Abraham Hyacinthe Anquetil-Duperron, a French oriental scholar, born in Paris, Dec. 7, 1731, died there, Jan. 17, 1805. He was educated for the church, but preferred to devote himself to oriental literature, in his enthusiasm for this pursuit he enrolled himself as a common soldier in the expedition to the French colonies in the East Indies, in 1755, chiefly for the purpose of discovering the ancient books of the Parsees. He visited Chandernagore, Surat, the coast of Coromandel, and was just about proceeding to Benares when the capture of Pondicherry forced him to return to France, where he arrived in 1762, without money, but with valuable oriental manuscripts. He was appointed interpreter of oriental languages at the royal library, was admitted to the academy of inscriptions and belles-letters, and in 1771 he published in French the first translation of the Zend-Avesta ever made in an occidental language, with an account of his travels and a life of Zoroaster.