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Hartwig Hirschfeld was born in Thorn, Prussia. After graduating from the Royal Marien Gymnasium in Posen, Hirschfeld studied Oriental languages and philosophy at the University of Berlin. He received his doctorate from the University of Strasburg in 1878 and, after a year's compulsory service in the Prussian Army, he obtained a travelling scholarship in 1882 which enabled him to study Arabic and Hebrew at Paris under Joseph Derenbourg.
Hirschfeld immigrated to England in 1889, where he became professor of Biblical exegesis, Semitic languages, and philosophy at the Montefiore College. In 1901, he was invited by the Syndicate of Cambridge University to examine the Arabic fragments in the Taylor-Schechter collection. That same year, he was appointed librarian and professor of Semitic languages at Jews' College, a position he occupied until 1929. He became a lecturer in Semitic epigraphy at University College London in 1903, a Reader in Ethiopic in 1906, and Goldsmid Lecturer in Hebrew there in 1924.
He published many works including the volume included in these papers. He is known for his editions of Judah Halevi's Kuzari, which he published in its original Judeo-Arabic and in Hebrew, German and English translations, and his studies on the Cairo Geniza.