KLÍMA , OTAKAR (b. Prague, 15 Nov. 1908; d. Prague, 29 Dec. 1988), Czech orientalist and philologist.
Otakar Klíma had a modest upbringing. He was the only child of a civil servant employed in military stores. After graduating from a gymnasium in Prague, he studied from 1927 until 1931 at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University (Univerzita Karlova) in Prague. There he studied Slavic, Germanic, and Oriental languages under Bedřich Hrozný (1879-1952), Vincenc Lesný (1882-1953), Jan Rypka (1886-1968), Oldřich Hujer (1880-1942), and Felix Tauer (1893-1981). He received his doctorate in 1931 with a thesis on “Duál v hlaholských textech staroslověnských” (Dual in Glagolitic Old Slavonic Texts) (Bečka, 1988, p. 304). But since his early university years, he was particularly interested in Old and Middle Iranian languages. At the time, there was no specialist in these fields in Prague, and his economic situation did not allow him to continue his studies abroad, so he had to access these complex studies unassisted.
From 1931 to 1952, he served as a Czech and German teacher in several gymnasiums in Prague. During all these years, he continued studying Latin, Sanskrit, Greek, Armenian, Syriac, Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, and, of course, Iranian languages. In 1953, he was offered a research position at the Department of the Near East and Africa at the Oriental Institute of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. Later, he became head of this department. He retired at 65 in 1973 (Bio-bibliographies, p. 303).
Klíma started publishing his scholarly works at a relatively late stage. But he was a prolific scholar and authored more than 250 works (including ca. 140 reviews) written in Czech, German, French, Russian, and English. However, the fact that many of his articles were written in Czech and often in rare journals did not particularly help the diffusion of his works in Western Europe and the United States. The circulation of these articles has remained more often limited to the Slavic area. His first relevant work was a Grammar of Hebrew and Aramaic (1956) in collaboration with Stanislav Segert (1921-2005), but most of his later works are related to the Iranian world. His interests extended to Iranian history, history of religion (Zoroastrianism, Manicheism, and Mazdakism, with a particular attention to social problems), and Iranian philology and literature. Central in his scholarly works is the study of the Mazdakite movement to which several of his works are closely related. Social and political aspects of the Mazdakite movement were particularly attractive and studied in the Socialist countries of Eastern Europe (after World War II) and the Soviet Union (after the October Revolution). Very often Mazdak was there represented as a proto-communist (Ognibene and Gariboldi). In any case, Klíma‘s analysis in his main work of 1957 is very balanced and useful. This monograph was awarded a prize from the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences (Bečka, 1979, p. 171).
Klíma‘s scholarship in the field is best reflected in his Sláva a pád starého Iránu (Prague, 1977), an account of the history and way of life in ancient Iran until the advent of Islam.
Bibliography
A full bibliography of Klíma‘s publications from 1937 to 1978 is found in Jiří Bečka, “Otakar Klíma Turns Seventy,” Archív Orientální 47, 1979, pp. 169-81. The list was supplemented with his works up to 1987 in J. Bečka, “Anniversary Otakar Klíma (*1908),” Archív Orientální 56, 1988, pp. 334-36. The following list gives a selected bibliography of Klíma‘s studies divided according to subject.
On Mazdakism.
“Mazdak, perský komunistický reformátor na počátku střdověku” (Mazdak, a Persian Communist Reformer from the Beginning of the Middle Ages), Nový Orient 2, 1947, pp. 17-19.
“Mazdak und die Juden,” Archív Orientální 24, 1956, pp. 420-31
“Über das Datum von Mazdaks Tod,” in Felix Tauer, Věra Kubíčková and Ivan Hrbek, eds., Charisteria orientalia praecipue ad Persiam pertinentia, Prague, 1956, pp. 135-41.
Mazdak: Geschichte einer sozialen Bewegung im sassanidischen Persien, Prague, 1957; repr., New York, 1979.
“Mazdak,” Nový Orient 14, 1959, pp. 150-51. “Mazdakitskoe dvizhenie,” Soobshcheniya chekhoslovatskikh orientalistov I, Moscow, 1960, pp. 68-76.
Beiträge zur Geschichte des Mazdakismus, Dissertationes Orientales 37, Prague, 1977.
On Manicheism.
“Manicheismus,” Nový Orient 5, 1949-50, pp. 17-20.
“Manichäische Homilien S. 67,” Archív Orientální 20, 1952, pp. 53-56.
“Beiträge zur Chronologie von Mânîs Leben,” Archív Orientální 22, 1954, pp. 63-68.
“Z dějin čínského manicheismu” (From the History of Chinese Manicheism), Nový Orient 9, 1954, pp. 103-5.
“War Mānī wirklich lahm?” Archív Orientální 25, 1957, pp. 384-87. “Baat the Manichee,” Archív Orientální 26, 1958, pp. 342-46.
“Mání – gnostik a filosof” (Mani, the gnostic and philosopher), Nový Orient 14, 1959, pp. 68-69.
“Über ein im manichäischen Psalter erwähntes Buch von Mani,” Archív Orientální 28, 1960, pp. 101-2.
Manis Zeit und Leben, Prague, 1962. “Ein Beitrag zur Chronologie von Manis Leben,” Archív Orientální 34, 1966, pp. 212-14.
On Zoroastrianism.
“Zarathuštra,” Věda a život, 1944, pp. 102-6.
“Une mention de Zoroastre dans la Chronique des Britons de Nennius,” Archív Orientální 18, 1950, pp. 312-15.
“Zarathuštra, íránský prorok” (Zarathustra, the Prophet of Iran), Nový Orient 13, 1958, pp. 66-67.
“The Date of Zoroaster,” Archív Orientální 27, 1959, pp. 556-64. Zarathuštra, Prague, 1963.
“Deo Arimanio,” Archív Orientální 32, 1964, pp. 601-4. “Zarathuštra v novodobé vědě” (Zarathustra in Modern Science), Nový Orient 19, 1964, pp. 310-11.
“Dualismus v předislámském Íráně” (Dualism in Pre-Islamic Iran), Nový Orient 25, 1970, pp. 164-68.
“Zarathuštra,” Věda a technika mládeži, 1970, pp. 168-69.
“Das Datum Zarathustras,” Iranische Mitteilungen 2, 1987, pp. 49-67.
On Iranian philology and literature.
“Dějiny avestské, staroperské a středoperské literatury” (History of Avestan, Ancient Persian and Middle Persian Literature), in Jan Rypka, ed., Dějiny perské a tádžické literatury (History of Persian and Tajik Literature), Prague, 1956, pp. 15-68, 411-16; repr. 1963; German ed., Leipzig, 1959, pp. 1-67, 565-71; Eng. ed., Dordrecht, Holland, 1968, pp. 1-67, 753-56; Polish ed., Warsaw, 1970; Russian ed., Moscow, 1970; Pers. ed., Tehran, 1991.
“Iránské jazyki” (Iranian Languages), Nový Orient 11, 1956, pp. 152-54.
“Zum Artāk Virāz nāmak,” Archív Orientální 24, 1956, pp. 597-98. “Význam historickosrovnávacího studia pro vědecký výklad soudobých jazyků íránskýk” (The Significance of Historical Comparative Studies for Scientific Interpretation of Contemporary Iranian Languages), in Antonin Dostál, ed., O vědeckém poznání soudobých jazyků, Prague, 1958, pp. 64-67.
“Two Comments to the Middle Iranian Lexicon,” in Jamshedji M. Unvala, ed., Dr. J. M. Unvala Memorial Volume, Bombay, 1964, pp. 35-40.
“Der Ausdruck dast nēv in der sassanidischen Inschrift von Hajjiabad,” Archív Orientální 39, 1971, pp. 260-67. “The Old Persian niyaka-,” AAASH 25, 1977, pp. 83-84.
Other.
Mluvnice hebrejštiny a aramejštiny (Grammar of Hebrew and Aramaic), Prague, 1956.
Obituaries, studies.
Jiří Bečka, “Rozloučení s Otakarem Klímou,” Nový Orient 44, 1989, pp. 115-16.
Petr Vavroušek, Iranian and Indo–European Studies: Memorial Volume of Otakar Klíma, Prague, 1994.
Other works cited.
Bio-bibliographies de 134 Savants, Acta Iranica (Répertoires I) 20, Leiden, 1979, pp. 303-4. Paolo Ognibene and Andrea Gariboldi, Conflitti sociali e movimenti politico-religiosi nell’Iran tardo antico: Contributi della storiografia sovietica nel periodo 1920-1950, Milan, 2004.