HISTORICAL AND LITERARY, OF THE LATE BARON DE SACY,

READ AT A SESSION OF THE ASIATIC SOCIETY, JUNE 25, 1838, BY M. REINAUD, HIS
SUCCESSOR IN THE CHAIR OF ARABIC, AND FORMERLY HIS PUPIL.

[Translated and abridged by Mrs. S. J. (JENKS) MERRITT.*]

ANTHONY ISAAC SILVESTRE DE SACY was born at Paris, on the 21st of September, 1758. His father, James Abraham Silvestre, was a notary. M. de Sacy had two brothers; and as is customary among the citizens of Paris, the eldest continued the name of his father, the second received that of de Sacy, and the third was called Silvestre de Chanteloup.

At the age of seven, M. de Sacy had the misfortune to lose his father. His mother was a woman of education, and supplied, as much as possible, this loss, to her children. M. de Sacy, being of delicate health, was taught reading, writing, and the classics, in which he became an uncommon proficient, by a private tutor, fortunately an excellent man.

At the age of twelve, M. de Sacy was accustomed to walk with his tutor in the garden of the Abbey St. Germain-des-Prés. It was occupied, at that time, by the Benedictines of St. Maur, who were specially devoted to the cultivation of letters, and whose name recalls many beautiful monuments, raised by them, to the honor of religion and science. One of these, Dom Berthereau, was then preparing a collection of Arabic historians of the war of the Crusades. M. de Sacy already possessed uncommon prudence and decision of character. Dom Berthereau became his friend, and inspired him with a taste for the oriental languages.

After the termination of his classical studies, M. de Sacy immediately commenced the career which has been so eminent, by the study of the Hebrew language, applied to a more intimate knowledge of the Sacred Writings. His mother was a pious woman, and had educated her children in religious principles. From the Hebrew he passed to the Syriac, Chaldean, Samaritan, and then to the Arabic and Ethiopic. These six languages belong to the same stock, and as the people who speak them are [mostly] descended of Shem, son of Noah, they have the general name of Semitic, or Shemitish. In the Hebrew and Arabic, M. de Sacy received

* GENTLEMEN,-I have read and compared this abridged translation of my daughter's with the original, and find it accurate. I regret that your limits could not have admitted the entire Memoir, without any WM. JENKS.

curtailment.

Editors of the Register.

VOL. XIV.

Respectfully,
29

lessons from a well-informed Jew, at Paris; and it is said that he was accustomed to read, in the Hebrew text, the passages of the Old Testament which are embodied in the Liturgy, to render the language more familiar. To these difficult studies were added the Italian, Spanish, English, and German.

His habits of life were favorable for these acquisitions; his mother had not re-married, and, concentrating all her affections upon her children, retained them at her own house. Here, M. de Sacy, for amusement, had raised a Finch, which he taught to pronounce a few words in Italian. Unfortunately, M. de Sacy was not satisfied with his labors of the day, but often continued them during the night; of course, his health became impaired, and his sight enfeebled, compelling him to cease his midnight studies; but for the remainder of his life he suffered the consequences of his imprudence.

It was impossible a man of such endowments should long remain unknown to the learned world. At that period, biblical studies occupied more attention in Europe, than at present. Kennicott and De Rossi were then accomplishing their great works. The labor of collating the Syriac and Chaldean manuscripts of the Septuagint, with the Greek and Hebrew, had been commenced; and many periodicals were devoted to the publication of the results. The principal of these, called the Repertory, was published in Germany, under the direction of Eichhorn.

A German orientalist, of Paris, had noticed, in the Royal library, a Syriac version of the fourth book of Kings, apparently translated from the Greek version of the Septuagint, by Origen; and containing the variations of many other versions. It was considered important to fix the character of this translation, and M. de Sacy, then in his twenty-third year, was entrusted with the charge. He commenced by publishing some notes upon the manuscript, in the periodical of Eichhorn. Afterward, he copied the fourth book of Kings entire; and it was partly from this copy that an edition was printed, in Germany.

In 1783, M. de Sacy devoted his attention to the Hebrew text of two letters which had been addressed, by the Samaritans, in the latter part of the sixteenth century, to Joseph Scaliger; in reply to a letter from him inquiring concerning their rites of worship, and requesting a copy of the books in use among them. The reply did not arrive until after the death of Scaliger. Father Morin, of the Oratory, made a Latin translation of the two letters, which was published by Richard Simon, but was considered inaccurate. M. de Sacy made a copy of the Hebrew text, accompanied by a Latin version, and notes, and the whole was published by Eichhorn.

Independently of these biblical studies, which were continued during his life, M. de Sacy had begun to consider the East in all its aspects, profane, as well as sacred; in regard to its geography and history, as well as the various creeds to which it had given birth. In this pursuit he was greatly assisted by his knowledge of the Arabic language, to which he now added that of the Persian, and Turkish. In the Turkish he made but slight proficiency; but in the Arabic and Persian his acquisitions were beyond those of any European scholar; and it must be remembered, that he commenced their study without the advantages possessed at the present day. Reiske, and the Schultenses, father and son, were dead. For the Persian, pupils were in want of correct text-books. Among those who cultivated Persian literature, were Sir William Jones, in England; and the Baron de Revickzky, in Germany; but neither of them was disposed to fill a vacancy so sensibly felt. M. de Sacy had recourse to the advice of some persons

who had resided for a long time in the Levant. M. Legrand, interpreting secretary for the Oriental languages to the king, was the gentleman from whom he derived the most assistance. We have no better proof of the slight aid afforded M. de Sacy, than is shown in the difference between his earliest and latest works.

From this

M. de Sacy was not entirely absorbed in scientific labors. period, he connected attention to business with the cultivation of letters. In 1781, he had been made Counsellor in the Court of Currency. The king, in 1785, having created a class of eight free associates, in the Academy of Inscriptions, M. de Sacy was comprised in the number. He was also occupied in writing two memoirs on the history of the Arabs, and the origin of their literature.

In the first of these memoirs, M. de Sacy has attempted the precise epoch of the breaking of the dike of Irem, in Arabia Felix. This rupture caused a great number of families to emigrate to Mecca, and even to Syria and Mesopotamia. The epoch of this event, M. de Sacy has fixed at the second century of our era, and he has also given a view of the Arabic families who emigrated. The second memoir is devoted to the origin of Arabic literature, and was followed, in 1830, by a supplementary memoir on the same subject.

In the year 1785 he married. He was also the same year named member of a committee of the Academy of Inscriptions, appointed to make known, by an analysis, and extracts, the most important unedited works in the Royal library, and other libraries of the kingdom. The collection was published by the Academy. Among the articles furnished by him were, an extract from some biographies of the Persian poets, and an analysis of four Arabian works relative to the conquest of Yemen, or Arabia Felix, by the Ottomans, in the sixteenth century. It would seem that M. de Sacy intended to publish these works entire, as translations of them were found among his papers.

He soon after commenced his beautiful essays upon the Antiquities of Persia. Beside the gigantic monuments which decorate Persepolis, and other cities of Ancient Persia, there exist also some which are less ancient. At a place called Nacshi-Rostem, are bas-reliefs bearing inscriptions in unknown characters, and also in Greek. Niebuhr has given the most exact imitation of these characters, which M. de Sacy also examined, and recognized, among the Greek inscriptions, the name of Alexander, founder of the Persian dynasty of the Sassanides, in the third century; and also the name of his father. He discovered, too, various epithets, borrowed partly from the worship of Zoroaster; a worship which had lost a great part of its lustre after the conquests of Alexander; and which the Sassanide princes flattered themselves with having restored, in its ancient splendor.

M. de Sacy attempted the translation of the other inscriptions, by a laborious discovery of the analogy between them and the Greek, Chaldean, and Syriac characters, ascertaining them to be in the Pehlvi and Zend dialects of the Persian. In the Zend dialect, M. de Sacy derived assistance from the labors of M. Eugène Burnouf; and in the Pehlvi, from the vocabularies collected in India by M. Anquetil-Duperron, who, with equal learning and courage, passed many years among the remnant of the disciples of Zoroaster. M. de Sacy explained, in this manner, other inscriptions in the environs of Persepolis, and examined a bas-relief in the neighborhood of Kirmanschah, upon the frontiers of Kurdistan; finding upon it the names and titles of Sapor second, so celebrated by his wars against the Romans;