Christian Martin Frähn

For other people named Christian Martin, see Christian Martin (disambiguation).

Christian Martin Joachim Frähn (4 June 1782 – 16 August 1851), German and Russian numismatist and historian, was born at Rostock, Mecklenburg-Schwerin.

Frähn began his Oriental studies under Tychsen at the university of Rostock, and afterwards continued them at Göttingen and Tübingen. He became a Latin master in Pestalozzi's famous institute in 1804, taught at Rostock as a Privatdozent in 1806, and in the following year was chosen to fill the chair of Oriental languages in the Russian university of Kazan. Though in 1815 he was invited to succeed Tychsen at Rostock, he preferred to go to St Petersburg, where he became director of the Asiatic museum and councillor of state. He died at St Petersburg.

Frähn wrote over 150 works. Among the more important are:

• Numophylacium orientale Pototianum (1813)
• De numorum Bulgharicorum fonte antiquissimo (1816)
• Des muhammedanische Münzkabinet des asiatischen Museum der kaiserl. Akademie der Wissenschaf ten zu St Petersburg (1821)
• Numi cufici ex variis museis selecti (1823)
• Notice d'une centaine d'ouvrages arabes, lac., qui manquent en grande pantie aux bibliotheques de l'Europe (1834)
• Nova supplementa ad recensionem Num. Muham. Acad. Imp. Sci. Petropolitanae (1855)

His description of some medals struck by the Samanid and Bouid princes (1804) was composed in Arabic because he had no Latin types.

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 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

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Name	Frahn, Christian Martin
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Date of birth	4 June 1782
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Date of death	16 August 1851
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