Edmond Destaing (19 January 1872 – 27 December 1940) was a French orientalistArabist, Berberologist, and first holder of the Chair of Berber at 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. ...
.
Biography
Destaing, initially a teacher in
Doubs
Doubs (, ; ; frp, Dubs) is a department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in Eastern France. Named after the river Doubs, it had a population of 543,974 in 2019.Bouzaréah. He taught at the Franco-native school of rue Montpensier from 1894. He served as Professor of Natural Sciences and Geography at the under the direction of
William Marçais William Ambroise Marçais (6 November 1872, Rennes – 1 October 1956, Paris), was a French Orientalist, particularly noted as an expert on the Maghrebi Arabic dialects.
Biography
William Marçais was born in Rennes in 1872. After finishing the ...
and
Alfred Bel
Alfred Bel (14 May 1873, Salins-les-Bains – 18 February 1945, Meknes, aged 71) was a French orientalist and scholar of Arab
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: ...
(1902-1907), concentrating (beginning 1905) on the study of the Beni Snous dialect at the Moroccan border. His resulting translation dictionary is still a work of reference.
Appointed director of the newly created Médersa at Saint-Louis, Senegal in 1907, he took the direction of the Médersa of Algiers in succession to William Marçais in 1910. In 1914, he was assigned the Berber Chair created at the École des Langues Orientales. From 1921, he also taught Maghreb Arabic at the
École nationale de la France d'outre-mer
The Colonial School (french: École coloniale, also known colloquially as ) was a French public higher education institution or grande école, created in Paris in 1889 to provide training for public servants and administrators of the French colon ...
. Having contracted
malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...
in Algeria, he died on 27 December 1940 at his home in
L'Haÿ-les-Roses
L'Haÿ-les-Roses () is a Communes of France, commune in the southern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the Kilometre Zero, centre of Paris. L'Haÿ-les-Roses is a ''Subprefectures in France, sous-préfecture'' of the Val-de-Marne ''Dépa ...
.Claude Lefébure, « Destaing, Edmond », in François Pouillon (dir.), ''Dictionnaire des orientalistes de langue française'', Paris, Karthala, 2008, .