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Charles Kuentz

شارل كوينتس

Notable figure 1895–1978 · Source: ʿAbd al-ʿAziz al-Humaid, Aʿmal al-mustashriqin al-ʿarabiyya fi al-muʿjam al-ʿarabi: dirasa wa-taqwim (PhD thesis, Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University, 1433 AH), p. 594; Majallat Maʿhad al-Makhtutat al-ʿArabiyya, vol. 1 (Cairo, 1955), p. 343; ʿAbd al-Salam Harun, Qutuf adabiyya hawla tahqiq al-turath, 1st ed. (Cairo: Maktabat al-Sunna, 1409 AH/1988), p. 62 · Second source: Najib al-Aqiqi, al-Mustashriqun, 3rd ed. (Cairo: Dar al-Maʿarif, 1964), vol. 1, p. 314 (Kitab al-Jim among his works prepared for publication); Yahya Murad, Muʿjam asmaʾ al-mustashriqin, p. 919

From France; worked in Egypt

Field: Text editing

Affiliation

Began an edition of al-Shaybani's Kitab al-Jim

Biography

A graduate of the universities of Lyon and the Sorbonne, he joined the French Institute of Oriental Archaeology in Cairo in 1921, directed it from 1940 to 1953 and stayed in Cairo until his death, in close touch with its Arabic Language Academy. Most of his work was Egyptology, but with Ibrahim Mustafa he began an edition of Abu ʿAmr al-Shaybani's Kitab al-Jim, one of the oldest Arabic lexicons: the journal of the Institute of Arabic Manuscripts reported in 1955 that he was editing it, ʿAbd al-Salam Harun wrote that he was «now editing Kitab al-Jim», and al-Aqiqi listed it in 1964 among his works being prepared for publication. The work stopped when Ibrahim Mustafa died, and the Academy later published the book in Ibrahim al-Abyari's edition (1974–1975).