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William McGuckin de Slane

Irish orientalist (1801–1878)

Summary

Irish orientalist (1801–1878)

Field	Value
name	William McGuckin de Slane
image	Mac Guckin de Slane, William. Ch.Reutlinger. BNF Gallica.jpg
caption	de Slane photographed by Charles Reutlinger (1873)
birth_name	William McGuckin
birth_date	12 August 1801
birth_place	Belfast, Ireland
death_date	4 August 1878
death_place	Passy, Paris, France
occupation	{{flatlist
education	Trinity College Dublin
spouse
Anne Elise Sutton de Clonard
children	5
citizenship	French (1838–)

Orientalist
philologist
academic
Interpreter Anne Elise Sutton de Clonard William McGuckin (12 August 1801 – 4 August 1878), known as Baron de Slane, was an Irish orientalist, philologist, academic and Principal Interpreter to the French African Army.

Biography

De Slane was born in Belfast, the son of James McGuckin and Euphemia Hughes. After graduating from Trinity College Dublin, in 1822 he moved to Paris and studied oriental languages under Silvestre de Sacy.

In 1828 he was admitted to the Société Asiatique, a French learned society. The society financed Joseph Toussaint Reinaud and de Slane to prepare a critical edition of Abu'l-Fida (أبو الفداء)'s Arabic geography, Taqwīm al-Buldān (تقويم البلدان) – "Locating the Lands" (1321). This was published in 1840.

Between 1843 and 1846 he was sent on a mission by the French Government to catalogue important documents in the libraries of Algiers and Constantine. He served as Professor of Arabic at the École de langues orientales in Paris and from 1849 also taught Turkish. He was also commissioned by the Bibliothèque Nationale to catalogue their Arabic manuscripts.

On 30 October 1826 he married Angadrème Sophie Félicité de la Barre de Mérona. She died seven years later on 24 September 1833. He then married Anne Elise Sutton de Clonard and together they had five children. De Slane was awarded French citizenship on 31 December 1838. He died aged 76 in Passy, France on 4 August 1878.

In France he was awarded following honours:

Chevalier of the Legion of Honour, 24 September 1846
Officer of the Legion of Honour, 26 December 1852
Officer of the Instruction Publique
Officer of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus, awarded by King of Sardinia
Elected Member, 1862, of the Institut de France
Founding Member of the Association Historique Algérienne

Selected publications

Arabic text of Abu'l-Fida's Takwin al-Buldan, one volume, 1840

Translation of a section of Ibn Battuta's rihla, 1843

Translation of Ibn Khallikan's biographical dictionary, four volumes, 1843–1871

Arabic text of Ibn Khaldun's Histoire des Berbères, 2 volumes, 1847–1851

Translation of Ibn Khaldun's Histoire des Berbères, 4 volumes, 1852–1856

Translation of Al-Bakri, 1859, one volume

Revised edition with corrections (1913), Tangiers: Adolphe Jourdan.

Translation of Ibn Khaldun's Muqaddimah (Prolegomena), three volumes, 1863-1868

Notes

References

(1990). "Familia 1990: Ulster Genealogical Review: Number 6". Ulster Historical Foundation.
Pouillon, François. (2008). "Dictionnaire des orientalistes de langue française". Karthala.
(25 January 2024). "Géographie d'Aboulféda; texte arabe publié d'après les manuscrits de Paris et de Leyden". Paris Impr. royale.
"Taqwīm al-Buldān".
"SLANE, William Mac-Guckin de".
(October 1878). "Néocrologie". Polybiblion: Revue bibliographique universelle.
Potiquet, Alfred. (1871). "L'Institut national de France: ses diverses organisations, ses membres, ses associés et ses correspondants (20 novembre 1795-19 novembre 1869)". Didier.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

irish-orientalists irish-arabists naturalized-citizens-of-france french-arabists french-philologists members-of-the-société-asiatique members-of-the-académie-des-inscriptions-et-belles-lettres french-translators arabic–french-translators officers-of-the-legion-of-honour recipients-of-the-ordre-des-palmes-académiques officers-of-the-order-of-saints-maurice-and-lazarus writers-from-belfast 1801-births 1878-deaths

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