Caspar Detlef Gustav Müller (19 July 1927 - 24 January 2003) was a German Coptologist, Ethiopanist, and historian of religion. His specialty was the Coptic Church in Egypt as well as Christianity in Ethiopia, and was a scholar of various languages including Coptic, Amharic, and Ge'ez (classical Ethiopic). He served as chair for the study of the Christian Orient at the University of Bonn. His tenure as professor there was from 1976 to 1993, when he took emeritus status.
C.D.G. Müller was born in Berlin, Germany on 19 July 1927. He performed his undergraduate studies in his hometown at the Humboldt University of Berlin, where he studied Oriental studies, Egyptology under Fritz Hintze, Protestant theology, and American studies. In 1949 he moved to Heidelberg University, where he continued his studies under the church historian and theologian Hans von Campenhausen. There, he received his doctorate in theology, with his dissertation Die alte koptische Predigt ("The Old-Coptic Preaching"). As an employee of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, he continued his education at Heidelberg; his habilitation thesis in 1959 was Die Engellehre der koptischen Kirche ("The Angelology of the Coptic Church"). In 1966 he began to teach church history at Heidelberg, particularly of the Christian Church in the Orient.[1][2]
In 1976 he gained a tenure track position as a professor at the Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn in Bonn. In 1979 he took the newly created chair for the study of the Christian Orient there. A festschrift was published in his honor in 1988 for his 60th birthday, Nubia et oriens christianus. Festschrift für C. Detlef G. Müller zum 60. Geburtstag.[2] In 1993, he took emeritus status and retired.[1]
Müller died in Bonn on 24 January 2003 after a long struggle with illness.[1]
As author:
As an editor:
Festschrift: