WENSINCK, A. J. (1882–1939), was a Dutch Semiticist, historian of Syriac mystical theology, and Islamicist. Arent Jan Wensinck, born in Aarlanderveen, the Netherlands, began his scholarly career with a year's study of theology in Utrecht. He then changed to Semitic studies, including Arabic, working first in Utrecht under M. T. Houtsma (1850–1943) and then in Leiden under M. J. de Goeje (1835–1909) and Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje (1857–1936). He obtained his doctorate at the University of Leiden in 1908 and subsequently became privatdocent for Syriac and Aramaic at the University of Utrecht. In 1908 he became secretary of The Encyclopaedia of Islam. From 1912 until 1927 Wensinck was professor of Hebrew, Aramaic, and Syriac at the University of Leiden, and in 1927 he succeeded Snouck Hurgronje as professor of Arabic and Islam at the same university, at which post he remained until his death.

Wensinck is best known as an Islamicist. He studied Mu...