Gustav Weil

Gustav Weil (1808–1889) was a German Orientalist. Originally intended for the rabbinate, he instead studied history and philology in Heidelberg and Paris. In the 1830s, he worked as a correspondent in Algiers and Cairo, where he deepened his knowledge of Arabic and other Oriental languages. In 1845 he became an extraordinary professor of Oriental Languages at Heidelberg, and in 1861 a full professor. Weil is particularly known for his complete, faithful translation of *One Thousand and One Nights* from Arabic.