BURNOUF

burnouf, eugene (1801-1852), french orientalist, was born in paris on the 8th of april 1801. his father, prof. jean louis burnouf (1775-1844), was a classical scholar of high reputation, and the author, among other works, of an excellent translation of tacitus (6 vols., 1827-1833). eugene burnouf published in 1826 an _essai sur le pali ..._, written in collaboration with christian lassen; and in the following year _observations grammaticales sur quelques passages de l'essai sur le pali_. the next great work he undertook was the deciphering of the zend manuscripts brought to france by anquetil du perron. by his labours a knowledge of the zend language was first brought into the scientific world of europe. he caused the _vendidad sade_, part of one of the books bearing the name of zoroaster, to be lithographed with the utmost care from the zend ms. in the bibliotheque nationale, and published it in folio parts, 1829-1843. from 1833 to 1835 he published his _commentaire sur le yacna, l'un des livres liturgiques des parses_; he also published the sanskrit text and french translation of the _bhagavata purana ou histoire poetique de krichna_ in three folio volumes (1840-1847). his last works were _introduction a l'histoire du bouddhisme indien_ (1844), and a translation of _le lotus de la bonne loi_ (1852). burnouf died on the 28th of may 1852. he had been for twenty years a member of the academie des inscriptions and professor of sanskrit in the college de france. see a notice of burnouf's works by barthelemy saint-hilaire, prefixed to the second edition (1876) of the _introd. a l'histoire du bouddhisme indien_; also naudet, "notice historique sur m.m. burnouf, pere et fils," in _mem. de l'acad. des inscriptions_, xx. a list of his valuable contributions to the _journal asiatique_, and of his ms. writings, is given in the appendix to the _choix de lettres d'eugene burnouf_ (1891). burnous (from the arab. _burnus_), a long cloak of coarse woollen stuff with a hood, usually white in colour, worn by the arabs and berbers throughout north africa.