Jean Spiro (19 February 1847, in

Arnhem Arnhem ( or ; german: Arnheim; South Guelderish: ''Èrnem'') is a city and municipality situated in the eastern part of the Netherlands about 55 km south east of Utrecht. It is the capital of the province of Gelderland, located on both banks of ...

– 13 April 1914, in

Lausanne , neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR-74), ...

) was a Swiss clergyman and orientalist. In 1871 he received his

ordination Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorization, authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominational ...

Neuchâtel , neighboring_municipalities= Auvernier, Boudry, Chabrey (VD), Colombier, Cressier, Cudrefin (VD), Delley-Portalban (FR), Enges, Fenin-Vilars-Saules, Hauterive, Saint-Blaise, Savagnier , twintowns = Aarau (Switzerland), Besançon (France), ...

, and afterwards served as a pastor in the communities of

Trey Trey may refer to: Places * Trey, Switzerland, a commune in Vaud, Switzerland * Trey Peaks, Coats Land, Antarctica Other uses * Trey (playing card), the Three in card games * Trey (given name) * Trey, slang for a three-point shot in basketball ...

(1872–76) and

Porrentruy Porrentruy (, fc, Poérreintru , german: Pruntrut) is a Swiss municipality and seat of the district of the same name located in the canton of Jura. Porrentruy is home to National League team, HC Ajoie. History The first trace of human pre ...

(1876–83). From 1883 to 1890 he taught classes in oriental languages at Collège Sadiki in

Tunis ''Tounsi'' french: Tunisois , population_note = , population_urban = , population_metro = 2658816 , population_density_km2 = , timezone1 = CET , utc_offset1 ...

. In 1891 he returned to Switzerland, where he became a lecturer at the

University of Lausanne The University of Lausanne (UNIL; french: links=no, Université de Lausanne) in Lausanne, Switzerland was founded in 1537 as a school of Protestant theology, before being made a university in 1890. The university is the second oldest in Switzer ...

and served as a pastor in the town of

Vufflens-la-Ville Vufflens-la-Ville is a municipality of the canton of Vaud in Switzerland, located in the district of Gros-de-Vaud. Geography Vufflens-la-Ville has an area, , of . Of this, or 61.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 23.0% is foreste ...

. In 1894 he was named an associate professor of Semitic and oriental languages at Lausanne. Among the lessons he taught at the university, were classes on Phoenician and

Sabaean Sabean or Sabaean may refer to: *Sabaeans, ancient people in South Arabia **Sabaean language, Old South Arabian language *Sabians, name of a religious group mentioned in the Quran, historically adopted by: **Mandaeans, Gnostic sect from the marshl ...

epigraphy Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the wr ...

Selected works

* ''Chrestomathie élémentaire de l'arabe littéral avec un glossaire'' (with

Hartwig Derenbourg Hartwig Derenbourg (17 June 1844 – 12 April 1908) was a French Orientalist. Biography Hartwig Derenbourg was born in Paris, where he studied Hebrew, Arabic, and other Semitic languages as a pupil of Joseph Toussaint Reinaud, Salomon Ulmann a ...

, 1895, 3rd edition 1912) – Elementary

chrestomathy A chrestomathy ( ; from the Ancient Greek (, “desire of learning”) = (, “useful”) + (, “learn”)) is a collection of selected literary passages (usually from a single author); a selection of literary passages from a foreign language ...

of literal Arabic with a glossary. * ''Origine et formation du régime matrimonial Vaudois'', 1896 – Origin and formation of the Vaudois matrimonial regime. * ''Étude sur le peuple samaritain'', 1897 – Study on the Samaritan people. * ''Les Yezidi, ou les Adorateurs du diable'', 1900 – The

Yezidi Yazidis or Yezidis (; ku, ئێزیدی, translit=Êzidî) are a Kurmanji-speaking endogamous minority group who are indigenous to Kurdistan, a geographical region in Western Asia that includes parts of Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran. The majo ...

, or worshippers of the devil. * ''L'histoire de Joseph selon la tradition musulmane'', 1906 – The history of

Joseph Joseph is a common male given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). "Joseph" is used, along with "Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the mo ...

according to Muslim tradition.Spiro, Jean (1847-1914)
IdRef (bibliography)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spiro, Jean 1847 births 1914 deaths People from Arnhem Academic staff of the University of Lausanne Swiss orientalists Epigraphers