Antoine Galland
See also: Galland
Antoine Galland was born with Rollot in Picardy towards 1646, in a family of small farmers of the Somme. It kept some, all its life, an extraordinary humility.
Orientalist, specialist in history, old manuscripts, Eastern languages and currencies, accustomed royal Library, antique dealer of the king, academician and, to finish, reader with the royal College. He was even receiver of the gabelle one.
Orphan of father as of the 4 years age, it entered at 10 years to the college of Noyon where it learned the old Greek, Latin and Hebrew. He made brilliant secondary studies and continued his studies in Paris while following the courses of the Collège de France where he approached the Eastern languages and improved in old Greek.
Its voyages
In 1670, become librarian and private secretary of the marquis Charles Marie François de Nointel, appointed ambassador of France at Mehmet IV of the Door, with Istambul, it accompanied it in its displacements, between 1670 and 1675, in Thrace, Macedonia, Roumélie Eastern, minor Asia, in the Aegean islands, in Ionie, Syria and Palestine. Its newspaper preserved at the National library of France, makes it possible to partly follow it in its voyages, during which it acquired of old manuscripts, of medals and from objects of Article At the time of its stay Galland learned the Turkish language, the Persan one and Arabic in order to be able to study manners and old habits of the populations of the Ottoman Empire.
It returned twice in the Ottoman Empire. Its second voyage, in 1678 will bring it to Smyrna. At the time of its third voyage, of 1679 with 1688, he was operations manager on behalf of the Compagnie of the Eastern Indies in order to join together the greatest number of old books and of objects of Article He catalogued and indexed also the local productions which could be exported towards Europe.
The richnesses that it reported were such, which it was named Antiquaire of the King, in order to manage these goods. And as of its return to Paris, it will continue to maintain the intellectual relations followed with the East. He attended also the new generation of scholars (Huet, Jacob Spon, Nicaise) in relation to the European scientists of Italy, England and Holland which impassion themselves for archeology.
During the 18th century, the work of acquisition of Galland continued, thanks to the French consuls, and of the privileged relations which they could maintain with the Eastern clergies. Thus, in 1730, the Peleran consul succeeds in getting invaluable manuscripts in Mésopotamie, via the bishop of Alep, Germanos Farhat, and of that of the Kurdish city of Mardin. In 1785, the king Louis XVI created a committee charged to revive the study of the erudite languages, to develop the knowledge of the historic buildings, to translate and diffuse the collected manuscripts.
In its writings, it makes profession of faith in connection with the new voyage; the enlightened traveller must provide himself with the old geographical literature and interrogate the modern memories, it must check on the spot, criticize the marvellous one in the accounts, raise the superstitions, to have an experimental approach of reality. Well before Darwin, Antoine Galland thought that the fossils were creations of a nature which could have had another aspect, had not with imagination of nature, but like remainders of an abolished time.
Thousand and One Nights
In 1701, it is made bring back a collection of tales of the Lebanon for the majority of origin Persian, translated into Arab at the end of the 7th century, and the translation begins from it. It will associate there other accounts like that of Sindbad, and will write of them others like that of Ali Baba .
The tales of the Thousand and One Nights thus come primarily from three principal deep seas, a indo-Persian source with hellenistic coloring being between 3rd and 7th centuries, an Arab bottom dating from the period of the capacity of the caliphs de Bagdad between 9th and 11th centuries, finally an Egyptian popular bottom dating from 12th and 13th centuries, they continued to change, by suppressions or continuous additions, until the 16th century, but never belonged to the official horizon of the Arab letters.
The various additions of Galland come from accounts reported by Hanna Diab, a Christian Maronite originating in Alep that the traveller Paul Lucas presented to Galland, the March 25th, 1709. Hanna Diab told in Galland fourteen stories, of which seven appear in the Nights.
To make take body and spirit with the character of Shéhérazade, Galland took as a starting point Madam d' Aulnoy and of the marchioness of O, rams palate of the duchess of Burgundy.
In 1704, it will make of it the first edition, which will have a great success immediately, helped by its statute of scholar and its contacts with bookstores in all the Europe. Other editions will follow until in 1717. The Thousand and One Nights translated by Galland were republished with many recoveries and were also the base of the translations in other Western languages, such as English or German.
Antoine Galland is deceased the February 17th, 1715 and was buried close to the church Saint-Etienne-of-Mount, with Paris. All its collections, its manuscripts and its fortune were bequeathed to the French Academy, the National library of France and king de France.