HALEVY, JOSEPH (1827—). A French Ori entalist, born at Adrianople, Turkey. lie studied at Jewish colleges in Adrianople and Bucharest, and attracted some attention by his Hebrew verse. In 1868 he was commissioned by the Alliance Israelite iTniverselle to study conditions among the Falashes of Abyssinia, and in 1869-70, under the direction of the Academie des Inscriptions, traveled in Yemen, where he obtained copies of 686 inscriptions, chiefly Sabiean and Himyaritic, later published in his Rapport stir IIIIC mission areheologique dans le Yemen (1872). He was appointed adjunct professor of Ethiopic at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes, and assistant librarian of the Asiatic Society. As an Assyriologist, he is known for his contention that the Akkadian peo ple and literature never existed, and that their so-called writing was a cryptography invented by the Babylonian priests to lend greater secrecy to their compositions. has also been promi
nent as a biblical critic. His publications in clude further: Voyage au Nedjrat: (1873); Etudes sabeennes (1875) ; Etudes berbftes, epi graphic lybique (1875) ; La pretcmine longue d'Acead. est-elle touraniennc7( 1875) ; Recherches critiques sur l'origine de la civilisation baby lonicnne (1876); elan yes de critique et d'his toire relatifs aux pcuples semitiques (1883) ; and an Easai sur l'origine des ecritures indiennes (1886). A series of Recherches bibliques, pub lished by him in the Revue des Etudes Juices from 1886 to 1892, was continued from 1893 in the Revue gemitique d'epigraphic et d'h4stoire nneiemze, which he founded in the beginning of that year. He also wrote much for the Revue Critique and the Journal Asiatique.