Pascuel De Gayangos.
THE HISTORY OF THE MOHAMMEDAN DYNASTIES IN SPAIN; EXTRACTED FROM THE NAFHU-T-TIB MIN GHOSNI-L-ANDALUSI-R-RATTIB WA TARIKH LISANU-D-DIN IBNI-L-KHATTIB, BY AHMED IBN MOHAMMED AL-MAKKARI, A NATIVE OF TELESMAN.
1840, 1843, London, Printed for the Oriental Translation Fund, two volumes, 4to, ppxxxix + 548 + xcv; xii + 544 + clxxii, modern quarter calf over original green cloth.
£1500.00
PASCUAL DE GAYANGOS Y ARCE, (1809-1897).
Spanish scholar and Orientalist, was born at Seville on the 21st of June 1809. His father was Military Governor of the Mexican province of Zacatecas from 1816-1820, when he returned to Spain and the family moved to Madrid. Two years later, at the age of thirteen, he was sent to be educated at Pont-le-Voy near Blois, because of the political turmoil in Spain. His father died soon after this and Gayangos and his mother moved to Paris. In 1825 he began the study of Arabic under Silvestre de Sacy, the foremost orientalist of the day - it is not known why he chose this area of study which was uncommon in Spain at this time. In 1827 Gayangos met Frances Revell when she was visiting a relative in Paris lodged in the same hotel as he and his mother, and they married in London the following year.
He attended Arabic language courses, and obtained a post in the Spanish treasury in Malaga in 1831, and was transferred to the Secretaria de Estado in Madrid as translator from 1833 to 1837. During this time he was also commissioned to work on the inventory of Arabic manuscripts in the National Library and then a classification of the library's collection of medals and objets d'art.
He also made frequent trips to England, wrote extensively in English periodicals, and translated Almakkaris History of the Mohammedan Dynasties in Spain (1840-1843) for the Royal Asiatic Society.
In England he also made the acquaintance of Ticknor, to whom he was very useful. In 1843 he returned to Spain as professor of Arabic at the university of Madrid; a post he held until 1881, when he was made director of public instruction.
He resigned upon being elected senator for the district of Huelva.
His latter years were spent in cataloguing the Spanish manuscripts in the British Museum; he had previously continued BergenrothÕs catalogue of the manuscripts relating to England in the Simancas archives.
His best-known original work is his dissertation on Spanish romances of chivalry in Rivadeneyra's Biblioteca de Autores Espanoles.
In 1897 he was run over by a horse carriage and died as a result of the accident, aged 88.
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