Josette Elayi-Escaich (; born 29 March 1943) is a French

ancient historian Historiography is the study of the methods used by historians in developing history as an academic discipline. By extension, the term "historiography" is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific to ...

, specialising in Phoenician and Near-Eastern history. She is an honorary scholar at the

French National Center for Scientific Research The French National Centre for Scientific Research (, , CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 staff, including 11,137 tenured researchers, 13,415 engi ...

(CNRS). Elayi has authored numerous archaeology and history works, and literary novels. She is also a novelist and has campaigned for reform and activism against bias in CNRS research policy. In 2007 Elayi was made a

Knight of the Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and civil. Currently consisting of five classes, it was ...

by the French state.

Early life and education

Josette Elayi () was born on 29 March 1943 in

Les Bordes-sur-Lez Les Bordes-sur-Lez is a former commune in the Ariège department of southwestern France. On 1 January 2017, it was merged into the new commune Bordes-Uchentein.Bordes-Uchentein in the

Couserans 125px, Coat of arms of CouseransCouserans (; Gascon: ''Coserans'' ) is a former county of France located in the Pyrenees mountains. Today Couserans makes up the western half of the Ariège ''département'', around the towns of Saint-Girons and ...

(part of the Ariège department) in France's

Pyrenees The Pyrenees are a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. They extend nearly from their union with the Cantabrian Mountains to Cap de Creus on the Mediterranean coast, reaching a maximum elevation of at the peak of Aneto. ...

mountains. She studied in the nearby town of Saint-Girons. At the Saint-Girons high school, Elayi had an affinity for science and literature, but a skiing accident caused her to fall behind in science. Elayi recounts that "the literary course was much more rewarding than the sciences at the time". Elayi's parents wanted her to become a teacher, but after her baccalaureate, she went to

Toulouse Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...

to study classical literature. Elayi is a holder of a

Doctorat ès Lettres Doctor of Letters (D.Litt., Litt.D., Latin: ' or '), also termed Doctor of Literature in some countries, is a terminal degree in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. In the United States, at universities such as Drew University, the degree ...

, the highest doctoral degree in France, and multiple other degrees in oriental languages from

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

and Nancy universities.

Work, research and academia

Elayi taught literature in

Émilie de Rodat Émilie de Rodat (6 September 1787 – 19 September 1852), born Marie Guillemette (Wilhelmina) Emilie de Rodat, also known as Emily de Rodat, was a nun, Virginity, virgin, Mysticism, mystic, and the founder of the Sisters of the Holy Family of ...

school in Toulouse between 1966 and 1968 before moving on to Notre-Dame school in Lyon where she taught for the next four years. In 1973, Elayi obtained a teaching position in the

Lebanese University The Lebanese University (LU; ) is the only state-funded public university in Lebanon. It was established in 1951. The university's main campus was originally located in Beirut, but a few satellite campuses were opened due to travel restriction ...

's faculty of letters in

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

. Elayi's interest in the history of the Phoenicians was stirred during her short stay in Beirut. When the

Lebanese civil war The Lebanese Civil War ( ) was a multifaceted armed conflict that took place from 1975 to 1990. It resulted in an estimated 150,000 fatalities and led to the exodus of almost one million people from Lebanon. The religious diversity of the ...

broke out in 1975, she moved to

Baghdad Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...

where she taught French literature at

Al-Mustansiriya University Al-Mustansiriyah University () is a public university located in Baghdad, Iraq. It traces its origin back to 1227. The modern form of the university was founded in 1963. History The original Mustansiriya Madrasah was established in 1227 (or 12 ...

until 1978. She settled in Paris in 1980, where she taught at the

Lycée Charlemagne The Lycée Charlemagne () is located in the Marais quarter of the 4th arrondissement of Paris, the capital city of France. Constructed many centuries before it became a lycée, the building originally served as the home of the Order of the Je ...

before joining the CNRS as a researcher in ancient history in 1982. Elayi is versed in fifteen modern and

extinct language An extinct language or dead language is a language with no living native speakers. A dormant language is a dead language that still serves as a symbol of ethnic identity to an ethnic group; these languages are often undergoing a process of r ...

s. She has developed a multidisciplinary historiography method that combines epigraphy, numismatics, archaeology, economics and sociology; she applied this methodology in her works on the history of the Phoenicians. She writes regularly in journals and has received two prizes from the ''

Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres The () is a French learned society devoted to history, founded in February 1663 as one of the five academies of the . The academy's scope was the study of ancient inscriptions (epigraphy) and historical literature (see Belles-lettres). History ...

'', and a prize from the French Numismatic Society ().

Phoenician and Near-Eastern history studies

In 1982, when she was recruited by the CNRS as a senior researcher, Elayi found that her field of research, the history of ancient Phoenicia, was not included in university curricula; it was confined to the

Oriental studies Oriental studies is the academic field that studies Near Eastern and Far Eastern societies and cultures, languages, peoples, history and archaeology. In recent years, the subject has often been turned into the newer terms of Middle Eastern studie ...

department which existed until 1991. Phoenician studies were then consigned to the department of Antiquity studies. The CNRS allowed Elayi full-time research and freedom to choose her subjects without teaching-hours constraints. In 1988 her relationship with the CNRS took a negative turn; faced with the lack of support of the committee, Elayi started her own research group, the Association for the research on Syria-Palestine in the Persian Period (ASPEP). ASPEP was embraced and supported by an international network of researchers and obtained public and private funding. Elayi also launched and directs a specialized international journal the ''Transeuphratène'', and wrote a number of historical monographs about Phoenicia and the Ancient Near East. Elayi's work focuses on advancing research in the field of Phoenician history. Her celebrated ''Trésors de monnaies phéniciennes et circulation monétaire (Ve-IVe siècles avant J.-C.)'' reasures of Phoenician coins and monetary circulation (5th-4th centuries B.C.)showcases 75 Phoenician coin treasure troves, of which 20 were previously unpublished. The work highlights aspects of the economic and political history of Phoenician and ancient Near-Eastern cities in the 4th and 5th centuries BC; it delves into and adds new chronological data to the political and economic context of the first bronze coins production, circulation, control and production workshops. This research was followed up by her 2016 ''Phoenician Coinages'', a body of knowledge completely dedicated to mainland Phoenicia numismatics under the Persian hegemony.Mainland Phoenicia is the area located around coastal modern Lebanon and parts of the Syrian littoral. Mainland cities included Sidon, Tyre, Byblos, and Arwad among others. The book summarizes 59

monograph A monograph is generally a long-form work on one (usually scholarly) subject, or one aspect of a subject, typically created by a single author or artist (or, sometimes, by two or more authors). Traditionally it is in written form and published a ...

s and journal articles written following over 30 years of research by Elayi, her spouse Alain-Gérard, and other contributing scholars; noting that Elayi and her spouse developed an original method for the

metrological Metrology is the scientific study of measurement. It establishes a common understanding of units, crucial in linking human activities. Modern metrology has its roots in the French Revolution's political motivation to standardise units in Fr ...

study of coins including distinguishing monetary standards or legal weight, from a manufactured standard.

Literary work

Elayi has written a number of novels that draw inspiration from her real life experiences and contemporary issues. In 2009, she published her first novel 'The survivor''based on her experience of the civil war in Beirut. Two years later, Elayi wrote her second novel, 'Secrets of granite'' the book is inspired by her native Ariège region. 'The shadow of Saddam''came out in 2015; the geopolitical thriller portrays

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein (28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician and revolutionary who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 1979 until Saddam Hussein statue destruction, his overthrow in 2003 during the 2003 invasion of Ira ...

before his seizure of power. Her 2017 'Why I became a terrorist''came two years after the Paris terrorist attacks, it follows a Spanish student's descent into extremism. Elayi's 2018 novel 'Arwad, a drifting Syrian island''draws parallels between the fall of the insular Phoenician city of

Arwad Arwad (; ), the classical antiquity, classical Aradus, is a town in Syria on an eponymous List of islands of Syria, island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is the administrative center of the Arwad nahiyah, Subdistrict (''nahiyah''), of which it is ...

and war-time Syria. In 2019 Elayi published ''Ange Garelli'' where the Corsican

protagonist A protagonist () is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot, primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a ...

is haunted by the discovery of a secret linking him to Napoleon Bonaparte. In 2023 Josette Elayi published and with her husband, Alain-Gérard.

Personal life

Elayi is married to Alain-Gérard Elayi, a Lebanese nuclear scientist; they have two children together.

Personal views and activism

Elayi had a contentious relationship with the CNRS, criticizing what she perceived as

corporatism Corporatism is an ideology and political system of interest representation and policymaking whereby Corporate group (sociology), corporate groups, such as agricultural, labour, military, business, scientific, or guild associations, come toget ...

, ambiguity, and bias in its evaluation processes for French research. She raised concerns about errors in the recruitment and promotion of researchers and teams, which she argued negatively affected the quality of French research, particularly during the 2002 and 2003 budget cuts that led to reduced funding and worsening working conditions for researchers. She advocated for reforms, addressing these issues in media outlets and through two books where she proposed a more equitable distribution of resources based on evaluations of researchers' competencies. Elayi was consulted by successive research ministers in an effort to create the Agency for the Evaluation of Research and Higher education which saw the light in 2007. Elayi is a vocal defender of the teaching of classical languages, which was threatened by curriculum reforms spearheaded by then- Minister of National education and research

Najat Vallaud-Belkacem Najat Vallaud-Belkacem (; ; Riffian-Berber: ⵏⴰⵊⴰⵜ ⴱⵍⵇⴰⵙⵎ; born 4 October 1977) is a Moroccan-born French former politician and jurist. A member of the Socialist Party (PS), she served in a number of ministerial positions ...

. The reforms proposed to replace Latin and Greek classes by an "initiation to ancient languages" course within the French courses, and to integrate the teaching of these two languages within the French literature courses. Elayi criticized the lack of a timetable, a program, funding or continuity and expressed indignation that teaching of classical languages would be left to non-specialized teachers and to the discretion of headmasters. Despite nation-wide polemic the bill was passed in August 2016.

Awards and distinctions

In 1995 the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres awarded Elayi with the

Gregor Mendel Gregor Johann Mendel Order of Saint Augustine, OSA (; ; ; 20 July 1822 – 6 January 1884) was an Austrian Empire, Austrian biologist, meteorologist, mathematician, Augustinians, Augustinian friar and abbot of St Thomas's Abbey, Brno, St. Thom ...

prize for her work on coin economy and circulation in Phoenicia and the Ancient Near-East in the 5th and 4th centuries BC. Six years later, the academy awarded Elayi and Hussein Sayegh with the

Adolphe Noël des Vergers Joseph-Marin-''Adolphe'' Noël des Vergers (2 June 1805 – 2 January 1867) was a 19th-century French archaeologist, historian, etruscologist, orientalist and epigrapher. He was the son of Marin Noël des Vergers, député of the Yonne depart ...

prize for their research on the Phoenician port quarter of Beirut. In 2001, she received the Babut Prize from the

French Numismatic Society French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), a ...

for her research on ancient coins. In 2007 Elayi was decorated Knight of the Legion of Honor by then Minister of superior education

François Goulard François Goulard (; born 21 September 1953 in Vannes) was a member of the National Assembly of France. He represented the Morbihan department, and is a member of the Union for a Popular Movement. He has been appointed as minister of transpo ...

for her work on Phoenician history.

Works

The

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...

database lists more than 200 publications by Josette Elayi in her various fields of expertise; she has authored more than 44 books and is the editor of seventy one books. This following is a list of her most widely held publications: * * * * * * * * * * *

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Elayi, Josette Knights of the Legion of Honour 20th-century French historians 21st-century French historians Archaeologists of the Near East 1943 births Phoenician and Punic studies Living people