Roger Lescot


Roger Lescot was a French orientalist and diplomat and known for his research of the Kurdish language,
During the French Mandate of Syria, Roger Lescot and Pierre Rondot were supervised the Kurdish activities in the region, specializing in Kurdish press and literature. Both were working together with Kurdish activists and were supportive of the Kurdish cultural aims. Lescot was a close collaborator to members of the Berdirkan family. Upon his initiative the chair for Kurdish lectures was created at the National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations in 1945, a position he held until 1947, and traspassed to Kamuran Bedirkhan, as he took up diplomatic work as a French diplomat in Cairo and work for the French intelligence. During his stay in Kurdistan he has carried out research concerning the Kurds in the Kurd Dagh and also the Yazidi. After four years of studies about the Kurdish national epic Mem û Zîn he published a version of it in Kurdish and a translation in French in 1942. With Celadet Bedirkhan he jointly published the Grammaire Kurde in 1970.

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