Ismael Urbain (born Thomas Urbain, December 31, 1812 – January 28, 1884) was a French journalist and interpreter.
Born in Cayenne, French Guiana Urbain was the illegitimate son of a merchant from Marseille named Urbain Brue and a free colored woman from French Guiana named Appoline.
Ismael who bore his father's first name as his surname, was brought by him to Marseille when he was eight, and there he received an education.
In 1830, his father returned him to French Guiana where he hoped that he would turn to business.
However, with the pitiful state of his father's affairs, Urbain wasn't allowed back, and the following year he again returned to Marseille.After having discovered Saint-Simonianism, Urbain took the road to Paris where he became the secretary of Gustave d'Eichthal.
He was with the Saint-Simonists before embarking with them to the Orient.
He took up residence in Damietta in Egypt and taught French there until 1836.
The year before he left he converted to Islam and took the name Ismael.Back in Paris he worked for a time at Édouard Charton's Le Magasin pittoresque, Le Temps, la Charte de 1839 and la Revue du XIXe siècle.
After learning Arabic in Egypt he obtained the post of military interpreter in Algeria for which he had applied.
He served as interpreter to several generals: Bugeaud, Rumilly and Changarnier.
In 1840 he married a young Algerian woman with whom he had a daughter in 1843.
His vast knowledge and experience of Islam led him to participate in the Algerian administration at a high level.
Having become a member of the Governor General's advisory board he took part in most major decisions in Algeria.
In 1845, Urbain was summoned to the Ministry of War and he returned to France where his wife was to follow.
This act, however, was not enough to appease the Roman Catholic community, made up of Spaniards, Maltese and people from the South of France who composed the new society of colonists in Algeria, who accused him of failing to obtain the blessing of the church for his marriage and the lack of a baptism for his wife.Urbain has been largely attributed as the source of the arabophilia of Napoleon III to whom he was a personal adviser.
He corresponded with many key political, military and cultural people in the Algeria of his time.
In an 1857 article in Revue de Paris Urbain denounced the term "Kabylie" as an invention due to the French spirit of systematization used neither by the Arabs nor by the Berbers of Algeria.
The writings of Urbain aroused such passionate reactions that they almost completely overshadowed the ideas which were developed in the ensuing polemics.Urbain died in Algeria.
On his death Émile Masqueray rejoined the fight for the rights of the Algerians against the repressive behavior of the colonists.