Max van Berchem
1863–1921 (age 58)
Biography
Max van Berchem combined his training in history with a passion for Arabic inscriptions, traveling throughout the Middle East to document forgotten scripts and laying the groundwork for the Corpus Inscriptionum Arabicarum that remains a cornerstone of Islamic studies.
His scholarship united scholars across Europe and the Arab world, and the peaceful shores of Cologny became the final refuge for a man whose meticulous work helped preserve monuments that might otherwise have been lost.