Paul Lucas (31 August 1664, in Quevilly, near Rouen – 12 May 1737, in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

) was a French merchant, naturalist, physician and antiquarian to King

Louis XIV Louis XIV (Louis Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was List of French monarchs, King of France from 14 May 1643 until his death in 1715. His reign of 72 years and 110 days is the Li ...

Life

Khalili Collection Hajj and Arts of Pilgrimage arc

Lucas was the son of Centurion Lucas, a well known book printer and publisher in Rouen, and Judith Mauclerc. In 1688, he served with the Venetians at the Siege of Negroponte. In 1696 he returned to France with a large collection of medals and other antiquities which were purchased for the French Royal Cabinet. This brought him to the attention of the court and he then began a series of three voyages to the East: he travelled extensively in

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wi ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula ...

, the

Levant The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is ...

and

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...

, in three major voyages (1699–1703, 1704–1708 and 1714–1717). Lucas is one of the earliest sources of information from

Upper Egypt Upper Egypt ( ar, صعيد مصر ', shortened to , , locally: ; ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the lands on both sides of the Nile that extend upriver from Lower Egypt in the north to Nubia in the south. In ancient E ...

, visiting among other places Thebes (though he does not identify it) and the

Nile The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered the longest riv ...

up to the

cataracts A cataract is a cloudy area in the lens of the eye that leads to a decrease in vision. Cataracts often develop slowly and can affect one or both eyes. Symptoms may include faded colors, blurry or double vision, halos around light, trouble ...

. A panegyrical portrayal of Lucas is also afforded in the Arabic autobiography of

Hanna Diyab Antun Yusuf Hanna Diyab ( ar, اَنْطون يوسُف حَنّا دِياب, Anṭūn Yūsuf Ḥannā Diyāb; born ''circa'' 1688) was a Syrian Maronite writer and storyteller. He is the origin of the famous tales of ''Aladdin'' and ''Ali Baba a ...

, a Syrian whom Lucas employed as an interpreter, assistant, and servant from around 1707-10. Diyab viewed Lucas as having miraculous medical powers. Lucas's own writings never mention Diyab, however.John-Paul Ghobrial, review of Hanna Dyâb, ''D’Alep à Paris: Les pérégrinations d’un jeune syrien au temps de Louis XIV'', ed. and trans. by Paule Fahmé-Thiéry, Bernard Heyberger, and Jérôme Lentin (Paris: Sindbad, 2015), ''The English Historical Review'', volume 132, issue 554 (February 2017), 147–49 .

Works

* ''Voyage du Sieur paul Lucas au Levant. On y trouvera entr'autre une description de la haute Egypte, suivant le cours du Nil, depuis le Caire jusques aux Cataractes, avec une Carte exacte de ce fleuve, que personne n'avoit donné.'' Paris,

Guillaume Vandive Guillaume Vandive (, also Vandivout and Van Dievoet; ) (22 november 1680 – 1706) was a French printer and bookseller. He was a master tradesman under the patronage of the Dauphin of France. Vandive's premises was on the rue Saint-Jacques, Pa ...

, 1704; 2 vol. * ''Voyage du Sieur paul Lucas, fait par ordre du Roi dans la Grèce, l'Asie Mineure, la Macédoine et l'Afrique.'' Nicolas Simart, Paris, 1712; 2 vol. * ''Voyage du Sieur Paul Lucas, fait en 1714... dans la Turquie, l'Asie, la Syrie, la Palestine, la Haute et la Basse-Égypte, etc...,'' Rouen, R. Machuel le jeune, 1719; 3 vol.

Gallery

Selected illustrations from Paul Lucas' books: Carte de la Natolie et des pays voisins parcourus par Mr Paul Lucas en 1717 - Lucas Paul - 1720.jpg, Map of East Mediterranean locations visited by Lucas File:Veue de la ville de Tirie - Lucas Paul - 1720.jpg, The ancient city of Tyrrha File:La marche de la Caravane du Grand Caire pour la Mecque - Lucas Paul - 1720.jpg, The pilgrim caravan departing from

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metr ...

for

Mecca Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow v ...

File:Illustration - Lucas Paul - 1712.jpg, View of Ankara

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lucas, Paul 1664 births 1737 deaths French naturalists French travel writers French merchants French male non-fiction writers French expatriates in the Ottoman Empire 18th-century French businesspeople 17th-century French businesspeople