Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 21, ROT-Siam

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S A
teacher, he felt that he had himself much to learn. Since
the death of Reiske Arabic learning had been in a back¬
ward state, the standard of philological knowledge was
low and the books for students extremely defective. De
Sacy set himself with characteristic thoroughness to com¬
plete his own knowledge and supply the lacking helps, to
others, and he accomplished this task on such a scale, with
such width of range, precision of thought, and scrupulous
attention to details, that he became the founder of a wholly
new school and the father of all subsequent Arabists.
His great text-books, the Grammaire Arabe (2 vols., 1st
ed. 1810, 2d ed. 1831) and the Chrestomathie (3 vols.,
1st ed. 1806, 2d ed. 1826-31), together with its supplement,
the Anthologie Grammaticale (1829), are works that can
never become obsolete; the luminous exposition of the
grammar and the happy choice of the pieces in the chres-
tomathy—all inedita—with the admirable notes, drawn
from an enormous reading in MS. sources, make them
altogether different from ordinary text-books. The whole
powers of a great teacher, the whole wealth of knowledge
of an unrivalled scholar, are spent with absolute single¬
ness of purpose for the benefit of the learner, and the
result is that the books are equally delightful and instruc¬
tive to the student and to the advanced scholar. A com¬
parison of the first and second editions shows how much
toil and research it cost the author to raise his own scholar¬
ship to the level which, thanks to his work, has become
the starting-place for all subsequent ascents of the Arabian
Parnassus.
De Sacy’s place as a teacher was threatened at the outset
by his conscientious refusal to take an oath of hatred to
royalty. He tendered his resignation both as professor
and as member of the Institute; but he was allowed to
continue to teach, and rejoined the Institute on its re¬
organization in 1803. In 1805 he made the only con¬
siderable journey of his life, being sent to Genoa on a vain
search for Arabic documents supposed to lie in the archives
of that city. In 1806 he added the duties of Persian pro¬
fessor to his old chair, and from this time onwards—as, in
spite of his royalist opinions, he was ready to do public
service under any stable government—his life, divided
between his teaching, his literary work, and a variety of
public duties, was one of increasing honour and success,
broken only by a brief period of retreat during the Hundred
Days. He found time for everything : while his pen was
ever at work on subjects of abstruse research, he was one
of the most active leaders in all the business which the
French system throws on the savans of the capital, especi¬
ally as perpetual secretary of the Academy of Inscriptions
(from 1832); in 1808 he entered the corps legislatif; and
in 1832, when quite an old man, he became a peer of
France and was regular in the duties of the chamber.1 In
1815 he became rector of the university of Paris, and after
the second restoration he was active on the commission of
public instruction. Of the Soci'ete Asiatique he was one
of the founders, and when he was inspector of Oriental types
at the royal printing press he thought it his duty to read
a proof of every book printed in Arabic and Persian.
With this he maintained a vast correspondence and was
accessible not only to every one who sought his advice
on matters of learning and business but to all the poor of
his quarter, who came to him as a member of the bureau
of. charity. . \ et he was neither monk nor hermit: he
enjoyed society and was happy in forty-eight years of
manied life and in the care of a large family. Though
small and to appearance of delicate frame, De Sacy enjoyed
Unbroken health and worked on without sign of failing
powers till two days before his death (21st February 1838),
w ien he suddenly fell down in the street and never rallied.
1 The title of baron he received from Napoleon in 1813.
C Y
De Sacy wrote so much that a list even of his larger essays, mostly
communicated to the Academy or in the Notices ct Extraits, is im¬
possible in this place, while his lesser papers and reviews in the
Allg. Bib. f. biblische Litteratur, the Mines de VOrient, the Magasin
Encyclopedique, the Journal des Savants (of which he was an editor),
and the Journal Asiatique are almost innumerable. Among the
works which he designed mainly for students may be classed his
edition of Hariri (1822, 2d edition by Reinaud, 1847, 1855), with a
selected Arabic commentary, and of the Alfiya (1833), and his
Calila et Dimna (1816),—the Arabic version of that famous collec¬
tion of Buddhist animal tales which has been in various forms one
of the most popular books of the world. De Sacy’s enquiry into
the wonderful history of these tales forms one of his best services to
letters and a good example of the way in which he always made
his work for the benefit of learners go hand in hand with profound
research. Of his continued interest in Biblical subjects he gave
evidence in his memoir on the Samaritan Arabic version of the
Pentateuch (Mem. Acad, des Inscr., vol. xlix.), and in the Arabic
and Syriac New Testaments edited for the British and Foreign
Bible Society ; among works important for Eastern history, besides
that on the Druses already named, may be cited his version of
Abd-Allatif, Relation Arabe sur I’Bgypte, and his essays on the
History of the Law of Property in Egypt since the Arab conquest
(1805-18). And, in conclusion, it must not be forgotten that his
oral teaching was not less influential than his writings, and that,
except Ewald, almost all Arabists of chief note in the first half of
this century, in Germany as well as in France, were his personal
pupils. Of the brilliant series of teachers who went out from his
lecture-room one or two veterans still survive, and Professor
Fleischer’s elaborate notes and corrections to the Grammaire Arabe
(Kleinere Schriften, vol. i., 1885) may be regarded as the latest
tribute to the memory of the great master by a disciple who is now
the patriarch of living Arabists. (W. R. S.)
SACY, Isaac Louis Le MaItee de (1613-1684), a figure
of some prominence in the literary annals of Poet Royal
(q.v.), and after the death of St Cyran (1643) and Singlin
(1664) the leading confessor and “director” of the Jan-
senists in France, was bom in Paris on 29 th March 1613.
He was closely connected with the Arnauld family, his true
surname being Le Maitre and that of Saci or Sacy which
he afterwards assumed a mere anagram of Isaac, his
Christian name. He studied philosophy and belles lettres
at the College de Calvi-Sorbonne, and afterwards, under
the influence of St Cyran (see Duveegiee de Haueanne),
his spiritual director, joined his eldest brother Antoine
Le Maitre at Port Royal des Champs. Here he threw
himself heartily into the life of the place, devoting himself
specially to teaching and the preparation of school-books,
his chief productions in this class being expurgated edi¬
tions of Martial and Terence and a translation of Phsedrus.
In 1650 he was ordained to the priesthood, and in 1654
he entered the field of theological controversy with a
brochure entitled Enluminures de VAlmanack des Jesuites
intitule la Deroute et la Confusion des Jansenistes, of which
it is enough to say that, if the Jesuit attack was in exe¬
crable taste, neither was the reply in keeping with the
finer ethical tone of Port Royal. From 1661, after the
breaking up of the Petites Iilcoles, he lived more or less in
concealment in Paris until May 1666, when he was thrown
into the Bastille, where he remained till November 1668.
During his imprisonment he occupied himself with the
completion of a new version of the New Testament, known
as the Nouveau Testament de Mons (1667), and the re¬
mainder of his life was largely devoted to a similar trans¬
lation of the Old Testament, based chiefly on the Vulgate,
with Dclaircissements. These began to appear in 16 <2
and were continued down to the end of the minor prophets.
As De Sacy knew nothing of Hebrew, this version is of
no value as a contribution to scholarship, and in style it
is more artificial and laboured than those which had pre¬
ceded it. From 1668 till his death on 4th January 1684
he lived partly in Paris, partly at Port Royal des Champs,
and partly at Pomponne, the seat of his cousin, the
marquis de Pomponne. He was buried at Port Royal des
Champs.
In addition to the works already mentioned, he published, under