William Ambroise Marçais (6 November 1872,

Rennes Rennes (; br, Roazhon ; Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in northwestern France at the confluence of the Ille and the Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the region of Brittany, as well as the Ille-et-Vilaine departme ...

– 1 October 1956,

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

), was a French Orientalist, particularly noted as an expert on the

Maghrebi Arabic Maghrebi Arabic (, Western Arabic; as opposed to Eastern or Mashriqi Arabic) is a vernacular Arabic dialect continuum spoken in the Maghreb region, in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Western Sahara, and Mauritania. It includes Moroccan, Al ...

dialects.

Biography

William Marçais was born in

in 1872. After finishing the local ''

lycée In France, secondary education is in two stages: * ''Collèges'' () cater for the first four years of secondary education from the ages of 11 to 15. * ''Lycées'' () provide a three-year course of further secondary education for children between ...

'', he studied law at the

University of Rennes The University of Rennes is a public research university which will be officially reconstituted on 1 January 2023 and located in the city of Rennes, in Upper Brittany, France. The University of Rennes has been divided for almost 50 years, be ...

. Soon after his successful graduation and as he was contemplating a career in the

diplomatic service Diplomatic service is the body of diplomats and foreign policy officers maintained by the government of a country to communicate with the governments of other countries. Diplomatic personnel obtains diplomatic immunity when they are accredited to o ...

, his lecture of the works of

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 ...

turned him towards the study of the

Semitic languages The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken by more than 330 million people across much of West Asia, the Horn of Africa, and latterly North Africa, Malta, West Africa, Chad, and in large immigrant ...

. In 1894 he therefore went to Paris and enrolled in the ''

École des langues orientales Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales ( en, National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations), abbreviated as INALCO, is a French university specializing in the teaching of languages and cultures from the world. ...

'', where he studied

Literary Arabic Literary Arabic (Arabic: ' ) may refer to: * Classical Arabic * Modern Standard Arabic Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) or Modern Written Arabic (MWA), terms used mostly by linguists, is the variety of standardized, literary Arabic that develo ...

, Turkish and Persian under

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 ...

and Octave Houdas. In 1898 he successfully defended his doctoral thesis on Islamic law. In the same year he assumed the position of director of the ''

madrasa Madrasa (, also , ; Arabic: مدرسة , pl. , ) is the Arabic word for any type of educational institution, secular or religious (of any religion), whether for elementary instruction or higher learning. The word is variously transliterated '' ...

'' of

Tlemcen Tlemcen (; ar, تلمسان, translit=Tilimsān) is the second-largest city in northwestern Algeria after Oran, and capital of the Tlemcen Province. The city has developed leather, carpet, and textile industries, which it exports through the p ...

French Algeria French Algeria (french: Alger to 1839, then afterwards; unofficially , ar, الجزائر المستعمرة), also known as Colonial Algeria, was the period of French colonisation of Algeria. French rule in the region began in 1830 with the ...

. In 1904 he became director of the ''madrasa'' of

Algiers Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques d ...

, five years later advanced to the position of inspector general of the education system for the native population, and in 1913 he was named as director of the ''École supérieure de langue et littérature arabe'' at

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

. In 1916, he returned to Paris, where he became teacher of vulgate Arabic at the ''École des langues orientales'', rising to professor in 1920. He remained there until 1927, when he assumed a chair at the ''

Collège de France The Collège de France (), formerly known as the ''Collège Royal'' or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment ('' grand établissement'') in France. It is located in Paris n ...

'', where he remained until his retirement in 1942. He was a member of the following societies: *''

Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres The Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres () is a French learned society devoted to history, founded in February 1663 as one of the five academies of the Institut de France. The academy's scope was the study of ancient inscriptions (epigr ...

'' *''

Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques The Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques (CTHS) (''Committee for Historic and Scientific Works'') is a French research institution created by the Minister of Public Education François Guizot on 18 July 1834 for the purpose of 'leading ...

'' *Archaeological society of the '' Département de Constantine'' *''

Société de Linguistique de Paris The Société de Linguistique de Paris (established 1864) is the editing body of the ''BSL'' (''Bulletin de la Société de Linguistique'') journal A journal, from the Old French ''journal'' (meaning "daily"), may refer to: *Bullet journal, a met ...

'' He was the brother of Georges Marçais and father of Philippe Marçais (1910-1984), also an

Arabist An Arabist is someone, often but not always from outside the Arab world, who specialises in the study of the Arabic language and culture (usually including Arabic literature). Origins Arabists began in medieval Muslim Spain, which lay on th ...

Publications

*William Marçais, ''Des parents et alliés successibles en droit musulman'', University of Rennes, Faculty of Law, Doctoral thesis. 1898 *William Marçais, ''Le Taqrîb de En-Nawawi''. Translated & annotated edition, 1901 *William Marçais, ''Le dialecte arabe parlé à Tlemcen'', 1902 *William Marçais, ''Les monuments arabes de Tlemcen'', 1903 *William Marçais, ''Le dialecte arabe des Ulâd Brahîm de Saîda''. Mémoires de la Société de Linguistique de Paris, 1908 *William Marçais, ''Les traditions islamiques'', 1914 *William Marçais, ''Textes arabes de Takroûna''. Transcription, annotated translation and glossary, 1925 *William Marçais, ''La vie féminine au Mzab'', 1927-1931 *''Mélanges Gaudefroy-Demombynes'', 1935 *Foreword for M. S. Meissa. ''Le message du pardon d'Abou l'Ala de Maarra.'', 1933

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marcais, William 1872 births 1972 deaths French orientalists Writers from Rennes University of Rennes alumni Members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres French Arabists Collège de France faculty