Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch

Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch (5 November 1909 – 24 July 1999) was a French doctor of Islamology, researcher at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), where she directed human sciences, translator and writer, who published a total of forty books and numerous articles. She was a disciple of the Sufi master Hamza al Qadiri al Boutchichi.

Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch
Born(1909-11-05)5 November 1909
Boulogne-Billancourt, Paris, France
Died24 July 1999(1999-07-24) (aged 89)
5th arrondissement of Paris, France
NationalityFrench
OccupationIslamologist

Life

Eva Lamacque de Vitray was born on 5 November 1909 in Boulogne-Billancourt, a rich Parisian suburb. From a privileged social background[1], she was educated in Catholic schools before studying for a law degree. She began a doctorate in philosophy on the subject of "Symbolism in Plato".[2]

At the age of 22 Eva married Lazare Meyerovitch, of Jewish Latvian origins.[2] She became an administrator in the laboratory of Frédéric Joliot-Curie.[3] In 1940 Eva escaped from Paris with Joliot-Curie in 1940 during the German occupation of [World War Two (1939-45)] and retired to the Corrèze department for the duration of the war.[4] Eva's husband was a member of the Free French Forces.[5] After the Liberation of France Eva joined the CNRS where she soon became director of the "Humanities" department.[6] She also earned an income from translations.[7] She met Louis Massignon, with whom she would remain closely linked and who supported her after the sudden death of her husband in the early 1950s.[8]

Eva discovered Islam through the book by the thinker and poet Muhammad Iqbal: Reconstruire la pensée religieuse de l'islam (Rebuilding the religious thought of Islam).[9] After three years of Christian exegesis at the Sorbonne, she chose to become a Muslim.[10] Eva was very interested in the work of the Persian poet Jalâl ud Dîn Rûmî (1207–1273) who raised her awareness of the mystical aspect of Islam, Sufism.[11] Subsequently, she embarked on learning Persian.[12] Soon afterwards she published her first translations of Muhammad Iqbal and Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī.

In 1968 Eva defended her doctoral dissertation at the University of Paris on Mystical Themes in the Work of Jalal Ud Dîn Rûmî.[13] From 1969 to 1973 she taught in Cairo at Al-Azhar University.[14] In 1971 she made the pilgrimage to Mecca and also visited Medina.[15] From 1972 until her death she regularly published annotated translations of Rûmi's writings as well as works she wrote herself on Islam, Sufism and whirling dervishes. In 1990 she published her translation of Rûmi's Masnavi, a colossal work of 50,000 verses in 1,700 pages, translated for the first time into French.[16]

Parallel to her intellectual career, Eva pursued a personal quest that led her to meet many personalities involved in Sufism such as Amadou Hampâté Ba,[2] Najm Oud Din Bammate,[17] Cheikh Bentounès[18] and Faouzi Skali.[19] It was through the last that in Morocco, in 1985, she met a living Sufi spiritual guide, Hamza al Qadiri al Boutchichi, whose teaching she would follow until her death.[20] She was also very active as a speaker in France and abroad to impart her knowledge of Jalâl ud Dîn Rûmî, Islam and Sufism. She recorded several programs for France Culture and for television.[17] In 1998, during her last conference in Turkey, she expressed the wish to be buried in Konya.[21]

Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch died on 24 July 1999 in her apartment on rue Claude-Bernard in Paris.[22][17] She was buried in a very private ceremony in Thiais, in the Paris region. From 2003 steps were taken to transfer her remains to Konya, which was done in 2008. On 17 November 2008, an official ceremony accompanied the burial of the coffin of Eva Vitray-Meyerovitch in Konya.[23] Her grave is opposite the mausoleum of Jalal ud Din Rumi.[24]

Publications

As author
  • Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch (1978), Anthologie du Soufisme, Sindbad [Republished in 1986 and 1995, Albin Michel, coll. Spiritualités vivantes, 132. Work translated into Italian]
  • Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch (1997), Le Chant de Rûmî, Les petits livres de la sagesse, La Table Ronde
  • Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch (1993), Le Chant du Soleil, La Table ronde [Work translated into Spanish and Turkish]
  • Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch (1982), Les Chemins de la Lumière : 75 contes soufis, Retz [Work translated into Spanish]
  • Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch; Jean-Yves Leloup; André Borrely, L'Image de l'Homme dans le Christianisme et l'Islam, de l’Ouvert, 1984
  • Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch, Islam, l’autre Visage, Albin Michel, 1995. Ouvrage traduit en espagnol, en anglais et en turc
  • Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch; Faouzi Skali (1985), Jésus dans la Tradition Soufie, de l’Ouvert [Republished in 2004, Albin Michel. Work translated into Italian, Spanish and Catalan]
  • Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch (1990), Konya ou la Danse Cosmique, Renard [Work translated into Turkish]
  • Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch, La Mecque : ville sainte de l’islam, Laffont, 1987 [Work translated into Italian, German and Turkish]
  • Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch (1972), Mystique et Poésie en Islam, Desclée de Brouwer
  • Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch, La Prière en Islam, Albin Michel, c1998 [Republished in 2003, Albin Michel, coll. Spiritualités vivantes. Work translated into Italian and Turkish]
  • Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch (1977), Rûmî et le Soufisme, du Seuil [Republished in 2005, collection Points Sagesses. Work translated into English, Romanian, Portuguese, Bosnian and Czech]
  • Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch (1968), Thèmes mystiques dans l’œuvre de Djalâl ud-Dîn Rûmî (thesis (Paris))
  • Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch (2014), Universalité de l'islam, Albin Michel

Translations from Persian
  • Djalâl ad-Dîn Rûmî (1990), Lettres, translated by Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch, Jacqueline Renard
  • Muhammad Iqbal (1962), Le Livre de l’Eternité, translated by Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch, Mohammed Mokri, Albin Michel
  • Djalâl ad-Dîn Rûmî (1975), Le Livre du Dedans, translated by Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch, Sindbad Republished in 1982 and 1997, Albin Michel, coll. Spiritualités vivantes. Also translated in Italian and Spanish.
  • Sultan Valad (1982), Maître et Disciple, translated by Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch, Sindbad
  • Djalâl ad-Dîn Rûmî (1990), Mathnawi, translated by Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch and Jamshid Murtazavi, du Rocher
  • Muhammad Iqbal; Mohammed Achena (1956), Message de l'Orient, translated by Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch, Belles Lettres
  • Djalâl ad-Dîn Rûmî (1973), Odes Mystiques, translated by Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch, Klincksieck republished in 2003, Points Sagesses
  • Sultan Valad (1988), La Parole Secrète, translated by Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch and Jamshid Murtazavi, du Rocher
  • Djalâl ad-Dîn Rûmî (2000), Les Quatrains de Rûmi, translated by Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch, Jamshid Murtazavi and Albin Michel
  • Mahmud Shabestari (1991), La Roseraie du Mystère, translated by Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch and Jamshid Murtazavi, Sindbad
  • Djalâl ad-Dîn Rûmî (1993), Rubaiy’at, translated by Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch and Jamshid Murtazavi, Albin Michel republished in 2003, Albin Michel, coll. Spiritualités vivantes.
  • Muhammad Iqbal (2000), Les Secrets du Soi, translated by Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch, Albin Michel, coll. Spiritualités vivantes

Translations from English
  • R. Zaehner (1974), L’Hindouisme, translated by Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch, Desclée de Brouwer
  • R. Zaehner (1965), Inde, Islam, Israël, translated by Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch, Desclée de Brouwer
  • Muhammad Iqbal (1980), La Métaphysique en Perse, translated by Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch, Sindbad
  • R. Zaehner (1983), Mystique Sacrée et Mystique Profane, translated by Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch, du Rocher
  • Muhammad Iqbal (1955), Reconstruire la Pensée Religieuse de l’Islam, translated by Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch, Adrien-Maisonneuve [Reprinted in 1996 by du Rocher / UNESCO]
  • R. Rees (1968), Simone Weil : esquisse d’un portrait, translated by Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch, Buchet-Chastel

Notes
    1. Leftah 1999.
    2. Vitray-Meyerovitch, Cartier & Cartier 1995, p. 17.
    3. Vitray-Meyerovitch, Cartier & Cartier 1995, p. 18.
    4. Vitray-Meyerovitch, Cartier & Cartier 1995, p. 21.
    5. Lazare Meyerovitch – Les Français Libres.
    6. Vitray-Meyerovitch, Cartier & Cartier 1995, p. 25.
    7. Vitray-Meyerovitch, Cartier & Cartier 1995, p. 27.
    8. Vitray-Meyerovitch, Cartier & Cartier 1995, p. 158.
    9. Eva par elle-même – Soufisme.
    10. Vitray-Meyerovitch, Cartier & Cartier 1995, p. 39.
    11. Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch – Hommes & faits.
    12. Vitray-Meyerovitch, Cartier & Cartier 1995, p. 53.
    13. Tahrali 1999.
    14. Vitray-Meyerovitch, Cartier & Cartier 1995, p. 26.
    15. Vitray-Meyerovitch, Cartier & Cartier 1995, p. 166.
    16. Presentation of the publisher of the book.
    17. Caron & Galindo 2005.
    18. Bentounes 2010.
    19. Skali 2001.
    20. Skali 2005, p. 15.
    21. Hamimaz & Girotto 2009.
    22. Les trépas 1999.
    23. Revue de la presse turque 8 November 2008.
    24. In the shadow of Hz. Mevlana 2008.

    Sources
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