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 academic discipline, profession, or a group of related disciplines such as the arts and science. Membership ...

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 are ...

. 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 t ...

. 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 ac ...

''. 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 * Jacques Bacot * Jean Berlie *

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 t ...

* Henri Cordier * Jean-Baptiste Benoît Eyriès * Julius Klaproth * 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 S ...

* Sylvain Lévi *

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 Ottoman ...

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 career ...

* Joseph Toussaint Reinaud *

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 in ...

* Antoine-Jean Saint-Martin *

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 * Charles Virolleaud

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 *1847–1867: Joseph Toussaint Reinaud *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 *1878–1884: Adolphe Régnier *1884–1892: Ernest Renan *1892–1908: Barbier de Meynard *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: Sylvain Lévi *1935–1945:

*1946–1951: Jacques Bacot *1952–1964: Charles Virolleaud *1964–1969: George Coedès *1969–1974: René Labat *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 orientalist, philologist and historian of Caucasus, and a specialist of Armenian studies. Kh. Karadelyan, « Մահե, Ժան-Պիեր Հանրի Մարի » (« Mahé, Jean-Pierre Henri Mari ...

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