Roger Lescot (1914–1975) was a French orientalist and diplomat known for his research of the

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish language ** Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji) **Central Kurdish (Sorani) **Southern Kurdish ** Laki Kurdish *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern ...

language.

Biography

Roger Lescot obtained a degree in

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

and Oriental literature in 1935. Later he also gained a degree in Turkish and

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

. In 1935 he began to learn Kurdish, and in 1936 during the

French Mandate of Syria The Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon (; , also referred to as the Levant States; 1923−1946) was a League of Nations mandate founded in the aftermath of the First World War and the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire, concerning the territories ...

, he was in contact with the

Yazidi Yazidis, also spelled Yezidis (; ), are a Kurdish-speaking endogamous religious group indigenous to Kurdistan, a geographical region in Western Asia that includes parts of Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and Iran. The majority of Yazidis remaining in ...

in the Kurd Dagh and also with the

Shia Shia Islam is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib () as both his political successor (caliph) and as the spiritual leader of the Muslim community (imam). However, his right is understood ...

in the south of

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

. Roger Lescot and Pierre Rondot supervised the Kurdish activities within the French Mandate, specializing in Kurdish press and literature. Both were working together with Kurdish activists and were supportive of the Kurdish cultural aims. Lescot then wrote for several Kurdish outlets such as the ''Hawar'', ''Roja Nû'' or ''Ronahî''. Lescot was a close collaborator to members of the Berdirkhan family. Upon his initiative the chair for Kurdish lectures was created at the '' National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations'' (INALCO) in 1945, a position he held until 1947, and trespassed to Kamuran Bedirkhan, as he took up diplomatic work as a French diplomat in

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

and work for the French intelligence. After four years of studies about the Kurdish national epic Mem û Zîn he published a version of it in Kurdish and a translation in French in 1942. In 1953 he published a French translation from the Persian of

Sadegh Hedayat Sadegh Hedayat (, ; 17 February 1903 – 9 April 1951) was an Iranian peoples, Iranian writer, translator, satirist, and poet. Best known for his novel ''The Blind Owl'', he was one of the earliest Iranian writers to adopt literary modernism in ...

's novel ''

The Blind Owl ''The Blind Owl'' (1936; , ''Boof-e koor'', ) is Sadegh Hedayat's magnum opus and a major literary work of 20th-century Iran. Written in Persian, it is narrated by an unnamed pen case painter, who addresses his murderous confessions to a shadow ...

'' as ''La chouette aveugle''.La chouette aveugle : roman. Trad. du persan La chouette aveugle : roman. Trad. du persan
worldcat.org. Retrieved 3 October 2022. He published his and Celadet Bedirkhan's ''Grammaire kurde'' in 1970.

''Works''

* ''Proverbes et énigmes kurdes'', Paris: Librairie Orientaliste Paul Geuthner, 1937 * ''Quelques pages inédites de Djâmî'', ca. 1937 * ''Enquête sur les yezidis de Syrie et du Djebel Sindjar,''

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 ...

: 1938 * ''Notes sur la presse Iranienne'', Paris: Librairie Orientaliste Paul Geuthner, 1938 * ''La réforme du vocabulaire en Iran'', Paris: Librairie Orientaliste Paul Geuthner, 1939 * ''Textes kurdes'', Paris: Librairie Orientaliste Paul Geuthner, 1940–42 * '' Mem û Zîn'', Beirut: 1942, Beirut * ''La chouette aveugle'', Paris: Jose Corti, 1953 * ''Anthologie de la poésie persane : XIe-XXe siècle. Textes choisis par Z. Safâ, traduits par G. ilbertLazard, R. ogerLescot et H. enriMassé'', Paris: Gallimard, 1964 * ''Grammaire kurde'', Paris: Librairie d'Amérique et d'Orient, 1970

References

{{authority control 1914 births 1975 deaths French orientalists Kurdish literature Kurdologists Ambassadors of France to Jordan Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales alumni