SACY, AivroncE ISAAC, Baron SILVESTRE DE, one of the most celebrated orientalists, was born at Paris in 1758. After being grounded in the classics, he commenced at the :we of 12 the study of Hebrew, to which, as he advanced in years, he added the other branches of Semitic—Syriac, Aramaic. Samaritan, and finally Arabic. Persian and Turkish he acquired still later; lint though one of the greatest masters of Arabic and Persian that ever lived, he never made much progress in Turkish. Modern European languages and jurisprudence formed collateral branches of his stupendous acquisitions. From 1781 he held various appointments under government, chiefly in the mint. Ills first appearance in the world of letters dates from 1780, when he commenced to con tribute to Eichhorn's celebrated Repertoriam. In 1785 he was elected a member of the French .academy; and a number of monographs by him followed each other in quick succession in the transactions of this body, chiefly on Arabic and Persian history, literature, and antiquities. In 1793 he published his first great work the Annales Mirkhond, translated, with an extensive commentary, from the Persian. In 1792 he retired from the service of the government, to devote himself exclusively to his favorite atudies; in 1795 he was appointed to a chair in the newly-founded ecole des langues orientales; but refusing to take the oath of hatred against royalty, he was not allowed to teach. In 1803, when the institute was completely reorganized, he took his seat there again; and shortly after was nominated professor of Persian at the college de France. In 1808 he became a member of the corps legislatif, and was subsequeutly attached to the commission and council of public instruction. In 1822 he was made administrator of the collGge de France and the ecole speciale des langues orientales; and in the same year he founded, with Abel Remusat, the societe Asiatique. Under the new Orleans government, to which he soon attached himself, he was nominated inspector of the oriental type of the oriental printing-office, and perpetual secretary of the academic des inscriptions. Yet, with these numerous offices on his shoulders, to all of which he
attended most conscientiously, he never for one instant relaxed in his studies; and the number of his essays, memoirs, pamphlets, papers, etc., besides his larger works, is perfectly prodigious. He died, full of years and honors, in 1838, and was buried in the Pere Lachaise. The academy had a medal struck in his honor, and his bust was placed in the library of the institute. Oriental studies owe to him more, almost, than to any other orientalist of our age. Irrespective of his own brilliant and numerous labors, he furthered and promoted his favorite science in every possible way—founding, or causing to be founded, oriental chairs in France, and forming such disciples as Freitag, Rosegarten, Rasmussen, Chezy, Quatremi.'re, Jnubert, Saint-Martin, and others of more or less eminence as orientalists.
Among his works we would chiefly enumerate his Grammaire Ara be, the most classi cal work of its kind, and which has given Arabic studies an entirely new impulse, form ing, as it were, the turning-point between the ancient and modern oriental philology. Next to this stands his Ghrestomathie Arabe, with the Antholbyie Grammaticale Arabe. Among his other writings are Nemoires sur Direr sesAntiquites de la Perse; the translation of Abdollatis's Egypt, with notes; his editions of Calila ve-Dimnah; of the Pendndmeh, with a French translation; the Hakamat of Hariri; his Nemoires sur l'Etat Aetna des Samaritans; Erpose de la Religion des Druses; and his manifold contributions (above 400 in number) to the Hagasin. Eneyelopedigue, Hemoires de Finstitut, Recueil de l'Aeadentie des Inscriptions, Fundyruben des Orients, Annales des Voyages, Journal de in Societe Asia tigue, Biographie Unirerselle, and Eichhorn's Repertorinm fur biblisehe and orientalische ',aerator, Revue des DeulMondes, etc.