Edward Ullendorff FBA (January 25, 1920 – March 6, 2011) was a British

British people

The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...

 scholar and historian, especially in Semitic languages and Ethiopia

Ethiopia

Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...

.

Biography

Ullendorff was educated at the Graues Kloster

Berlinisches Gymnasium zum Grauen Kloster

The Berlinisches Gymnasium zum Grauen Kloster is the oldest Gymnasium in Berlin and continues to this day as the Evangelisches Gymnasium zum Grauen Kloster. It is a private school with a humanistic profile and known as one of the most prestigious schools in Germany...

 in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

, the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and the University of Oxford

University of Oxford

The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...

.

He was previously Reader in Semitic Languages at the University of St. Andrews, Professor of Semitic Languages at the University of Manchester

University of Manchester

The University of Manchester is a public research university located in Manchester, United Kingdom. It is a "red brick" university and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive British universities and the N8 Group...

, and Professor of Ethiopic at the University of Oxford.

Prior to his death in 2011, Ullendorff was Professor Emeritus at the School of Oriental and African Studies

School of Oriental and African Studies

The School of Oriental and African Studies is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the University of London...

 (SOAS) in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, where he was Professor of Ethiopian Studies

Ethiopian Studies

Ethiopian Studies refers to a multi-disciplinary academic cluster dedicated to research on Ethiopia within the cultural and historical context of the Horn of Africa. The classical concept of Ethiopian Studies, developed by European scholars, is based on disciplines like philology and linguistics,...

 and then of Semitic Languages.

Works

• Exploration and Study of Abyssinia. A brief survey
• The Semitic Languages of Ethiopia. A Comparative Phonology (1955)
• An Amharic Chrestomathy (1965)
• The challenge of Amharic (1965) An inaugural lecture delivered on 28 October 1964
• The Ethiopians: An Introduction to Country and People (1966)
• Ethiopia and the Bible (1968) Schweich Lectures
  Schweich Lectures on Biblical Archaeology
  The Schweich Lectures on Biblical Archaeology are a series of lectures delivered and published under the auspices of the British Academy. The Leopold Schweich Trust Fund, set up in 1907, was a gift from Miss Constance Schweich in memory of her father...
  
   of The British Academy (1967)
• Some early Amharic letters. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 35.2:229-270. (1972)
• Is Biblical Hebrew a Language? (1977)
• Autobiography of Emperor Haile Sellassie of Ethiopia (1978), translator
• The Amharic Letters Emperor Theodore of Ethiopia to Queen Victoria and Her Special Envoy (1979), with David L. Appleyard, Girma-Selassie Asfaw
• The Hebrew Letters of Prester John (1982), with C. F. Beckingham.
• A Tigrinya Chrestomathy (1985)
• The Two Zions : Reminiscences of Jerusalem and Ethiopia (1989)
• From Emperor Haile Selassie to H. J. Polotsky Collected Papers IV: An Ethiopian and Semitic Miscellany
• From the Bible to Enrico Cerulli A Miscellany of Ethiopian and Semitic Papers
• Hebraic- Jewish Elements in Abyssinian (Monophysite) Christianity (1956)