Name Shinji Maejima | Died 1983 | |
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Shinji Maejima (前嶋 信次, Maejima Shinji, July 20, 1903 - June 3, 1983) was a Japanese Orientalist.
A native of Yamanashi Prefecture, he studied Pali and Sanskrit at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, and graduated with a BA from the University of Tokyo. Prior to World War II, he taught in Taiwan, then a Japanese colony. After the war, he taught Islamic History at Keio University until his death.
He began as a Buddhist scholar, but then turned his attention to Islam, becoming a pioneering Arabist in Japan. He was the first one to render the One Thousand and One Nights from the original Arabic into Japanese. He died just before the publication of a supplementary volume to his twelve-volume translation, which contains the stories of Ali Baba and Aladdin. Six more volumes were later produced by Osamu Ikeda (池田 修) to complete the series.