Background
A son of Markus Horovitz (1844–1910), an Orthodox rabbi, Josef Horovitz studied with Eduard Sachau at the University of Berlin and was there since 1902 as a docent.
Orientalist philologist university professor
A son of Markus Horovitz (1844–1910), an Orthodox rabbi, Josef Horovitz studied with Eduard Sachau at the University of Berlin and was there since 1902 as a docent.
From 1907 to 1915, he worked in India, in MAO College at Aligarh (later Aligarh Muslim University) and taught Arabic at the request of the Indian government curator for Islamic inscriptions. In this role, he prepared the collection Epigraphia Indo-Moslemica (1909–1912). After his return to Germany he was from 1914 until his death professor of Semitic languages at the Oriental Seminar of the University of Frankfurt.
He founded there the Department of Oriental Studies, and was its director
He focused his studies initially on Arabic historical literature. Then he published a concordance of earlier Arabic poetry.
His main work was a commentary on the Qur"an, which remained unfinished. In response to Ignác Goldziher theory that Hadith traditions were recorded late in 2nd and 3rd Hijri centuries, Horovitz showed that the collection and writing of Hadiths started in the first quarter of the 2nd century.
Since the foundation of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Horovitz was a member of its Board of Trustees.