1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Caspari, Karl Paul

CASPARI, KARL PAUL (1814–1892), German Lutheran theologian and orientalist, was born of Jewish parents at Dessau, Anhalt, on the 8th of February 1814. He studied at Leipzig and Berlin, became a Christian in 1838, and in 1857 was appointed professor of theology at Christiania, having declined invitations to Rostock and Erlangen. He died at Christiania on the 11th of April 1892. Caspari is best known as the author of an Arabic grammar (Grammatica Arabica, 2 vols., 1844–1848; new edition, Arabische Grammatik, edited by A. Müller; 5th ed. 1887). He also wrote commentaries on the prophetical books of the Old Testament, dogmatic and historical works on baptism, and from 1857 helped to edit the Theologisk Tidskrift for den evangelisk-lutherske Kirke i Norge. His writings include: Beiträge zur Einleitung in Jesaja (1848), and Alte und neue Quellen zur Geschichte des Taufsymbols und der Glaubensregel (1879).