Gaston Wiet (18 December 1887, Paris – 20 April 1971, Neuilly-sur-Seine) was a 20th-century French
orientalist.
Biography
Wiet graduated from the
Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales
Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales ( en, National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations), abbreviated as INALCO, is a French university specializing in the teaching of languages and cultures from the world. ...
, and with a law degree, was boarder at the
Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale
The Institut français d'archéologie orientale (or IFAO), also known as the French Institute for Oriental Archaeology in Cairo, is a French research institute based in Cairo, Egypt, dedicated to the study of the archaeology, history and language ...
of Cairo in 1909–1911. As an assistant professor in Lyon, where he taught Arabic and Turkish, then a professor in Cairo, he was drafted in 1914, assigned to the
Armée d'Orient as a second lieutenant. He ended the war with the rank of captain, decorated by the Serbian government.
In 1919, he resumed his teaching activities in Lyon and Paris. In 1926 he was appointed director of the
Museum of Islamic Art, a position he held until 1951.
[After the Republican coup, Gaston Wiet, who was, somehow, a senior "officer" of the Egyptian monarchy, was invited, with discretion, to leave office by the new authorities.] He wrote 14 of the 35 volumes of the catalog of the museum, of which he did much to enrich the collections, particularly in the areas of items of furniture and epigraphy.
In 1940, Wiet became, in Cairo, one of the most ardent supporters of
Free France and
général de Gaulle.
On his return to France in 1951, Wiet was appointed professor at the
Collège de France
The Collège de France (), formerly known as the ''Collège Royal'' or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment ('' grand établissement'') in France. It is located in Paris ...
(chair of Arabic language and literature), a position he held until 1959. In 1957, he was elected a member of the
Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres
The Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres () is a French learned society devoted to history, founded in February 1663 as one of the five academies of the Institut de France. The academy's scope was the study of ancient inscriptions (epigr ...
.
Selected bibliography
*
*
*1931: ''Répertoire chronologique d'épigraphie arabe'', founded by Étienne Combe, Jean Sauvaget and Gaston Wiet, Cairo, Institut français d'archéologie orientale.
*
*
*1932: ''Les mosquées du Caire'', with Louis Hautecoeur, Paris, E. Leroux, 2 vol. (Reprint
Hachette Hachette may refer to:
* Hachette (surname)
* Hachette (publisher), a French publisher, the imprint of Lagardère Publishing
** Hachette Book Group, the American subsidiary
** Hachette Distribution Services, the distribution arm
See also
* Hachett ...
, 1966).
*
* ''L'Égypte arabe, de la conquête arabe à la conquête ottomane (642–1517)'', Paris, Société d'histoire nationale, 1937.
*1937: ''Le livre des pays'' (''Kitâb al-Bouldân'') by
Ya'qûbî, presentation and translation by Gaston Wiet, Cairo, Institut français d'archéologie orientale.
*1942: ''Mémoires sur l'Égypte, année 1791'', Trécourt, Jean-Baptiste, edited and annotated by Gaston Wiet, Cairo, Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale.
*
*1952: ''Leçon inaugurale faite le 4 décembre 1951'', Collège de France, chaire de langue et littérature arabes, Paris, Collège de France.
*1955: Ibn Iyâs, Muḥammad ibn Ahmad, ''Journal d'un bourgeois du Caire, chronique d'Ibn Iyâs'', translated and annotated by Gaston Wiet, Paris, S.E.V.P.E.N., (Bibliothèque générale de l'École pratique des hautes études).
*1959: ''Le minaret de Djâm : la découverte de la capitale des sultans ghorîdes : XIIe-XIIIe'', with André Maricq, (foreword by
Daniel Schlumberger
Daniel Théodore Schlumberger (19 December 1904 – 21 October 1972) was a French archaeologist and Professor of Near Eastern Archaeology at the University of Strasbourg and later Princeton University.
Biography
After having been invited by ...
), Paris, Klincksieck, (Mémoires de la Délégation archéologique française en Afghanistan, XVI).
*1961: Gaston Wiet, ''Grandeur de l'Islam, de
Mahomet à
François Ier'', Paris,
Éditions de la Table ronde. (Reprint , 2014)
*1964–1965: ''La configuration de la terre'' (''Kitab Surat al-Ard'') by
Ibn Hauqal, translations and notes by Gaston Wiet and
J.H. Kramers, Paris, Maisonneuve et Larose, 2 vol.
*1966: ''Introduction à la littérature arabe'', Paris, .
References
External links
''Grandeur de l’Islam'', par Gaston Wieton Le bréviaire des patriotes
''Grandeur de l'Islam''on Kontre Kulture
Wiet (Gaston), Grandeur de l'Islamon Persée
Notice nécrologique (Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wiet, Gaston
French orientalists
French Arabists
Arabic–French translators
Collège de France faculty
Members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres
Members of the Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale
1887 births
Scientists from Paris
1971 deaths
20th-century translators