André Du Ryer,

Lord Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power (social and political), power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the Peerage o ...

of La Garde-Malezair (b. Marcigny, Bourgogne, c. 1580; d. 1660 or 1672) was a French orientalist who produced the third western translation of the

Quran The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

Biography

Du Ryer was diplomatic envoy to

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

and French consul to

Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...

. In 1630, he published a grammar of the

Turkish language Turkish ( , , also known as 'Turkish of Turkey') is the most widely spoken of the Turkic languages, a member of Oghuz languages, Oghuz branch with around 90 million speakers. It is the national language of Turkey and one of two official languag ...

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

. In 1634, he translated Gulistan, or the Empire of the Roses, by the Persian writer Saadi. In 1647, he published the first integral translation of the

into a European vernacular language (the previous two translations from the Arabic had been into Latin). The book was

interdict In Catholic canon law, an interdict () is an ecclesiastical censure, or ban that prohibits certain persons or groups from participating in particular rites, or that the rites and services of the church are prohibited in certain territories for ...

ed by the Council of Conscience under the pressure of one of its members,

Vincent de Paul Vincent de Paul, CM (24 April 1581 – 27 September 1660), commonly known as Saint Vincent de Paul, was an Occitan French Catholic priest who dedicated himself to serving the poor. In 1622, Vincent was appointed as chaplain to the galleys. ...

. This censure did not impede the book's diffusion. Du Ryer left in manuscript a Turkish-Latin dictionary. He became Secretary-Interpreter of King

Louis XIII Louis XIII (; sometimes called the Just; 27 September 1601 – 14 May 1643) was King of France from 1610 until his death in 1643 and King of Navarre (as Louis II) from 1610 to 1620, when the crown of Navarre was merged with the French crown. ...

for Oriental languages after his return to France in the year 1630. Louis XIII assigned him to a mission in Persia, to take up negotiations with the king of that eastern land, at the finalizing of his accord concerning commercial exchanges between France and Persia. The Ottoman Sultàn Murat IV, who attentively supervised Franco-Persian relations, solemnly received André Du Ryer in 1632 and retained the Frenchman awhile at his court, for to send him back to Paris with a friendly letter to the French king. Sources vary as to whether he died in 1660 or 1672.

Works

* ''Grammaire turque'' (1630) * '' Gulistan, ou l'empire des roses'' (1634) * '' L'Alcoran de Mahomet'' (1647)

References

External links

The Nativity of Jesus, Blesséd be He, in the KoranAndre Du Ryer and Oriental Studies in Seventeenth-Century France (Studies in the Arcadian Library)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ryer, Andre du French orientalists Translators of the Quran into French 17th-century French writers 17th-century French male writers French Iranologists Linguists from France French Arabists Translators from Persian Translators to Latin 17th-century writers in Latin

Biography

Works

See also

References

External links