View source for Christopher I. Beckwith

{{short description|American linguist}}
{{Infobox academic
| name = Christopher I. Beckwith
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| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1945|10|23}}
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| nationality = American
| occupation = Philologist, linguist
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| workplaces = [[Indiana University Bloomington]]
| main_interests = [[Inner Asia#Central Eurasia|Central Eurasian]] studies
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'''Christopher I. Beckwith''' (born October 23, 1945) is an American [[philologist]] and [[Professors in the United States#Distinguished (teaching / research) professor|distinguished professor]] in the [[Department of Central Eurasian Studies (Indiana University)|Department of Central Eurasian Studies]] at [[Indiana University Bloomington]], Indiana.<ref name="indiana1">{{cite web |url=http://www.indiana.edu/~ceus/faculty/beckwith.shtml |title=Christopher Beckwith: Faculty: Department of Central Eurasian Studies |publisher=Indiana.edu |date=2009-08-06 |access-date=2012-09-19 |archive-date=2015-12-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151206171141/http://www.indiana.edu/%7Eceus/faculty/beckwith.shtml |url-status=dead }}</ref>

He has a [[Bachelor of Arts]] in Chinese from [[Ohio State University]] (1968), a [[Master of Arts]] in Tibetan from [[Indiana University Bloomington]] (1974) and a [[Doctor of Philosophy]] in Inner Asian Studies from Indiana University (1977).

Beckwith, a [[MacArthur Fellows Program|MacArthur Fellow]],<ref>MacArthur Foundation, [https://www.macfound.org/fellows/270/ "Christopher Beckwith, Philologist"], 1986.</ref> is a researcher in the field of [[Inner Asia#Central Eurasia|Central Eurasian]] studies. He researches the history and cultures of ancient and medieval Central Asia. Concomitantly he specializes in Asian language studies and [[linguistics]], and in the [[history]] of [[Central Eurasia]]. He teaches [[Old Tibetan]], Central Eurasian languages, and Central Eurasian history and researches the linguistics of [[Aramaic language|Aramaic]], Chinese, [[Japanese language|Japanese]], [[Goguryeo language|Koguryo]], Old Tibetan, [[Tocharian languages|Tokharian]], [[Old Turkic language|Old Turkic]], [[Uzbek language|Uzbek]], and other languages.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://sgis.indiana.edu/faculty/directory/beckwith-christopher.html|title=Christopher I. Beckwith|website=[[Lee H. Hamilton#Honors and awards|Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies]]|access-date=2018-01-27|archive-date=2018-06-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180614171724/https://sgis.indiana.edu/faculty/directory/beckwith-christopher.html|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="indiana1"/>

His best-known works include ''Greek Buddha: Pyrrho's Encounter with Early Buddhism in Central Asia'' and ''Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present.'' ''Greek Buddha'' examines links between very [[Early Buddhist schools|early Buddhism]] and the philosophy of [[Pyrrho]], an ancient Greek philosopher who accompanied [[Alexander the Great]] on his [[Indian campaign of Alexander the Great|Indian campaign]]. The book is noted for its challenging and iconoclastic approach to multiple issues in the development of early [[Buddhism]], [[Pyrrhonism]], [[Daoism]], [[Jainism]] and the [[Śramaṇa]] movement.<ref>Beckwith, C. I., ''Greek Buddha: Pyrrho's Encounter with Early Buddhism in Central Asia'' ([[Princeton, New Jersey|Princeton]] and [[Oxford]]: [[Princeton University Press]], 2015).</ref> ''Empires of the Silk Road'' is a rethinking of the origins, history, and significance of Central Eurasia.<ref>[[Edward Rothstein|Rothstein, E.]], [https://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/13/arts/design/13silk.html "Information Highway: Camel Speed but Exotic Links"], ''[[The New York Times]]'', November 12, 2009.</ref> Beckwith's methodologies and interpretations concerning early Buddhism, inscriptions, and archaeological sites have been criticized by other scholars, such as [[Johannes Bronkhorst]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bronkhorst |first1=Johannes |title=How the Brahmins Won |date=21 March 2016 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-31551-8 |pages=483–489 |url=https://brill.com/display/title/33009?language=en |access-date=21 March 2016 |language=en |chapter=How the Brahmins Won: From Alexander to the Guptas}}</ref> [[Osmund Bopearachchi]],<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Osmund |first1=Bopearachchi |title=Reviews |journal=Ancient West & East |date=2016 |volume=15|pages=303–486 |doi=10.2143/AWE.15.0.3167478 |url=https://poj.peeters-leuven.be/content.php?id=3167478&url=article.php}}</ref> [[Stephen Batchelor (author)|Stephen Batchelor]]<ref>[[Stephen Batchelor (author)|Stephen Batchelor]] "Greek Buddha: Pyrrho's encounter with early Buddhism in central Asia", ''Contemporary Buddhism'', 2016, pp 195-215</ref> and Charles Goodman.<ref>Charles Goodman, "Neither Scythian nor Greek: A Response to Beckwith's Greek Buddha and Kuzminski's "Early Buddhism Reconsidered"", ''Philosophy East and West'', University of Hawai'i Press Volume 68, Number 3, July 2018 pp. 984-1006</ref> According to [[Patrick Olivelle]], Beckwith's theory about [[Ashoka]] is "an outlier and no mainstream Ashokan scholar would subscribe to that view."<ref>{{cite book | last=Olivelle | first=Patrick | title=Ashoka: Portrait of a Philosopher King | publisher=Yale University Press | date=2024 | page=xxviii | isbn=978-0-300-27000-6 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=TE3gEAAAQBAJ}}</ref>

==Publications==
*[https://books.google.com/books?id=7G61UifCEZMC ''The Tibetan Empire in Central Asia''] (1987)<ref>{{cite journal |title=The Tibetan Empire in Central Asia: A History of the Struggle for Great Power among Tibetans, Turks, Arabs and Chinese during the Early Middle Ages by Christopher I. Beckwith|first= Peter B. |last=Golden|authorlink=Peter B. Golden|journal=[[Journal of World History]]|volume= 1|number= 2 |date= 1990|pages= 264–268|jstor=20078473 }}</ref>
*''Medieval Tibeto-Burman Languages'' Vols I-III, editor (2002, 2006, 2008)<ref>Peycam, P., [https://www.iias.asia/books/medieval-tibeto-burman-languages "Brill's Proceedings of the Ninth Seminar of the IATS: Medieval Tibeto-Burman Languages"], [[International Institute for Asian Studies]], 2002.</ref>
*''[https://books.google.com/books?id=XeSvCQAAQBAJ Koguryo, the Language of Japan's Continental Relatives]'' (2004)<ref>{{cite journal | title=Christopher I. Beckwith—Koguryo, the Language of Japan's Continental Relatives (Leiden: Brill, 2004) | first=Mark E. | last=Byington | journal=[[Acta Koreana]] | volume=9 | issue=1 | pages=141–166 | year=2006 | url=http://actakoreana.kmu.ac.kr/back/back.php?mode=view&No=116 | access-date=2017-11-07 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171108035037/http://actakoreana.kmu.ac.kr/back/back.php?mode=view&No=116 | archive-date=2017-11-08 | url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | first=Thomas | last=Pellard | title=''Koguryo, the Language of Japan's Continental Relatives: An Introduction to the Historical-Comparative Study of the Japanese-Koguryoic Languages with a Preliminary Description of Archaic Northeastern Middle Chinese'' | journal=[[Korean Studies (journal)|Korean Studies]] | publisher=[[University of Hawaii Press]] | year=2005 | volume=29 | pages=167–170 | doi=10.1353/ks.2006.0008 | s2cid=145029765 | url=http://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/docs/00/19/41/11/PDF/review-Beckwith-Koguryo.pdf}}</ref>
*[https://books.google.com/books?id=PAHTizB_Sx8C ''Phoronyms: Classifiers, Class Nouns, and the Pseudopartitive Construction''] (2007) 
*[https://books.google.com/books?id=QBwlKk45XfUC ''Warriors of the Cloisters: The Central Asian Origins of Science in the Medieval World''] (2012)
*[https://books.google.com/books?id=5jG1eHe3y4EC ''Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present''] (2011)<ref>{{cite journal | title=''Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present'' | first=Doug | last=Hitch | journal=[[Journal of the American Oriental Society]] | year=2010 | volume=130 | issue=4 | pages=654–658 | doi=10.1111/j.1095-9270.2009.00260_11.x | jstor=23044587 | bibcode=2010IJNAr..39..207P | url=http://www.ynlc.ca/ynlc/staff/hitch/review_of_Beckwith.pdf | access-date=2015-01-02 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131226105908/http://www.ynlc.ca/ynlc/staff/hitch/review_of_Beckwith.pdf | archive-date=2013-12-26 | url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | first1=Karlene | last1=Jones-Bley | first2=Martin E. | last2=Huld | authorlink2=Martin E. Huld | title=Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present | journal=[[Journal of Indo-European Studies]] | year=2010 | volume=38 | issue=3&4 | pages=431–443 | doi=10.1111/j.1095-9270.2009.00260_11.x | bibcode=2010IJNAr..39..207P | url=http://www.clarkriley.com/JIES3834web/13Reviews%28431-453%29.pdf | access-date=2015-01-02 | archive-date=2017-01-15 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170115153119/http://www.clarkriley.com/JIES3834web/13Reviews%28431-453%29.pdf | url-status=dead }}</ref> [https://archive.org/details/EmpieresOfTheSilkRoad/]
*[https://books.google.com/books?id=53GYDwAAQBAJ ''Greek Buddha: Pyrrho's Encounter with Early Buddhism in Central Asia''] (2015)
*[https://books.google.com/books?id=vex8EAAAQBAJ&q=The+Scythian+Empire:+Central+Eurasia+and+the+Birth+of+the+Classical+Age+from+Persia+to+China ''The Scythian Empire: Central Eurasia and the Birth of the Classical Age from Persia to China''] (2023)

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*{{Helveticat}}
*{{DNB portal|123347319}}
*{{LCAuth|n85361927}}

==See also==
*[[Similarities between Pyrrhonism and Buddhism]]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Beckwith, Christopher}}
[[Category:1945 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:MacArthur Fellows]]
[[Category:Linguists from the United States]]
[[Category:Tibetologists]]
[[Category:American Turkologists]]
[[Category:Linguists of Indo-European languages]]
[[Category:Indo-Europeanists]]
[[Category:Indiana University Bloomington alumni]]
[[Category:Indiana University Bloomington faculty]]
[[Category:Ohio State University College of Arts and Sciences alumni]]
[[Category:Historical linguists]]
[[Category:Linguists of Puyŏ languages]]
[[Category:Buddhism in Indiana]]
[[Category:American scholars of ancient Greek philosophy]]