The Société Asiatique (Asiatic Society) is a French

learned society A learned society (; also learned academy, scholarly society, or academic association) is an organization that exists to promote an discipline (academia), academic discipline, profession, or a group of related disciplines such as the arts and s ...

dedicated to the study of

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

. It was founded in 1822 with the mission of developing and diffusing knowledge of Asia. Its boundaries of geographic interest are broad, ranging from the

Maghreb The Maghreb (; ar, الْمَغْرِب, al-Maghrib, lit=the west), also known as the Arab Maghreb ( ar, المغرب العربي) and Northwest Africa, is the western part of North Africa and the Arab world. The region includes Algeria, ...

to the

Far East The ''Far East'' was a European term to refer to the geographical regions that includes East and Southeast Asia as well as the Russian Far East to a lesser extent. South Asia is sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons. The ter ...

. The society publishes the ''

Journal asiatique The ''Journal asiatique'' (full earlier title ''Journal Asiatique ou Recueil de Mémoires, d'Extraits et de Notices relatifs à l'Histoire, à la Philosophie, aux Langues et à la Littérature des Peuples Orientaux'') is a biannual peer-reviewed a ...

''. At present the society has about 700 members in France and abroad; its library contains over 90,000 volumes.

History

The establishment of the society was confirmed by royal ordinance on April 15, 1829. Antoine-Isaac Silvestre de Sacy was the first president.

Notable people

Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat (5 September 1788 – 2 June 1832) was a French sinologist best known as the first Chair of Sinology at the Collège de France. Rémusat studied medicine as a young man, but his discovery of a Chinese herbal treatise ...

Jacques Bacot Jacques Bacot (4 July 1877 – 18 June 1965) was an explorer and pioneering French Tibetologist. He travelled extensively in India, western China, and the Tibetan border regions. He worked at the École pratique des hautes études. Bacot was ...

Jean Berlie Jean Berlie (also named Jean A. Berlie, Johan Berlie, Komlan in African Ewe, or 韓林, Hanlin in Chinese) is a French socio-anthropologist specialising in Asia and China. Background Berlie was born in Misahohé, near Kpalimé, Togo in 1936, f ...

Eugène Burnouf Eugène Burnouf (; April 8, 1801May 28, 1852) was a French scholar, an Indologist and orientalist. His notable works include a study of Sanskrit literature, translation of the Hindu text ''Bhagavata Purana'' and Buddhist text ''Lotus Sutra''. He ...

Jean-François Champollion Jean-François Champollion (), also known as Champollion ''le jeune'' ('the Younger'; 23 December 17904 March 1832), was a French philologist and orientalist, known primarily as the decipherer of Egyptian hieroglyphs and a founding figure in th ...

Henri Cordier Henri Cordier (8 August 184916 March 1925) was a French linguist, historian, ethnographer, author, editor and Orientalist. He was President of the Société de Géographie ( French, "Geographical Society") in Paris.Jean-Baptiste Benoît Eyriès Jean-Baptiste Benoît Eyriès (; 24 June 176713 June 1846) was a French geographer, author and translator, best remembered in the English speaking world for his translation of German ghost stories ''Fantasmagoriana'', published anonymously in 18 ...

Julius Klaproth Heinrich Julius Klaproth (11 October 1783 – 28 August 1835) was a German linguist, historian, ethnographer, author, orientalist and explorer. As a scholar, he is credited along with Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat, with being instrumental in turning ...

* Louis Finot *

Jean Leclant Jean Leclant (8 August 1920 – 16 September 2011) was a renowned Egyptologist who was an Honorary Professor at the College of France, Permanent Secretary of the Academy of Inscriptions and Letters of the Institut de France, and Honorary Se ...

Sylvain Lévi Sylvain Lévi (March 28, 1863 – October 30, 1935) was an influential French orientalist and indologist who taught Sanskrit and Indian religion at the École pratique des hautes études. Lévi's book ''Théâtre Indien'' is an important w ...

Abdallah Marrash Abdallah bin Fathallah bin Nasrallah Marrash (Arabic: , ; 14 May 1839. January 17, 1900) was a Syrian writer involved in various Arabic-language newspaper ventures in London and Paris. Life Abdallah Marrash was born in Aleppo, a city of Ottoma ...

Gaston Maspero Sir Gaston Camille Charles Maspero (23 June 1846 – 30 June 1916) was a French Egyptologist known for popularizing the term "Sea Peoples" in an 1881 paper. Maspero's son, Henri Maspero, became a notable sinologist and scholar of East Asia. ...

Paul Pelliot Paul Eugène Pelliot (28 May 187826 October 1945) was a French Sinologist and Orientalist best known for his explorations of Central Asia and his discovery of many important Chinese texts such as the Dunhuang manuscripts. Early life and caree ...

Joseph Toussaint Reinaud Joseph Toussaint Reinaud (4 December 1795 – 14 May 1867) was a French orientalist. Life Joseph Toussaint Reinaud was born at Lambesc, Bouches-du-Rhône. He came to Paris in 1815, and became a pupil of Silvestre de Sacy. In 1818-19 he was at ...

Ernest Renan Joseph Ernest Renan (; 27 February 18232 October 1892) was a French Orientalist and Semitic scholar, expert of Semitic languages and civilizations, historian of religion, philologist, philosopher, biblical scholar, and critic. He wrote influe ...

Antoine-Jean Saint-Martin Antoine-Jean Saint-Martin (17 January 1791 – 17 July 1832) was a French academic, orientalist, and pioneer in the field of what would be known as Armenian Studies. Biography Antoine-Jean Saint-Martin was born in Paris on 17 January 1791, th ...

Antoine-Isaac Silvestre de Sacy Antoine Isaac, Baron Silvestre de Sacy (; 21 September 175821 February 1838), was a French nobleman, linguist and orientalist. His son, Ustazade Silvestre de Sacy, became a journalist. Life and works Early life Silvestre de Sacy was born in Pa ...

İbrahim Şinasi İbrahim Şinasi (5 August 1826 – 13 September 1871) was a pioneering Ottoman intellectual, author, journalist, translator, playwright, and newspaper editor. He was the innovator of several fields: he wrote one of the earliest examples of an Ot ...

Charles Virolleaud Jean Charles Gabriel Virolleaud (2 July 1879 – 17 December 1968) was a French archaeologist, one of the excavators of Ugarit. Virolleaud was the author of ''La légende du Christ'' (1908) and was an advocate of the Christ myth theory. He also w ...

List of the presidents of the Société

*1822–1829: Antoine-Isaac Silvestre de Sacy *1829–1832: Jean-Pierre Abel Rémusat *1832–1834: Antoine-Isaac Silvestre de Sacy *1834–1847:

Amédée Jaubert Amédée is a French masculine forename. Notable people with the forename include: Persons * Amédée, stage name of Philippe de Chérisey (1923-1985), French writer, radio humorist, surrealist and actor *Amédée Artus (1815-1892), French condu ...

*1847–1867:

*1867–1876:

Julius von Mohl Julius von Mohl (25 October 1800 – 4 January 1876) was a German Orientalist. Life The brother of Hugo von Mohl and Robert von Mohl, he was born at Stuttgart. He abandoned the idea of entering the Lutheran ministry, and in 1823 went to Pari ...

*1876–1878:

Joseph Héliodore Garcin de Tassy Joseph Héliodore Sagesse Vertu Garcin de Tassy (25 January 1794, Marseille – 2 September 1878) was a French orientalist. He studied under Silvestre de Sacy oriental languages and was awarded professorship for Indology at the ''School for Living ...

*1878–1884: Adolphe Régnier *1884–1892: Ernest Renan *1892–1908:

Barbier de Meynard Charles Adrien Casimir Barbier de Meynard (6 February 1826 – 31 March 1908), born at sea on a ship from Constantinople to Marseille, was a nineteenth-century French historian and orientalist. Biography His studies focused on the early history ...

*1908–1928:

Émile Senart Émile Charles Marie Senart (26 March 1847 – 21 February 1928) was a French Indologist.Buswell, Robert Jr; Lopez, Donald S. Jr., eds. (2013). "Senard, Emile", in: Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. ISBN ...

*1928–1935:

*1935–1945:

*1946–1951:

*1952–1964:

*1964–1969:

George Coedès George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd President ...

*1969–1974:

René Labat Jean René Labat (19 February 1892 – 8 March 1970) was a French high jumper The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its moder ...

*1974–1986:

Claude Cahen Claude Cahen (26 February 1909 – 18 November 1991) was a 20th-century French Marxist orientalist and historian. He specialized in the studies of the Islamic Middle Ages, Muslim sources about the Crusades, and social history of the medieval Isla ...

*1987–1996:

André Caquot André Caquot (24 April 1923 – 1 September 2004) was a French orientalist, specialized in Semitic history and civilisations and professor of Hebrew and Aramaic language at the Collège de France. In 1986, André Caquot was elected president of ...

*1996–2002: Daniel Gimaret *2002–present:

Jean-Pierre Mahé Jean-Pierre Mahé (, 21 March 1944, Paris) is a French Oriental studies, orientalist, philologist and historian of Caucasus, and a specialist of Armenian studies. Kh. Karadelyan, « Մահե, Ժան-Պիեր Հանրի Մարի » (« Mahé, Jean-P ...

External links

L'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres

''Journal Asiatique''

''Journal asiatique'' from 1822 to 1936
{{DEFAULTSORT:Societe Asiatique 1822 establishments in France Ancient Near East organizations Learned societies of France Asian studies