Garcin de Tassy

Joseph Héliodore Sagesse Vertu Garcin de Tassy (25 January 1794, Marseille - 2 September 1878) was a French orientalist.

He studied under Silvestre de Sacy oriental languages and was awarded professorship for Indology at the School for Living Oriental Languages, that was founded for him. In 1838 he was elected to the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres. and was one of the founders and later president of the Société Asiatique.

Garcin first received prominence through general works on Islam and translations from the Arabic, namely L'Islamisme d'aprés le Coran (3. Ed., Par. 1874), La poésie philosophique et religieuse chez les Persans (4. Ed. 1864, 3 Vols.) and the Allégories, récits poétiques etc. (2. Ed. 1877). Later, he devoted himselft to the study of the Hindi language, where he was reputed as Europe's first capacity. His major works in this area are; Mémoires sur les particularités de la religion musulmane dans l'Inde (1832); Les aventures de Kamrup (translation, 1834); translations of works by the poet Wali (1834); the Histoire de la littérature hindoue e hindoustani (2. Ed. 1871, 3 Vols.); Rudiments de la langue hindouie (1847); Rhétorique et prosodie des langues de l'Orient musulman (1848, 2. Ed. 1873); Chrestomathie hindie et hindouie (1849); La doctrine de l'amour (translation from Hindi, 1859); Cours d'hindoustani (1870) and La langue et la littérature hindoustanies 1850-69 (2. Ed. 1874), to which he added since 1870 a yearly revue under the same title.