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ABBADIE, ANTOINE THOMSON

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Originally appearing in Volume V01, Page 9 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ABBADIE, See also:ANTOINE See also:THOMSON D' (1810–1897), and See also:ARNAUD See also:MICHEL D' (181j 1893), two See also:brothers notable for their travels in See also:Abyssinia during the first See also:half of the 19th See also:century. They were both See also:born in See also:Dublin, of a See also:French See also:father and an Irish See also:mother, Antoine in 1810 and Arnaud in 1815. The parents re-moved to See also:France in 1818, and there the brothers received a careful scientific See also:education. In 1835 the French See also:Academy sent Antoine on a scientific See also:mission to See also:Brazil, the results being published at a later date (1873) under the See also:title of Observations relatives a la physique du globe faites au See also:Basil et en Ethiopie. The younger Abbadie spent some See also:time in See also:Algeria before, in 1837, the two brothers started for Abyssinia, landing at See also:Massawa in See also:February 1838. They visited various parts of Abyssinia, including the then little-known districts of Ennarea and Kaff a, sometimes together and sometimes separately. They met with many difficulties and many adventures, and became involved in See also:political intrigues, Antoine especially exercising such See also:influence as he possessed in favour of France and the See also:Roman See also:Catholic missionaries. After See also:collecting much valuable See also:information concerning the See also:geography, See also:geology, See also:archaeology and natural See also:history of Abyssinia, the brothers returned to France in 1848 and began to prepare their materials for publication. The younger See also:brother, Arnaud, paid another visit to Abyssinia in 18J3. The more distinguished brother, Antoine, became involved in various controversies See also:relating both to his See also:geographical results and his political intrigues. He was especially attacked by C. T.

See also:

Beke, who impugned his veracity, especially with reference to the See also:journey to See also:Kaffa. But time and the investigations of subsequent explorers have shown that Abbadie was quite trustworthy as to his facts, though wrong in his contention—hotly contested by Beke—that the See also:Blue See also:Nile was the See also:main stream. The topographical results of his explorations were published in See also:Paris in 1860–1873 in Geodesie d' Ethiopic, full of the most valuable information and illustrated by ten maps. Of the Geographic de l'Ethiopie (Paris, 1890) only one See also:volume has been published. In Un See also:Catalogue raisonne de manuscrits ethiopiens (Paris, 18J9) is a description of 234 Ethiopian See also:manuscripts collected by Antoine. He also compiled various vocabularies, including a Dictionnaire de la langue amarinna (Paris, 1881), and prepared an edition of the Shepherd of Hernias, with the Latin version, in 186o. He published numerous papers dealing with the geography of Abyssinia, Ethiopian coins and See also:ancient See also:inscriptions. Under the title of Reconnaissances magnetiques he published in 1890 an See also:account of the magnetic observations made by him in the course of several journeys to the Red See also:Sea and the See also:Levant. The See also:general account of the travels of the two brothers was published by Arnaud in 1868 under the title of Douze ans clans la Haute-Ethiopie. Both brothers received the See also:grand See also:medal of the Paris Geographical Society in 185o. Antoine was a See also:knight of the See also:Legion of See also:Honour and a member of the Academy of Sciences. He died in 1897, and bequeathed an See also:estate in the See also:Pyrenees, yielding 40,000 francs a See also:year, to the Academy of Sciences, on See also:condition of its producing within fifty years a catalogue of half-a-million stars.

His brother Arnaud died in 1893. (J. S.

End of Article: ABBADIE, ANTOINE THOMSON

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