Amédée Jaubert had Arabic, Persian and Turkish, that is to say the three languages Eastern diplomacy needed, and Napoleon dispatched him on an embassy to the Shah: an ally was needed beyond Russia. A pupil of Silvestre de Sacy, who had founded French oriental studies, he taught at the Collège de France and entered the Institut. What is carved speaks mostly of others than him.
The story
Napoleon sent him on an embassy to Persia. France was looking for an ally east of Russia, and needed a man who could speak the language of the country. Amédée Jaubert spoke Arabic, Persian and Turkish — the three languages of the diplomatic East of his day.
Born at Aix-en-Provence on 3 June 1779, he was the pupil of Antoine Isaac Silvestre de Sacy, the founder of French oriental studies. A professor at the Collège de France, a translator and a member of the Institut, he died in 1847.
The road to Tehran nearly killed him: arrested by the pasha of Bayazid, stripped of the presents meant for the shah, he was thrown to the bottom of a dry cistern and left there for months, saved from execution by the plague that carried off his jailer. He did obtain in the end the alliance signed in 1807 — which Napoleon dropped a few weeks later when he came to terms with the tsar. He lies in Division 45.
On site, do not miss
Division 45 is that of Gilbert Bécaud, Marie Trintignant and Édith Lefel.
Visitors' questions
Where is Amédée Jaubert's grave?
In Division 45, chemin du Quinconce, first row — the Division of Gilbert Bécaud and Marie Trintignant. He died in 1847.
Philippe BedosWhat did he do in Persia?
He was sent there on embassy by Napoleon: France was looking for an ally east of Russia, and the mission needed a man who spoke the language. Jaubert had Persian, and Arabic and Turkish besides.
Julien BessièresWho trained him?
Antoine Isaac Silvestre de Sacy, the founder of French oriental studies — it was under him that he learned Arabic, Persian and Turkish, the three languages of eastern diplomacy in his day.
ChampollionWhere did he teach?
At the Collège de France, where orientalism was taught at the highest level. He was also a translator and a member of the Institute — the full course of the nineteenth-century scholar. He was born at Aix-en-Provence in 1779.
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