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(February 2013)| Franz Babinger (January 15, 1891 – June 23,
1967) was a well-known German orientalist and historian of the
Ottoman Empire, best known for his biography of the great
Ottoman emperor Mehmed II known as the Conqueror, originally
published as Mehmed der Eroberer und seine Zeit. An English
translation by Ralph Mannheim is available from Princeton
University Press under the title Mehmed the Conqueror and his
time. Babinger was born in Weiden, Bavaria and was already an
accomplished academic and linguist by the time he had completed
his secondary school studies. Prior to starting University, he
had already learned both Persian and Hebrew. Babinger completed
his doctoral studies at the University of Munich on the eve of
World War I, whereafter he joined the German Army. Because of
his language skills and abilities, Babinger served in the Middle
East, thus avoiding the deadly trench warfare that cut short the
lives of many promising scholars