Roger Lescot (1914–1975) was a French orientalist and diplomat known for his research of the Kurdish language.[1]

Biography

Roger Lescot obtained a degree in Arabic and Oriental literature in 1935. Later he also gained a degree in Turkish and Persian. In 1935 he began to learn Kurdish,[2] and in 1936 during the French Mandate of Syria, he was in contact with the Yazidi in the Kurd Dagh and also with the Shia in the south of Lebanon.[2] Roger Lescot and Pierre Rondot supervised the Kurdish activities within the French Mandate, specializing in Kurdish press and literature.[3] Both were working together with Kurdish activists and were supportive of the Kurdish cultural aims.[4] Lescot then wrote for several Kurdish outlets such as the Hawar, Roja Nû or Ronahî.[5] Lescot was a close collaborator to members of the Berdirkhan family.[6]

Upon his initiative the chair for Kurdish lectures was created at the National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO) in 1945, a position he held until 1947,[7] and trespassed to Kamuran Bedirkhan, as he took up diplomatic work as a French diplomat in Cairo[1] and work for the French intelligence.[8] After four years of studies about the Kurdish national epic Mem û Zîn he published a version of it in Kurdish and a translation in French in 1942.[9] In 1953 he published a French translation from the Persian of Sadegh Hedayat's novel The Blind Owl as La chouette aveugle.[10] He published his and Celadet Bedirkhan's Grammaire kurde in 1970.[6]

Works

References

  1. ^ a b Henning, Barbara (2018-04-03). Narratives of the History of the Ottoman-Kurdish Bedirhani Family in Imperial and Post-Imperial Contexts: Continuities and Changes. University of Bamberg Press. p. 372. ISBN 978-3-86309-551-2.
  2. ^ a b Gorgas, Jordi Tejel (2007). Le mouvement kurde de Turquie en exil: continuités et discontinuités du nationalisme kurde sous le mandat français en Syrie et au Liban (1925-1946) (in French). Peter Lang. p. 330. ISBN 978-3-03911-209-8.
  3. ^ Bajalan, Djene Rhys; Karimi, Sara Zandi (2017-07-06). Studies in Kurdish History: Empire, Ethnicity and Identity. Taylor & Francis. p. 171. ISBN 978-1-317-50216-6.
  4. ^ Gunter, Michael (2014-11-15). Out of Nowhere: The Kurds of Syria in Peace and War. Oxford University Press. p. 38. ISBN 978-1-84904-531-5.
  5. ^ Gorgas, Jordi Tejel (2007), 331
  6. ^ a b Gündoğdu, Songül; Öpengin, Ergin; Haig, Geoffrey; Anonby, Erik (2019-11-18). Current issues in Kurdish linguistics. University of Bamberg Press. p. 1. ISBN 978-3-86309-686-1.
  7. ^ Blau, Joyce (2006-12-31). "Une perspective historique sur les études kurdes. Entretien avec Joyce Blau". European Journal of Turkish Studies. Social Sciences on Contemporary Turkey (in French) (5). doi:10.4000/ejts.797. ISSN 1773-0546.
  8. ^ Randal, Jonathan C. (1997). After Such Knowledge, what Forgiveness?: My Encounters with Kurdistan. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. p. 199. ISBN 0747536368.
  9. ^ "Titel des Vortrages". www.pen-kurd.org. Retrieved 2020-07-14.
  10. ^ [https://www.worldcat.org/title/757204978 La chouette aveugle : roman. Trad. du persan La chouette aveugle : roman. Trad. du persan], worldcat.org. Retrieved 3 October 2022.
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