Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch

Eva Lamacque de Vitray was born on 5 November 1909 in Boulogne-Billancourt, a rich Parisian suburb. From a privileged social background,[1] she was educated in Catholic schools before studying for a law degree. She began a doctorate in philosophy on the subject of "Symbolism in Plato".[2]

At the age of 22 Eva married Lazare Meyerovitch, of Jewish Latvian origins.[2] She became an administrator in the laboratory of Frédéric Joliot-Curie.[3] In 1940 Eva escaped from Paris with Joliot-Curie in 1940 during the German occupation of [World War Two (1939–45)] and retired to the Corrèze department for the duration of the war.[4] Eva's husband was a member of the Free French Forces.[5] After the Liberation of France Eva joined the CNRS where she soon became director of the "Humanities" department.[6] She also earned an income from translations.[7] She met Louis Massignon, with whom she would remain closely linked and who supported her after the sudden death of her husband in the early 1950s.[8]

Eva discovered Islam through the book by the thinker and poet Muhammad Iqbal: Reconstruire la pensée religieuse de l'islam (Rebuilding the religious thought of Islam).[9] After three years of Christian exegesis at the Sorbonne, she chose to become a Muslim.[10] Eva was very interested in the work of the Persian poet Jalâl ud Dîn Rûmî (1207–1273) who raised her awareness of the mystical aspect of Islam, Sufism.[11] Subsequently, she embarked on learning Persian.[12] Soon afterwards she published her first translations of Muhammad Iqbal and Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī.

In 1968 Eva defended her doctoral dissertation at the University of Paris on Mystical Themes in the Work of Jalal Ud Dîn Rûmî.[13] From 1969 to 1973 she taught in Cairo at Al-Azhar University.[14] In 1971 she made the pilgrimage to Mecca and also visited Medina.[15] From 1972 until her death she regularly published annotated translations of Rûmi's writings as well as works she wrote herself on Islam, Sufism and whirling dervishes. In 1990 she published her translation of Rûmi's Masnavi, a colossal work of 50,000 verses in 1,700 pages, translated for the first time into French.[16]

Parallel to her intellectual career, Eva pursued a personal quest that led her to meet many personalities involved in Sufism such as Amadou Hampâté Ba,[2] Najm Oud Din Bammate,[17] Cheikh Bentounès[18] and Faouzi Skali.[19] It was through the last that in Morocco, in 1985, she met a living Sufi spiritual guide, Hamza al Qadiri al Boutchichi, whose teaching she would follow until her death.[20] She was also very active as a speaker in France and abroad to impart her knowledge of Jalâl ud Dîn Rûmî, Islam and Sufism. She recorded several programs for France Culture and for television.[17] In 1998, during her last conference in Turkey, she expressed the wish to be buried in Konya.[21]

Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch died on 24 July 1999 in her apartment on rue Claude-Bernard in Paris.[22][17] She was buried in a very private ceremony in Thiais, in the Paris region. From 2003 steps were taken to transfer her remains to Konya, which was done in 2008. On 17 November 2008, an official ceremony accompanied the burial of the coffin of Eva Vitray-Meyerovitch in Konya.[23] Her grave is opposite the mausoleum of Jalal ud Din Rumi.[24]