François Joseph Chabas (2 January 1817,

Briançon Briançon (, ) is the sole Subprefectures in France, subprefecture of the Hautes-Alpes Departments of France, department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region in Southeastern France. It is the highest city in France at an a ...

Hautes-Alpes Hautes-Alpes (; oc, Auts Aups; en, Upper Alps) is a department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of Southeastern France. It is located in the heart of the French Alps, after which it is named. Hautes-Alpes had a population of 141,220 ...

– 17 May 1882,

Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, u ...

) was a French

Egyptologist Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , '' -logia''; ar, علم المصريات) is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious ...

. Chabas came from a modest background, studied at

Chalon Chalon may refer to: Culture * Chalon people, a Native American tribe of California * Chalon language, an Ohlone language spoken by the Chalon people Places * Chalon, Isère, formerly Châlons, in France's Isère ''département'' * Le Chalon, in ...

and became a wine merchant. Self-taught, he learned

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

and other languages. Interested in

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...

, he turned to study Old Egyptian languages. Chabas was a member of several learned societies and later president of the ''Conseil departemental'' of

Saône-et-Loire Saône-et-Loire (; Arpitan: ''Sona-et-Lêre'') is a department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in France. It is named after the rivers Saône and Loire, between which it lies, in the country's central-eastern part. Saône-et-Loire is Bo ...

.Brockhaus' Konversations-Lexikon, Volume 4
/ref> Between 1876 and 1880, Chabas edited the journal ''L'Égyptologie''. His works have contributed much to elucidate the history of the invasion and repulsion of the

Hyksos Hyksos (; Egyptian '' ḥqꜣ(w)- ḫꜣswt'', Egyptological pronunciation: ''hekau khasut'', "ruler(s) of foreign lands") is a term which, in modern Egyptology, designates the kings of the Fifteenth Dynasty of Egypt (fl. c. 1650–1550 BC). T ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

. Chabas was elected a foreign member of the

Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences ( nl, Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, abbreviated: KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed ...

in 1865. He was elected as a member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

in 1869.

Works

* ''Le plus ancien livre du monde, étude sur le papyrus Prisse'', (1858) – The oldest book in the world, a study of the

Prisse Papyrus The Prisse Papyrus is an ancient Egyptian papyrus datable to the Middle Kingdom and is now in the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris. Inhabitants of Kurna originally found the papyrus inside the rishi coffin of pharaoh Sekhemre-Wepmaat I ...

. *''Mélanges égyptologiques'' (3 Ser. in 4 Vols. Paris: Châlon, 1862–1873) – Egyptology medley. *''Voyage d'un Egyptien en Syrie, en Phénicie, en Palestine au quatorzième siècle avant notre ère'' (Paris 1866) – Voyage of an Egyptian in Syria,

Phoenicia Phoenicia () was an ancient thalassocratic civilization originating in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily located in modern Lebanon. The territory of the Phoenician city-states extended and shrank throughout their histor ...

, Palestine in the 14th century BC. *''Les pasteurs en Egypte'' (Amsterdam 1868) – The ''pasteurs'' in Egypt (in reference to the Hyksos). *''Étude sur l'antiquité historique d'après les sources égyptiennes et les monuments réputés préhistoriques'' (Amsterdam 1872) – Study of the ancient history according to Egyptian sources and prehistoric monuments. *''Recherches pour servir à l'histoire de la XIX^ème dynastie et spécialment à celle des temps de l'Exode'' (Amsterdam 1873) – Research in regards to the history of the

19th dynasty The Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XIX), also known as the Ramessid dynasty, is classified as the second Dynasty of the Ancient Egyptian New Kingdom period, lasting from 1292 BC to 1189 BC. The 19th Dynasty and the 20th Dynasty fur ...

and especially to that of the time of the

Exodus Exodus or the Exodus may refer to: Religion * Book of Exodus, second book of the Hebrew Torah and the Christian Bible * The Exodus, the biblical story of the migration of the ancient Israelites from Egypt into Canaan Historical events * Ex ...

. * ''Recherches sur les poids, mesures et monnaies des anciens Égyptiens'', (1876) – Research on the weights, measures and coins of ancient Egypt.Recherches sur les poids, mesures et monnaies des anciens Égyptiens
OCLC WorldCat

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Chabas, Francois 1817 births 1882 deaths People from Briançon French Egyptologists Burials at the Cemetery of Saint-Louis, Versailles Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences