Asselin de Cherville, Jean-Louis. “Lettre de M. Asselin, chancelier, chargé des affaires du consulat – général de France et d’Italie en Égypte, à M. le comte Venceslas Rzewuski,” in Mines de l’Orient / Fundgrube des Orients 3 (1813): 268–75.
- For Asselin’s letter to Volney (1812.04.28), see pp. 269–75.
(1) English translation
[p. 268]
Letter from Mr. Asselin, Chancellor, in charge of the affairs of the Consulate General of France and Italy in Egypt,
to Count Venceslas Rzewuski,
Count,
I just happened to read the following passage from the article “Proposita philanthropica [Philanthropic proposal]” in the Literary Panorama, vol. 12 (August 1812), column 246:
“Mr. Bruce, and, more recently, Lord Valentia [i.e., George Annesley] and Mr. Salt, have awakened much inquiry respecting Abyssinia. Christianity, established there in the very earliest ages of the church, has maintained its footing to this day. Copies of scripture are now, however, become very rare, and are much mutilated. Christianity is reduced to a deplorable state. The Pagan tribes are making rapid inroads on the nation. Nothing seems so likely to revive that people as to reinvigorate their religious knowledge and principles. The British and Foreign Bible Society are now taking steps, with the cordial co-operation of Lord Valentia, to procure an edition of the Scriptures in the language of Abyssinia.”
These final lines, Count, could not fail to surprise me and strongly pique my curiosity. If, as I still believe to be the case, [p. 269] there exists no translation of the Bible into the Abyssinian language; or if, by the phrase “the language of Abyssinia,” one is to understand not the current language of Abyssinia, but rather the Ethiopic language [i.e., Ge’ez]—into which the Scriptures were translated in a very distant age, and which the local priests understand much as our own parish priests understand Latin—then my letter ends here, and I have nothing further to add.
However, if these words imply that the Bible Society, whose zeal earns the admiration of all Europe, has managed to procure a complete translation of the Holy Scriptures into the vernacular language of Abyssinia and intends to publish it, then it is a matter of both honor and duty for me to assert my priority in this regard. I must demonstrate, through concrete facts, that ever since I arrived in Egypt, I [and abba Abraham (!)] have been continuously translating the entirety of the Scriptures into the Abyssinian dialect spoken in Gondar, the dialect most widely used throughout those eastern regions of Africa near the equator.
This undertaking was an essential part of a project I conceived: to gather as much material as possible to compare the unknown languages of various regions across Asia and Africa. I have shared this endeavor with the Duke of Bassano [Hugues-Bernard Maret], Minister of Foreign Affairs, and with General Count Andréossy, the French Ambassador in Constantinople, both of whom have deigned to applaud my efforts. I must mention here, among others, the Chevalier [knight] Palin, Swedish Minister in Constantinople; Mr. Joseph Hume, a member of the English Parliament; Mr. Drovetti, French Consul General in Egypt; and the traveler Mr. Seetzen, all of whom were eyewitnesses to the results of my work—results which I also shared with Messrs. [Pierre] Ruffin, Silvestre de Sacy, and Charles Wilkens, as well as with the Comte de Volney.
I shall take the liberty of transcribing here the letter I had the honor of addressing to the latter, around the beginning of the year 1812, as it contains several details regarding the form and purpose of my work. I am fully confident that Mr. de Volney—one of the most learned figures in Europe and an enlightened patron of those who study Oriental literature—will not take issue with my indiscretion in this instance.
[Letter ]No. 5. To Mr. de Volney, Count of the Empire, Senator, Member of the National Institute. Cairo, April 28, 1812.
Sir,
In my [letter] No. 4, dispatched on January 2nd, I had the honor of providing you with an analysis of the Abyssinian alphabet and the system [p. 270] I have adopted regarding all Oriental alphabets. Today, taking advantage of a merchant who is traveling directly to Paris, I am sending you two fables, translated both into the learned language used by the Abyssinians for their books and into the vernacular spoken in Gondar. These are the 3rd and 4th fables of Luqman, published in Arabic by Erpenius; you will find the text in his grammar. Had it not been for the illness of my Abyssinian informant and the merchant’s prompt departure, I would have sent you more. However, should you wish to see further examples, you might ask M. Silvestre de Sacy, to whom I sent some on March 2nd. I shall now provide a few details concerning the translation of the Bible and its translator, a subject I touched upon briefly in my previous dispatch [i.e., letter no. 4].
Upon my arrival in Egypt, in addition to studying Arabic and Persian, I also, following your advice, turned my attention to the languages of Africa. I made haste to find an Abyssinian capable of teaching me the correct pronunciation of Ge’ez. After many fruitless searches, I was finally directed in the Coptic quarter to an infirm old man, the only person, it seemed, who could fulfill my requirements, and I immediately went to visit him [i.e., abba Abraham]. I found him in a state of destitution and neglect that is difficult to conceive: he was confined to a small, stiflingly hot room, lying on a wretched mat, tormented by fever and painful skin eruptions that granted him no rest. I asked him to promise, though I placed little faith in his word, that he would come to see me in the Frankish quarter once he felt better.
In fact, he arrived sooner than I had expected, and half an hour of conversation completely altered my perception of him. Imagine my surprise, sir, to discover in this poor old man something I would have sought in vain throughout Europe, or even elsewhere in Africa: a man deeply learned in the literature of his own country; a traveler who, much like the ancient sages of Greece, had spent more than forty years traversing the most remote regions of Asia; furthermore, the teacher of two renowned Englishmen—Mr. James Bruce, famous for his expedition to the sources of the Nile, and Sir William Jones, the most illustrious of English Orientalists and president of the Asiatic Society of Calcutta. I leave it to you to imagine the steps I took on his behalf: I sent for a physician to treat him and secured comfortable lodgings for him within the Coptic quarter, [p. 271] where he wished to remain, and provided him with wholesome and abundant food—all of this was the work of a single day. I shall pass over the feelings of gratitude and affection he harbored for me for the rest of his life; he soon gave me striking proofs of them.
I was aware that Europe completely lacked books written in the vernacular of a people who, in times long past, played a major role in history, and who, by virtue of their geographical position and local resources, might one day play an even greater role, should a revolution occur in their political state and customs. I know that the scholar Job Ludolf, a century ago, lamented his inability to obtain anything more than formless and insignificant fragments in the Abyssinian language, a grievance he expresses in the following passage, taken from the preface to his [Latin] Amharic Dictionary:
“I was left almost entirely without any aids. Gregory the Abyssinian—formerly my teacher, yet completely unversed in the rules of grammar and speaking only a broken, halting mixture of Portuguese and Italian—found it extremely difficult to express his thoughts. Consequently, I had to act more like an Oedipus [solving a riddle] than a mere interpreter. I gathered his spoken and written remarks and organized them into my notes. He was long reluctant to write anything down for me in Amharic. Only with the greatest difficulty did I finally persuade him to translate the Apostles’ Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and the eleventh chapter of Luke, which contains these texts, into that language. Yet he had scarcely begun the task when, overcome by weariness, he abandoned the work he had started…”
I also know that the Abyssinians themselves write nothing in their vernacular language. They possess no books other than those written in the scholarly (Ge’ez) tongue, much like the French of the 11th and 12th centuries, who knew how to compose only in Latin. These considerations led me to engage my Abyssinian to translate a book into his own language—which he commands perfectly—that might serve to introduce it to Europe.
But which book should be translated? No known work composed in Arabic by Muslims could fulfill my purpose. After deep reflection, I decided to have the Bible translated, for the following reasons: the Bible has already been translated into Ge’ez, which provides a point of comparison for identifying the differences between the modern Abyssinian language and the ancient tongue. Furthermore, as the same words recur frequently, their value and meaning can be determined with exactitude and precision. Moreover, the style of the Bible is generally simple and clear, especially in the historical books, and the sentences are short. These are advantages offered by no other book I know of. In addition, my elderly companion—who, like all Easterners, is a man of deep faith—knew the text by heart, a circumstance that greatly facilitated this type of work.
The undertaking was long and costly, but you know that nothing daunts me, and that courage and frugality can overcome the greatest difficulties. The translation, begun five years ago, is already well advanced. At present, I possess the entire New Testament, the books of Moses, and all the historical and moral books. Now that his long fast has concluded, my Abyssinian is set to begin translating the prophetic books, but I shall not stop there. I have already had other works translated, such as the fables of Lokman, some dialogues, and a vocabulary. If God grants me a measure of health and rest, I hope to be able to work successfully on a complete dictionary of this language.
If this letter were not already too long, I would tell you about the institution I established within the very walls of the Al-Azhar Mosque, and I would present an account of the work I have already partially completed regarding several obscure languages from the interior of Asia and Africa. I shall reserve these details, etc.
[End of the quoted letter to Volney]
I believe that this letter, along with the testimony of the illustrious individuals I have cited, is sufficient, Sir, to establish that my work predates any other of the same nature. Such was the state of affairs at the beginning of last year. Despite the frequent indispositions of my Abyssinian informant—and the difficulties I encountered concerning him, caused by the head of the Copts [i.e., Pope Peter VII ?]—the translation of the remainder of the Bible continues to progress, and I dare hope that I shall one day complete it.
If you believe that the details I have just provided might be of interest to certain Orientalists, I would venture to ask you to pass them on to the editors of the Journal des Mines de l’Orient, a publication you support with such great generosity.
[… new header …]
I cannot conclude this letter without seeking to exonerate Mr. Basile Fakhr, the French agent in Damietta, regarding a perceived fault attributed to him by Mr. Silvestre de Sacy. In his report on the work of Mr. Basile Fakhr—found on pages 122 and 123 of the second issue of the Journal des Mines—Mr. Seetzen mentions that Mr. Fakhr had also engaged in translating a work by Voltaire, as well as J. J. Rousseau’s The Social Contract. Having lived in closest proximity with Mr. Seetzen during his stay in Cairo, and being convinced of the purity of his intentions, I can only attribute the error into which he fell in this regard to an inaccurate report.
[p. 273] This error proved fatal for Mr. Basile Fakhr, as it drew upon him the criticism of one of Europe’s most distinguished Orientalist scholars. I owe my knowledge of this critique to the kindness of Mr. de Nersiat. He was kind enough to send me from Syria Mr. Silvestre de Sacy’s examination of the first two issues of the Journal des Mines, which appeared in a periodical—the title of which I do not know, as I received only two sheets from it. The passage to which I feel compelled to respond is as follows. It is dated January 1811, on page 210:
“Among the notable facts contained in the letters of this learned and courageous traveler (Mr. Seetzen), we have taken particular note of the information regarding Arabic translations of various French works, produced by two natives of Egypt: Mr. Basile Fakhr, French consul in Damietta, and Mr. Elie Fakhr, a dragoman at the French consulate in Cairo. It is regrettable that their selections did not always fall upon works truly worthy of being disseminated through translation. Are Rousseau’s *Social Contract* and certain anti-religious pamphlets by Voltaire really the most pressing needs of the people of the Orient?”
- [Footnote by Asselin de Cherville:] I take the opportunity here to publicly demonstrate my gratitude to Mr. Silvestre de Sacy, to whom I have such great obligations, for the kindness he showed in devoting the rest of this paragraph to supporting my ardor for study and my zeal for oriental literature. I will always try to justify his benevolence and maintain his esteem through my constant application to work.
While Mr. Basile Fakhr possesses an excellent command of Arabic, Turkish, and vernacular Greek, he is unfamiliar with any European languages—except Italian, which he speaks fluently but cannot read. Consequently, his work is limited to translating texts already rendered into Modern Greek, thereby making them accessible to those who understand only Arabic. His translations from Greek texts to date include: Introduction to Geography by Chrysanthos Notaras; an abridgment of Lande’s Astronomy; Rollin’s Ancient History (unfinished); and various fables and anecdotes. At the urging of the Greek Patriarch [i.e., Patriarch Theophilos II Pankostas]—a mutual friend of ours—he attempted to translate Benjamin Martin’s Philosophical Grammar of the Sciences. However, the difficulty of conveying numerous technical terms with no Arabic equivalents led him to abandon this thankless and daunting task. He has never considered translating the pamphlets of Voltaire, the very existence of which he is unaware. And J. J. Rousseau’s The Social Contract (which he has never read) contains ideas so fundamentally at odds with those of the Orient that no one would likely translate it into Arabic anytime soon. Even if one were to overcome the challenges inherent in such an undertaking—namely, the lack of terminology capable of expressing our moral or metaphysical concepts—I am convinced the result would be nothing more than an unintelligible jumble to readers who are not already prepared for, and accustomed to, the ideas and customs of civilized Europe.
[…]
(2) French text
Source: Digitale Sammlungen
Cross-reference
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Further reading
Hill, Peter. “The First Arabic Translations of Enlightenment Literature: The Damietta Circle of the 1800s and 1810s.” Intellectual History Review 25, no. 2 (2015): 209–33.
- https://doi.org/10.1080/17496977.2014.970372. [Cf. preprint version]
Behrens-Abouseif, Doris. “Locations of Non-Muslim Quarters in Medieval Cairo.” Annales islamologiques 22 (1987): 117–32.