Anquetil-Duperron, Abraham-Hyacinthe

ANQUETIL-DUPERRON, ABRAHAM-HYACINTHE. - Orientalist, b. in Paris on 7 Dec. 1731, d. there on 17 Jan. 1805. Passionate about ancient Persia, he wanted to know its language and religion, and proposed, in order to achieve this goal, to make contact with the modern followers of Zoroaster, the Parsis of India. He enlisted in an expeditionary corps and landed at Pondichéry in 1755, and three years later, in 1758, he managed to settle in Surat, where he had contact and dealings with the Parsis. A Parsi, Darab, served as his teacher of the ancient religious language and gave him knowledge of the ancient cult; he also assisted him in the search for and purchase of ancient manuscripts. On his return to Paris (1762) he thus brought back 180 manuscripts, including two of the Avesta. With the knowledge acquired in India, both of the language and of the religion, as well as of the customs and habits of the Parsi community, he set to work, and in 1771 he was able to publish his fundamental work, a French translation of the Avesta with commentary. The novelty of the thing and of the information filled the world of scholars with astonishment, but also with a certain distrust, not always justified. It was, moreover, the beginning of Iranian studies, and it induced not a few to continue along the path opened by his work: Zend Avesta, ouvrage de Zoroastre, 3 vols., Paris 1771.

From 1763 he was a member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres; but in 1793 he was excluded from it because of his ideas contrary to the Revolution; recalled to it in 1803, he declined the honor and renounced the pension that Napoleon wished to assign to him, just as he had renounced that of Louis XVI.

Giuseppe Messina