Charles-Joseph de Harlez de Deulin, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetCharles-Joseph de Harlez de Deulin
Belgian orientalist and indologist
Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Liège, Wallonia, Belgium
About Charles-Joseph de Harlez de Deulin
- Charles-Joseph de Harlez de Deulin (Liège, 21 August 1832 – Leuven, 14 July 1899) was a Belgian Orientalist, domestic prelate, canon of the cathedral of Liège, and member of the Academie Royale of Belgium, who studied and translated the Zoroastrian holy texts.
- The family of de Harlez was an old and noble family of Liège.
- On completing his ordinary college course de Harlez devoted himself to the study of law in the University of Liège.
- His success in legal studies was considerable, and a strong doctorate examination brought his career at the law school to a close.
- His family connections and his own ability gave promise of a bright future, but, growing dissatisfied with the law, de Harlez soon abandoned the legal profession altogether.
- He then took up the study of theology, and in 1858 was ordained priest.
- After his ordination he was appointed director of the college of St-Quirin in Huy.
- In 1867 he was put in charge of a new arts school which had been established for young ecclesiastics in connection with the Catholic University of Leuven (French: Louvain).
- This position he held for four years.
- An old predilection for Oriental studies began then to make itself felt again in him.
- He was appointed to a professorship in the Oriental department of the University of Leuven in 1871 and devoted himself with energy to the study of the Zoroastrian Bible - the Avesta - of which he published a translation (1875–77). Spiegel had already translated the Avesta into German and Anqueil-Duperron had attempted a translation into French.
- The translation of de Harlez was an addition to Avesta exegesis, and the second edition of the work appeared in 1881.
- The relationship between the Rig Veda and the Avesta were not yet fully understood, de Harlez set himself to determine it.
- He emphasized the differences, in spite of many apparent agreements, between the two texts.
- His view met with much opposition, but some of his opponents - for instance James Darmesteter - reportedly came round to his point of view.
- In 1883 Mgr de Harlez turned to a new department-the language and literature of China.
- In this department he was chiefly attracted by the problems of the ancient Chinese religion.
- He shows everywhere in his works this same taste for the study of religious developments, and founded and became first chief editor of a journal, Muséon, which was intended to be devoted to the objective study of history generally and of religious history in particular.
- It was founded in 1881, and many of the most important of its early articles were contributed by de Harlez.
- Though he was editor of the "Muséon" and still a keen student of Iranian and Chinese, de Harlez had time for other work.
- He was all the time professor of Sanskrit in the university and produced a Sanskrit manual for the use of his students.
- He also made himself familiar with Manchu literature, and in 1884 he published in Louvain a handbook of the Manchu language.
- Under him the school of Louvain Oriental studies flourished.
- The Mélanges Charles de Harlez (Leyden.
- 1896), a collection of more than fifty scientific articles written by scholars of all countries and creeds, was presented to him on the twenty-fifth anniversary of his Louvain professorship.
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