Josette Elayi

Josette Elayi née Escaich was born on 29 March 1943 in Les Bordes-sur-Lez, a small former commune in the Couserans (now Ariège department) in France's Pyrenees mountains. She studied in the nearby town of Saint-Girons. At the Saint-Girons high school, Elayi had an affinity for science and literature but a skiing accident caused her to fall behind in science. Elayi recounts that "the literary course was much more rewarding than the sciences at the time". Elayi's parents wanted her to become a teacher, but after her baccalaureate, she went to Toulouse to study classical literature. Elayi is a holder of a Doctorat ès Lettres, the highest doctoral degree in France, and multiple other degrees in oriental languages from Lyon and Nancy universities.[3][4]

Elayi taught literature in Emilie de Rodat school in Toulouse between 1966 and 1968 before moving on to Notre-Dame school in Lyon where she taught for the next four years.[4] In 1973, Elayi obtained a teaching position in the Lebanese University's faculty of letters in Beirut. Elayi's interest for the history of the Phoenicians was stirred during her short stay in Beirut. When the Lebanese civil war broke out in 1975, Elayi moved to Baghdad where she taught French literature at the Al-Mustansiriya University until 1978.[3][4] Elayi settled in Paris in 1980, she taught in the Lycée Charlemagne before joining the CNRS as a researcher in ancient history in 1982.[4]

Elayi is versed in fifteen modern and extinct languages. Elayi developed a multidisciplinary historiography method that combines epigraphy, numismatics, archaeology, economics and sociology; she applied this methodology in her works on the history of the Phoenicians.[5] She writes regularly in journals and has received two prizes from the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, and a prize from the French Numismatic Society (Société française de numismatique).

Elayi has written a number of novels that draw inspiration from her real life experiences and contemporary issues. In 2009, she published her first novel Le survivant [The survivor] based on her experience of the civil war in Beirut. Two years later, Elayi wrote her second novel Secrets de granite [Secrets of granite]; the book is inspired by her native Ariège region.[3] L'ombre de Saddam [The shadow of Saddam] came out in 2015; the geopolitical thriller portrays Saddam Hussein before his seizure of power.[11] Her 2017 Pourquoi je suis devenu un terroriste [Why I became a terrorist] came two years after the Paris terrorist attacks, it follows a Spanish student's descent into extremism.[12] Elayi's 2018 novel Arwad, une île syrienne à la dérive [Arwad, a drifting Syrian island] draws parallels between the fall of the insular Phoenician city of Arwad and war-time Syria.[13] In 2019 Elayi published Ange Garelli where the Corsican protagonist is haunted by the discovery of a secret linking him to Napoleon Bonaparte.[14][15]

Elayi is married to Alain-Gérard Elayi, a Lebanese nuclear scientist; they have two children together.[3][16]

Elayi who had had a rocky relationship with the CNRS launched an attack against what she described as the CNRS of corporatism, ambiguity, and bias under the guise of scientific democracy when evaluating French research. She accused the CNRS of making errors of judgment in the recruitment and promotion of researchers and scientific teams, leading to the deterioration of the quality of French research.[6] This crisis was particularly marked after the 2002 and 2003 CNRS budget cuts causing worsening researcher working conditions and the decline of their financial resources.[17] Elayi committed to system reform.[6] She took on media outlets and issued two books where she elaborated her views on CNRS research dysfunctions and proposed a better distribution of credits based on a correct assessment of the competence of researchers.[18][19] Elayi was consulted by successive research ministers in an effort to create the Agency for the Evaluation of Research and Higher education which saw the light in 2007.[6]

Elayi is a vocal proponent of saving classical languages which were threatened by prospected curriculum reforms spearheaded by then-Minister of National education and research Najat Vallaud-Belkacem. The reforms proposed to replace Latin and Greek by an "initiation to ancient languages" course within the French courses, and by an integration of these two languages within the French language courses. Elayi criticized the lack of a timetable, a program, funding or continuity and expressed indignation that teaching of classical languages would be left to non-specialized teachers and to the discretion of headmasters.[20] Despite nation-wide polemic the bill was passed in August 2016.[21]

In 1995 the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres awarded Elayi with the Gregor Mendel prize for her work on coin economy and circulation in Phoenicia and the Ancient Near-East in the 5th and 4th centuries BC.[nb 2][22] Six years later, the academy awarded Elayi and Hussein Sayegh with the Adolphe Noël des Vergers prize for their research on the Phoenician port quarter of Beirut.[nb 3][23] In 2001 she received the Babut Prize from the French Numismatic Society for her research on ancient coins.[24] In 2007 Elayi was decorated Knight of the Legion of Honor by then Minister of superior education François Goulard for her work on Phoenician history.[3]

The WorldCat database lists more than 200 publications by Josette Elayi in her various fields of expertise;[4] she has authored more than 30 books and is the editor of seventy books.[25][26]

This is a short list of her most widely held publications:

• Elayi, Josette (2018). Sennacherib, King of Assyria. ISBN 978-0-88414-318-5. OCLC 1043306367.
• Elayi, Josette; Plummer, Andrew (2018). The history of Phoenicia. ISBN 978-1-937040-82-6. OCLC 1037944871.
• Elayi, Josette (2017). Sargon II, King of Assyria. ISBN 978-0-88414-223-2. OCLC 975999230.
• Elayi, Josette; Elayi, A. G (2015). Arwad, cité phénicienne du nord (in French). ISBN 978-2-85021-240-6. OCLC 910179498.
• Elayi, Josette; Elayi, A. G (2014). A monetary and political history of the Phoenician city of Byblos in the fifth and fourth centuries B.C.E. ISBN 978-1-57506-304-1. OCLC 879033985.
• Elayi, Josette; Elayi, A. G (2014). A monetary and political history of the Phoenician city of Byblos in the fifth-fourth centuries B.C.E. ISBN 978-1-57506-889-3. OCLC 893673687.
• Elayi, Josette (2009). Byblos, cité sacrée (8e-4e s. av. J.-C.) (in French). Paris: Gabalda. ISBN 978-2-85021-195-9. OCLC 496822127.
• Elayi, Josette; Elayi, A. G (2009). The coinage of the Phoenician city of Tyre in the Persian period (5th-4th cent. BCE). Leuven; Walpole, MA: Peeters. ISBN 978-90-429-2202-0. OCLC 476143018.
• Elayi, Josette (2005). ʻAbdʻaštart Ier, Straton de Sidon: un roi phénicien entre Orient et Occident (in French). Paris: Gabalda. OCLC 61189974.
• Elayi, Josette; Elayi, A. G (2004). Le monnayage de la cité phénicienne de Sidon à l'époque perse (Ve-IVe s. av. J.-C.) (in French). Paris: Gabalda. OCLC 57704329.
• Elayi, Josette; Sapin, Jean (2000). Quinze ans de recherche (1985-2000) sur la Transeuphratène à l'époque perse (in French). Paris: Gabalda. ISBN 978-2-85021-129-4. OCLC 46862939.
• Elayi, Josette; Sapin, Jean (1998). Beyond the river: new perspectives on Transeuphratene. Sheffield, England: Sheffield Academic Press. ISBN 978-0-567-59838-7. OCLC 277560168.
• Elayi, Josette; Sayegh, Hala; Doumet-Serhal, Claude (1998). Un quartier du port phénicien de Beyrouth au fer III/Perse: les objets (in French). Paris: Gabalda. ISBN 978-2-85021-111-9. OCLC 41111487.
• Elayi, Josette; Elayi, A. G (1997). Recherches sur les poids phéniciens (in French). Paris: Gabalda. ISBN 978-2-85021-102-7. OCLC 38333231.
• Elayi, Josette; Haykal, Mohamed Raïf (1996). Nouvelles découvertes sur les usages funéraires de Phéniciens d'Arwad (in French). Paris: Gabalda. ISBN 978-2-85021-094-5. OCLC 38223062.
• Elayi, Josette; Planas Palau, Antonio (1995). Les pointes de flèches en bronze d'Ibiza dans le cadre de la colonisation phénico-punique (in French). Paris: Gabalda. ISBN 978-2-85021-078-5. OCLC 35148649.
• Elayi, Josette; Elayi, A. G (1993). Trésors de monnaies phéniciennes et circulation monétaire: Ve-IVe siècles avant J.-C (in French). Paris: Gabalda. ISBN 978-2-85021-060-0. OCLC 30884270.
• Elayi, Josette; Sapin, Jean (1991). Nouveaux regards sur la Transeuphratène (in French). Turnhout: Brépols. ISBN 978-2-503-50065-2. OCLC 489622103.
• Elayi, Josette; Elayi, A. G (1989). La Monnaie à travers les âges (in French). Paris: Idéaphane. ISBN 978-2-906838-02-4. OCLC 19780808.
• Elayi, Josette (1988). Pénétration grecque en Phénicie sous l'empire perse (in French). Nancy [France: Presses universitaires de Nancy. ISBN 978-2-86480-296-9. OCLC 18664893.