Discussion Group: Translation as Cultural Mediation? Eighteenth-century French Treatises on Indian History
Jean-Baptiste Gentil (1726-1799) was a French adventurer who spent twenty-five years in different parts of India. While working as the military advisor to Shuja ud- Daula, the Nawab of Awadh and prime vizier of the Mughal Empire, Gentil became the first European to employ three Indian artists for ten years. In Awadh, he amassed a collection—amounting to more than 470 paintings and 150 manuscripts—both through collecting and commissioning. Gentil also translated indigenous histories from Persian to French. Notably, French Indologist Anquetil-Duperron (1731-1805) heavily benefited from Gentil’s networks and his orientalist pursuits. In this paper, I will study Gentil’s activities as an early orientalist and translator. The first part will look at the choices he made while translating four ancient histories of India by Indigenous historians: Barani’s Tarikh-i-Firozshahi (1357), Abul Fazl’s Ain-i- Akbari (16th century), Firishta’s Tarikh-i Firishta (17th century), and Sujan Rai’s Khalasat at-Tawarikh (1696). The second part of the talk explores the compiling of his translated works—Abrégé des souverains (1772), Histoire métallique (1773), Abrégés des Rajas (1774) in his atelier in Faizabad, where three artists worked to illustrate his translations.
Date:
16 June 2025, 12:45
Venue:
St Anne's College, Woodstock Road OX2 6HS
Venue Details:
Seminar Room 10
Speaker:
Aditi Gupta (University of Oxford)
Organiser:
OCCT
Hosts:
Georgie Fooks (University of Oxford),
Shivani Arulalan Pillai (University of Oxford)
Booking required?:
Not required
Audience:
Public
Editor:
Shivani Arulalan Pillai
