Johann Heinrich Callenberg

Johann Heinrich Callenberg (January 12, 1694 – July 11, 1760) was a German Orientalist, Lutheran professor of theology and philology, and promoter of conversion attempts among Jews and Muslims.

Callenberg was born in Molschleben of peasant parents. Beginning in 1715 he studied philology and theology at the University of Halle. Sometime before 1720 Salomon Negri, professor of Syriac and Arabic at Rome, stayed in Halle for six months. Callenberg studied Arabic under him. Besides Arabic, Callenberg also studied Persian and Turkish.

From his youth he cherished the idea of working for the conversion of the Muslims in the Middle East, Russia and Tartary, but later he devoted himself to missionary work among the Jews. He established, in 1728, the Institutum Judaicum, the first German Protestant mission to the Jews, to which he attached a printing-office. In this office he printed the Gospel and other Christian books in the Judæo-German dialect, and distributed them among the Jews, with the assistance of the Jewish physician Dr. Heinrich Christian Immanuel Frommann, who translated the Gospel of Lukas with commentary, which was revised and reprinted by Raphael Biesenthal in the 19th century. Frommann's records named him only as typist, but Callenberg was not proficient in Hebrew at all. His first interest was Islam and by travelling got in touch with Jews. He was a great support to Dr. Frommann. He also sent missionaries to other European countries, and was a patron of converted Jews. His plans for the conversion of Muslims were resumed somewhat later, but in these he utterly failed. The Institutum Judaicum existed until 1791.

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