Clément Huart

Clément Huart (16 February 1854 – 30 December 1926) was a French orientalist, publisher and translator of Persian, Turkish and Arabic writings.

Biography The son of a lawyer, Clément Huart began studying Arabic at fourteen with Armand Caussin de Perceval. Graduated in Arabic, Persian, Turkish and modern Greek at the École des langues orientales, he continued his studies at the École pratique des hautes études, where he wrote his thesis, which was a translation of the Traité des termes relatifs à la description de la beauté by Chéref-Eddîn Râmi (Bibliothèque de l'EPHE, fasc. 25, 1875).

After he joined the Ministry of Foreign affairs, he was sent as a student-dragoman to the Consulate of France in Damascus (1875–1878) and was later consul in Istanbul (1878–1898). After the death of Charles Schefer (1898), he held the Chair of Persian at the École des langues orientales, where Henri Massé succeeded him (1886–1969). In 1908 he was appointed Director of Studies for Islam and the religions of Arabia at the EPHE.

In January 1919, he was elected a member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, of which he became president in 1927. He also was a member of the Société Asiatique (1898, vice-president 1916–1926) and of the Académie des sciences coloniales, president of the Société de linguistique (1903–1904, 1918) and of the Société d'ethnographie.

Works

Favored by a good knowledge of European languages, the work of Clément Huart in the field of Arabic, Persian and Turkish studies were particularly appreciated in their time. According to his contemporaries, his personal preferences were in Arabic, and he knew Turkish better than Persian which he spoke with a Turkish accent.

Edward Granville Browne frequently mentioned him for his contributions to the study of Persian dialectology, linguistics and literary history, and noted in particular Huart's refusal to apply the term dari to Persian dialects which he rather included under the general heading of "Pahlavi Muslim" or "modern Median".

His works, little or no reissued today, are still of some interest, although partly outdated. Many of his contributions to the first edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam were included in the second edition, sometimes revised and with a "further reading" section.