CHRISTENSEN, ARTHUR (1875–1945), Danish Orientalist and folklorist. Arthur Emanuel Christensen was born in Copenhagen, where, apart from short periods of study and travel, he spent his life. He studied in Berlin and Göttingen, passing his Studentereksamen in 1893 and obtaining his candidatus magisterii (master's degree) in French, history, and Latin in 1900. During his university years, Christensen was also a fervent student of Persian, Avestan, Arabic, Sanskrit, and Turkish. He studied under the famous Iranologist F. C. Andreas, and, in 1903, he obtained his Ph.D. He became a teacher and journalist, specializing in foreign politics. In 1919, he was appointed professor extraordinarius of Iranian philology at the University of Copenhagen, an office that he held for the rest of his life.

Christensen was a prolific writer who wrote on many aspects of Iranian cultural history, including language (dialect studies), folklore, general history, history of religions, philosophy, and music. His...