Roger Lescot

Roger Lescot (1914–1975) was a French orientalist and diplomat known for his research of the Kurdish language.[1]

Roger Lescot

Biography

Roger Lescot obtained a degree in Arabic and Oriental literature in 1935. Later he also gained a degree in Turkish and Persian. In 1935 he began to learn Kurdish,[2] and in 1936, in during the French Mandate of Syria, he was in contact with the Yazidi in the Kurd Dagh and also with the Shia in the south of Lebanon.[2] Roger Lescot and Pierre Rondot supervised the Kurdish activities within the French Mandate, specializing in Kurdish press and literature.[3] Both were working together with Kurdish activists and were supportive of the Kurdish cultural aims.[4] Lescot then wrote for several Kurdish outlets such as the Hawar, Roja Nû or Ronahî.[5] Lescot was a close collaborator to members of the Berdirkan family.[6] Upon his initiative the chair for Kurdish lectures was created at the National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO) in 1945, a position he held until 1947,[7] and traspassed to Kamuran Bedirkhan, as he took up diplomatic work as a French diplomat in Cairo[1] and work for the French intelligence.[8] After four years of studies about the Kurdish national epic Mem û Zîn he published a version of it in Kurdish and a translation in French in 1942.[9] He published his and Celadet Bedirkhan's Grammaire Kurde in 1970.[6]

Works
  • Enquête sur les yezidis de Syrie et du Djebel Sindjar, 1938, Beirut
  • Mem û Zîn, 1942, Beirut
  • Grammaire Kurde, 1970

References
  1. Henning, Barbara (2018-04-03). Narratives of the History of the Ottoman-Kurdish Bedirhani Family in Imperial and Post-Imperial Contexts: Continuities and Changes. University of Bamberg Press. p. 372. ISBN 978-3-86309-551-2.
  2. Gorgas, Jordi Tejel (2007). Le mouvement kurde de Turquie en exil: continuités et discontinuités du nationalisme kurde sous le mandat français en Syrie et au Liban (1925-1946) (in French). Peter Lang. p. 330. ISBN 978-3-03911-209-8.
  3. Bajalan, Djene Rhys; Karimi, Sara Zandi (2017-07-06). Studies in Kurdish History: Empire, Ethnicity and Identity. Taylor & Francis. p. 171. ISBN 978-1-317-50216-6.
  4. Gunter, Michael (2014-11-15). Out of Nowhere: The Kurds of Syria in Peace and War. Oxford University Press. p. 38. ISBN 978-1-84904-531-5.
  5. Gorgas, Jordi Tejel (2007), 331
  6. Gündoğdu, Songül; Öpengin, Ergin; Haig, Geoffrey; Anonby, Erik (2019-11-18). Current issues in Kurdish linguistics. University of Bamberg Press. p. 1. ISBN 978-3-86309-686-1.
  7. Blau, Joyce (2006-12-31). "Une perspective historique sur les études kurdes. Entretien avec Joyce Blau". European Journal of Turkish Studies. Social Sciences on Contemporary Turkey (in French) (5). doi:10.4000/ejts.797. ISSN 1773-0546.
  8. Randal, Jonathan C. (1997). After Such Knowledge, what Forgiveness?: My Encounters with Kurdistan. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. p. 199. ISBN 0747536368.
  9. "Titel des Vortrages". www.pen-kurd.org. Retrieved 2020-07-14.
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