[Joseph]. French orientalist, born at Adrianople, Turkey, on the 15th of December 1827. He studied the Semitic languages, and afterward taught Hebrew in Adrianople and Bucharest. He went to Paris to complete his studies, and obtained letters of naturalization; and became widely known through his Hebrew poems. The Alliance Israelite Universelle commissioned him in 1868 to examine the condition of the Fallasha branch of the Jewish religion, in Abyssinia. His report attracted much attention. In 1869 the French government sent him to the southwestern part of Arabia, called Yemen (Arabia Felix of the Romans), to explore it archæologically. Here he deciphered 683 inscriptions, and on his return received the gold medal of the French Geographical Society and the Volney Prize of the Institute of France. He published several volumes on oriental antiquities and epigraphy. Among his notable books are Critical Researches concerning the Origins of Babylonian Civilization (1876); Religious Documents concerning Assyria and Babylonia; Assyrian text, translation and commentary (1882); Critical and Historical Miscellany about Semitic People (1885).
