Yvette Duval (née Benchettrit; 25 April 1931 – 8 November 2006) was a Moroccan-born French

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

who specialised in

North Africa during Antiquity The history of North Africa during the period of classical antiquity (c. 8th century BCE – 5th century CE) can be divided roughly into the history of Egypt in the east, the history of ancient Libya in the middle and the history of Numidia and M ...

and the

Early African church The name early African church is given to the Christians, Christian communities inhabiting the region known politically as North Africa during Antiquity#Roman era, Roman Africa, and comprised geographically somewhat around the area of the Roman D ...

during

Late antiquity Late antiquity marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was popularized by Peter Brown (historian), Peter Brown in 1971, and this periodiza ...

Early years and education

Yvette Duval née Benchettrit was born on 25 April 1931 in

Oujda Oujda (, ) is a major city in northeast Morocco near the Algeria–Morocco border, border with Algeria. Oujda is the capital city of the Oriental (Morocco), Oriental region of northeastern Morocco and has a population of 506,224 people (2024 censu ...

to an Algerian-Moroccan Jewish family. She was allowed to study at the local Collège de jeunes filles despite the Vichy segregation rules due to her strong academic record. Having finished her studies in

Rabat Rabat (, also , ; ) is the Capital (political), capital city of Morocco and the List of cities in Morocco, country's seventh-largest city with an urban population of approximately 580,000 (2014) and a metropolitan population of over 1.2 million. ...

, she moved to

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 ...

where she studied first at the Lycée Fénelon and then at the

École normale supérieure de jeunes filles The ''École normale supérieure de jeunes filles'' (also, ''École normale supérieure de Sèvres'') was a French institute of higher education, in Sèvres, now a commune in the suburbs of Paris. The school educated girls only, especially as te ...

. After her graduation, she worked at the

Lycée Français de Carthage In France, secondary education is in two stages: * ''Collèges'' () cater for the first four years of secondary education from the ages of 11 to 14. * ''Lycées'' () provide a three-year course of further secondary education for students between ...

Career

In 1962, Duval was named assistant to Roger Rémondon, the chair of ancient history at the Université Lille III. Two years later, following his retirement, she moved to Paris-Nanterre as the assistant to

André Chastagnol André Chastagnol (21 February 1920 – 2 September 1996) was a French historian, specializing in Latin epigraphy and literature. After teaching at the Universities of Algiers, Rennes and Paris-X, he finished his career as a professor at the Pa ...

. Duval began work on her thesis in 1965 under

Henri-Irénée Marrou Henri-Irénée Marrou (; 12 November 1904 – 11 April 1977) was a French historian. A Christian humanist in outlook, his work was primarily in the spheres of Late Antiquity and the history of education. He is best known for his work ''History o ...

and received her doctorate soon after his death in 1977 under the supervision of Charles Pietri; it was published five years later as ''Loca sanctorum Africae. Le culte des martyrs en Afrique du IVe au VIIe siècle''. In 1971, she was invited to help establish the History department at the Université Paris-Est-Créteil-Val-de-Marne where she was soon named professor. She remained until her retirement and was elected to serve on the Conseil national des universités and supervised at least three doctoral theses.

Awards and honours

In 2000, she received a ''

Festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...

'' titled ''Romanité et cité chrétienne permanences et mutations, intégration et exclusion du Ier au VIe siècle: mélanges en l'honneur d'Yvette Duval''.

Personal life

Duval married French historian and archaeologist

Noël Duval Noël Duval (24 December 1929, Le Chesnay – 12 December 2018, Paris) was a French archaeologist. Biography In 1953 Duval started working as a researcher and for three consecutive years worked at the Roman Historical Institute. He was a member ...

in 1954. She died on 8 November 2006 in

Selected publications

* 1982 : ''Loca sanctorum Africae. Le culte des martyrs en Afrique du IV^e au VII^e siècle'', Rome, Collection de l'École française de Rome, 2 vol. * 1986 : ''L'Inhumation privilégiée du IVe au VIIIe siècle en Occident'' d. Paris, De Boccard. * 1986 : ''Topographie chrétienne des cités de la Gaule, des origines au milieu du VIIIe siècle : Provinces ecclésiastiques d'Aix et d'Embrun'' d. Paris, De Boccard. * 1988 : ''Auprès des saints, corps et âme. L'inhumation « ad sanctos » dans la chrétienté d'Orient et d'Occident du IIIe au VIIe siècle'', Paris, Collection des Études Augustiniennes. * 1992 : ''Institutions, société et vie politique dans l'empire romain au IVe siècle après J.-C.'' d.','' Rome, Collection de l'École française de Rome. * 1995 : ''Lambèse chrétienne, la gloire et l'oubli. De la Numidie romaine à l'Ifrîqiya'', Paris, Collection des Études Augustiniennes. * 2000 : ''Chrétiens d’Afrique à l'aube de la paix constantinienne : Les premiers échos de la grande persécution'', Paris, Collection des Études Augustiniennes. * 2005 : ''Les chrétientés d’Occident et leurs évêques au IIIe siècle,'' Paris, Collection des Études Augustiniennes.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Duval, Yvette 2006 deaths 1931 births 20th-century French historians 21st-century French historians French women historians Jewish historians 20th-century Moroccan historians Moroccan emigrants to France Moroccan people of Algerian descent 20th-century Moroccan Jews 20th-century French women writers 21st-century French women writers 20th-century Moroccan women writers 21st-century Moroccan women writers Jewish women writers