Galland, ANTOINE

Galland, ANTOINE, a French orientalist and archaeologist, was born 4th April 1646, at Rollot, near Montdidier, in Picardy. Attached in 1670 to the French embassy at Constantinople, he three years later accompanied the ambassador De Nointel to Syria and the Levant. In 1676, and again in 1679, he made other visits to the East, where he gathered valuable collections of antiquities, and acquired a good knowledge of oriental languages. In 1701 he was made a member of the Académie des Inscriptions, and in 1709 professor of Arabic in the Collège de France. He died at Paris, 19th February 1715. The greatest part of Galland's writings relate to archaeological subjects, especially to the numismatics of the East; but the work which has secured him the greatest reputation is his translation of the Arabian Nights in 12 vols. (Les Mille et Une Nuits, Paris, 1704-8), the first translation of these stories made into any language of Christendom (see ARABIAN NIGHTS). Among his other writings we may mention Paroles Remarquables, Bons Mots, et Maximes des Orientaux (1694), and Les Contes et Fables Indiennes de Bidpai et de Lokman (2 vols. 1724). See also Journal d'Antoine Galland pendant son séjour à Constantinople, 1672-73, edited by Ch. Schefer (2 vols. 1881).