city of Edessa, modern
Urfa in southern Turkey, where the Syriac language had its
origins. He also made major contributions in the field of
Hebrew and Jewish history; his book The Hebrew Passover
from the Earliest Times to AD 70 (1963) quickly became a
standard work.
[6] In
retirement, Segal continued his scholarly research with
considerable energy. In 1981, he was awarded a Leverhulme
emeritus fellowship, which allowed him to conduct research in
India on the Jews of Cochin, resulting in the publication, in
1993, of his definitive work on the subject, A History of
the Jews of Cochin.
[7] He also
continued to make important contributions to Aramaic studies
through his publication of Aramaic texts from North
Saqqara, with some Fragments in Phoenician (1983) and his
Catalogue of the Aramaic and Mandaic Incantation Bowls in
the British Museum (2000, in collaboration with Erica
Hunter).
[8] Born in
Newcastle, Segal was educated at Magdalen College school,
Oxford, and graduated with a first-class tripos degree in
Oriental languages from Cambridge University in 1935. He
returned to Oxford to study for a research degree, and was
awarded a DPhil there in 1939. His outstanding ability won him
a series of prizes and scholarships.
[9] Most of
his later academic colleagues and students were not aware that
he had distinguished himself in action during the second world
war, to the extent that, in 1942, he had been awarded the
Military Cross for bravery.
[10]
Earlier that year, he was sent more than 100 miles behind
German lines in north Africa to report on the movements of
Rommel's forces, and give advance warnings of planned attacks.
He spent several weeks in secret hideouts with local Arabs,
whose language he could speak. His regular reports helped save
many allied lives. Narrowly avoiding capture on several
occasions, he led an operation that resulted in the capture of
the Libyan town of Derna, which proved to be crucial for the
advance of Montgomery's 8th Army.
[11]
After the war, Segal pursued an academic career, as had his
father, the distinguished Hebrew scholar M.H. Segal. In 1946,
he joined SOAS, where he spent his entire career, as a lecturer
in Hebrew and Aramaic, was promoted to reader in 1955, and took
a chair in semitic languages in 1961. In 1968, he was elected
to a fellowship of the British Academy.
[12] It
was my privilege to be his student at SOAS in the late 1970s,
and I was, at first, overawed at being taught by a scholar of
such eminence and erudition. Segal's quiet, gentle approach,
however, soon made me feel completely at ease. In those days,
more importance was attached to passing on scholarship to a
younger generation than to maximising the number of students in
the class. Indeed, I was often the only student on the courses
that he taught.
[13] His
public-spiritedness was demonstrated on numerous occasions,
especially when, at the age of 70, he agreed to become director
of the progressive London Jewish seminary, Leo Baeck College,
and worked resolutely to save it from imminent closure.
[14] His
wife Leah, whom he married in 1946, survives him, as do their
two daughters._______
Notes
† Reprinted with permission from The
Guardian (London, 9 Dec 2003).