Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch (5 November 1909 – 24 July 1999) was a French scholar of Islam, a researcher at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), and a 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.
Life
Eva Lamacque de Vitray was born on November 5, 1909, in Boulogne-Billancourt, an affluent Parisian suburb. From a privileged social background,[1] she was educated in Catholic schools before studying for a law degree.[citation needed] She began a doctorate in philosophy on the subject of "Symbolism in Plato."[2]
At the age of 22, Eva married Lazare Meyerovitch, of Latvian Jewish origins.[2] She became an administrator in the laboratory of Frédéric Joliot-Curie.[3] In 1940 Eva escaped from Paris with Joliot-Curie during the German occupation of Paris 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 human sciences department.[6] She earned an income from translations.[7] She met orientalist 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 The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam by poet and author Muhammad Iqbal.[9] After three years of studying Christian exegesis at the Sorbonne, she chose to become a Muslim.[10] She took the Arabic name Hawwa, a translation of her Christian name.[11] Eva was very interested in the work of the Persian poet Jalâl ud Dîn Rûmî (1207–1273), through whom she became aware of the mystical aspect of Islam, Sufism.[12] Subsequently, she embarked on learning Persian.[13] Soon afterward, she published her first translations of Muhammad Iqbal and Rumi into French.[11]
In 1968, Eva defended her doctoral dissertation at the University of Paris on Mystical Themes in the Work of Jalal Ud Dîn Rûmî.[14] From 1969 to 1973, she taught in Cairo at Al-Azhar University.[15] In 1971, she made the pilgrimage to Mecca and also visited Medina.[16] From 1972 until her death, she regularly published annotated translations of Rûmi's writings and works she wrote herself on Islam, Sufism, and the whirling dervishes. In 1990, she published her translation of Rumi's Masnavi, a colossal work of 50,000 verses in 1,700 pages, translated for the first time into French.[17]
Parallel to her academic 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,[18]Cheikh Bentounès,[19] and Faouzi Skali.[20] Through Skali, in Morocco in 1985, she met a living Sufi spiritual guide, Hamza al Qadiri al Boutchichi, whose teaching she would follow until her death.[21] She was also active as a speaker in France and abroad on Rumi, Islam, and Sufism. In addition, she recorded several programs for France Culture and television.[18] In 1998, during her last conference in Turkey, she expressed the wish to be buried in Konya.[22]
Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch died on July 24, 1999, in her apartment on rue Claude-Bernard in Paris.[23][18] She was buried in a private ceremony in Thiais, in the Paris region. In 2003, steps were taken to transfer her remains to Konya, which was finalized in 2008. On November 17, 2008, an official ceremony accompanied the burial of the coffin of Vitray-Meyerovitch in Konya.[24] Her grave is opposite the mausoleum of Jalal ud Din Rumi.[25]
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 Walad (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 Walad (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
"Eva par elle-même", Soufisme (in French), 21 January 2002, retrieved 24 November 2017
Hamimaz, Rachid; Girotto, Jean-Louis (23 January 2009), "Le dernier voyage d'Eva à Konya", Soufisme (in French), archived from the original on 1 December 2017, retrieved 24 November 2017
"Les trépas 1999", Histoires litteraires (in French), 2000, archived from the original on 5 July 2011, retrieved 24 November 2017
"Revue de la presse turque", TRT-World Français (in French), Turkish Radio – Television Corporation, 8 November 2008, archived from the original on 5 July 2011, retrieved 24 November 2017
