William McGuckin de Slane


William McGuckin, known as Baron de Slane, was an Irish orientalist, philologist, academic and Principal Interpreter to the French African Army.

Biography

De Slane was born in Belfast, the son of James McGuckin and Euphemia Hughes. After graduating from Trinity College Dublin, in 1822 he moved to Paris and studied oriental languages under Silvestre de Sacy.
In 1828 he was admitted to the Société Asiatique, a French learned society. The society financed Joseph Toussaint Reinaud and de Slane to prepare a critical edition of Abu'l-Fida 's Arabic geography, Taqwīm al-Buldān – "Locating the Lands". This was published in 1840.
Between 1843 and 1846 he was sent on a mission by the French Government to catalogue important documents in the libraries of Algiers and Constantine. During this time he also served as an Interpreter of Arabic in the French African Army and in 1846 he was appointed as Principal Interpreter for the French African army. He served as Professor of Arabic at the École de langues orientales in Paris and from 1849 also taught Turkish. He was also commissioned by the Bibliothèque Nationale to catalogue their Arabic manuscripts.
On 30 October 1826 he married Angadrème Sophie Félicité de la Barre de Mérona. She died seven years later on 24 September 1833. He then married Anne Elise Sutton de Clonard and together they had five children. De Slane was awarded French citizenship on 31 December 1838. He died aged 76 in Passy, France on 4 August 1878.
In France he was awarded following honours:

Selected publications

Arabic text of Abu'l-Fida's Takwin al-Buldan, one volume, 1840
Translation of a section of Ibn Battuta's rihla, 1843
Translation of Ibn Khallikan's biographical dictionary, four volumes, 1843–1871
Arabic text of Ibn Khaldun's Histoire des Berbères, 2 volumes, 1847–1851
Translation of Ibn Khaldun's Histoire des Berbères, 4 volumes, 1852–1856
Translation of Al-Bakri, 1859, one volume
Translation of Ibn Khaldun's Muqaddimah, three volumes, 1863-1868