Antoine Thomson d'Abbadie

Antoine Thomson d'Abbadie d'Arrast (3 January 1810 – 19 March 1897) was an Irish-born French explorer, geographer, ethnologist, linguist and astronomer notable for his travels in Ethiopia during the first half of the 19th century. He was the older brother of Arnaud-Michel d'Abbadie, with whom he travelled.

Biography
D'Abbadie was born a British subject, in Dublin, Ireland, from a partially Basque noble family of the French province of Soule. His mother, Madam Thompson, was Irish and his father, Michel d'Abbadie, was born in Arrast-Larrebieu. He descended from an old family of lay abbots from Arrast, a commune in the canton of Mauléon. These lay abbots were instituted beyond the Crusades by Charlemagne to defend the border against the Saracens. The lay abbots resided with their lances in hand in the abbeys of the Basque country. They were granted the right to collect tithes and participated in the appointment of priests by designating them in accordance with the bishop's selection. The name d'Abbadie was initially not a surname but rather designated their function (abbatia, abbadia).

The family moved to France in 1818 where the brothers received a careful scientific education. In 1827, Antoine received a bachelor's degree in Toulouse. Starting in 1829, he began his education in Paris, where he studied law.

He married Virginie Vincent de Saint-Bonnet on 21 February 1859, and settled in Hendaye where he purchased 250ha to build a castle, and became the mayor of the city from 1871 to 1875.

D'Abbadie was a knight of the Legion of Honour, which he received on 27 September 1850, and the president of the French Academy of Sciences. He died in 1897, and bequeathed the Abbadia domain and castle in Hendaye, yielding 40,000 francs a year, to the Academy of Sciences, on the condition that they produce a catalogue of half a million stars within fifty years.

Education
Michel d'Abbadie returned to France with his family circa 1820. Initially residing in Toulouse, he oversaw the education of all his children who were placed under the tutelage of a governess. "I was raised," Antoine saids, "in the English tradition alongside my sisters. We spent our days and nights in a dormitory, overseen carefully by a servant. We rarely had time in the evenings to converse with our parents, only to hear the occasional tale from Daddy before being sent to play in a corner of the room. We always addressed our parents formally, using 'Sir' or 'Madam'."

Antoine remained at home for three or four years, "far from the strict discipline of a boarding school tutor." At the age of 13, he attended middle School where he exhibited extraordinary fervour. Still in his childhood, he displayed an uncommon curiosity concerning the unfamiliar in his surroundings by asking his governess, "What lies at the end of the road?" to which she replied, "A river, my friend." "And what lies beyond the river?" inquired the child. "A mountain," responded the elder. "And what lies beyond the mountain?" asked the child. "I cannot say, for I have never been there," replied the elder. "Then I shall journey forth and discover it myself," declared the child. Antoine d'Abbadie maintained this unquenchable thirst for knowledge throughout his life. He has an exceptional talent for acquiring languages and is proficient in English, Italian, German, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Berber, and several Ethiopian languages.

In August 1827, he obtained his baccalaureate and returned to Toulouse to become a law student. His closest friends at this time were Pierre Étienne Simon Duchartre, Bernard-Adolphe Granier de Cassagnac and .These young people often talk about their plans for the future. "Sometimes", notes d'Abbadie, "Granier asks about my future projects; I respond with commonplaces, and he likely perceives this as indecisiveness. However, I hold in my heart the most insane and beautiful project, which brings me great joy in my leisure activities, and I cherish it just as much as any other endeavour."

This project, to which the young law student made such a particular reference, had long been a part of his thinking. Since he was in middle school, he had focused his attention, his education and his smallest actions. Very early on, d'Abbadie had the passions and calling of an adventurer. His initial ideas, somewhat indeterminate at the start, presently became more distinct. "After completing college in 1829,"he tells us,"I undertook six years-long study primarily aimed at preparing me for a successful exploration of Africa's interior, which I planned to enter through Tunisia and Morocco. Reading Bruce's travels transported me back to East Africa, a region marked by numerous migrations and the origin of many traditions still present on this continent, though shrouded in mystery. From then on, I became convinced that the most important field of study a man could devote himself to was that of his fellow human beings."

Here is how d'Abbadie utilized the six years he spoke of to refine the remarkable project he had conceived: Being endowed with exceptional agility even in the Basque country, he trained himself over numerous years with physical exercises in anticipation of the fatigue and deprivations explorers face. He developed adept fencing skills, practiced gymnastics, honed his ability to contend in endurance races under differing weather conditions, and became an accomplished swimmer. During his 1827 Biarritz vacation, he astounded locals by swimming to the Boucalot rock, situated almost 500 meters away from the shore.

Science and explorations


In 1835 the French Academy sent Antoine on a scientific mission to Brazil, the results being published at a later date (1873) under the title of Observations relatives à la physique du globe faites au Brésil et en Éthiopie. He left in November 1836 in the frigate L'Andromède and had as a travelling companion Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, exiled after the attempted uprising of Strasbourg. During their long voyage, the prince and the young scholar had ample time to converse. D'Abbadie, who was acquainted with Mrs Lenormand, took pleasure in making predictions about the future. Upon being consulted by the prince, he declared: "You will be called upon to govern France; I will meet you at the Tuileries." Sixteen years later, the prince became President of the Republic. When Antoine d'Abbadie reminded him that they had arranged to meet at the Tuileries and not the Élysée, the prince responded: "The Élysée is not far from the Tuileries."

After successfully completing the task assigned to him by the French Academy, Antoine d'Abbadie hurried to Cairo in 1837 to meet his younger brother who awaited his arrival. The two youthful travelers, aged 26 and 21 respectively, were to stay in Ethiopia for almost 12 years.

The two brothers landing at Massawa in February 1838. They journeyed throughout Ethiopia, travelling as far south as the Kingdom of Kaffa, sometimes together and sometimes separately. In addition to his studies in the sciences, he delved into the political fray exerting influence in favour of France and the Catholic missionaries.

Arnaud held several distinguished positions such as general, judge, and diplomat. He participated in battles and earned the title of Ras, a highly esteemed title in this country. Antoine, on the other hand, pursued an academic path and became a scholar. "When residing in a foreign country without any known antecedents,"he tells us"it is advisable to adopt a vocation in line with local customs, as failure to do so may result in being branded as a political spy, a hazardous accusation in any nation. As I was unable to engage in combat, agriculture, or merchandising, I identified as a "mamhir", or teacher and scholar, during my time in Christian Ethiopia and received an education from their public and non-compulsory schools."

For a considerable length of time, the two brothers had assimilated into the customs of the region; relinquishing European attire for the turban and toga of the Ethiopians. They traversed the terrain barefoot, as during this era, solely lepers and Jews sported sandals. Furthermore, they were welcomed warmly wherever they travelled.

The d'Abbadie brothers undertook extensive journeys throughout Ethiopia, documenting their observations on a range of topics, including human geography, physical geography, religion, legislative texts, ethnography, philology, linguistics, numismatics, and history. Moreover, Antoine amassed a collection of 250 antique manuscripts and, with the assistance of the Ethiopian Debtera Tewelde Medhin of Welkait, produced the first ever Amharic-French dictionary containing 15,000 words.

In late 1848, the two brothers departed Ethiopia after successfully completing their extensive self-promised program and more.

Antoine became involved in various controversies relating both to his geographical results and his political intrigues. He was especially attacked by Charles Tilstone Beke, who impugned his veracity, especially with reference to the journey to Kana. But time and the investigations of subsequent explorers have shown that Abbadie was quite trustworthy as to his facts, though wrong in his assertion — hotly contested by Beke — that the Blue Nile was the main stream. The topographical results of his explorations were published in Paris between 1860 and 1873 in Géodésie d'Éthiopie, full of the most valuable information and illustrated by ten maps. Of the Géographie de l'Éthiopie (Paris, 1890) only one volume was published. In Un Catalogue raisonné de manuscrits éthiopiens (Paris, 1859) is a description of 234 Ethiopian manuscripts collected by Antoine. He also compiled various vocabularies, including a Dictionnaire de la langue amariñña (Paris, 1881), and prepared an edition of the Shepherd of Hermas, with the Latin version, in 1860. He published numerous papers dealing with the geography of Ethiopia, Ethiopian coins and ancient inscriptions. Under the title of Reconnaissances magnétiques he published in 1890 an account of the magnetic observations made by him in the course of several journeys to the Red Sea and the Levant. The general account of the travels of the two brothers was published by Arnaud in 1868 under the title of Douze ans de séjour dans la Haute Ethiopie.The book has been translated into English "Twelve Years in Upper Ethiopia".

Antoine was responsible for streamlining techniques in geodesy, along with inventing a new theodolite for measuring angles.

Basque and bascophile
Basque through his father, Abbadie developed a particular interest in the Basque Language after meeting Prince Louis Lucien Bonaparte in London. He started his academic work on Basque in 1852.

A speaker of both Souletin and Lapurdian, a resident of Lapurdi, Abbadie considered himself a Basque from Soule. The popularity of the motto Zazpiak Bat is attributed to Abbadie, coined in the framework of the Lore Jokoak Basque festivals that he fostered.

Abbadia Castle
Abbadie gave his castle home the name Abbadia, which is the name still used in Basque. However, in French it is usually referred to as Chateau d'Abbadie or Domaine d'Abbadia, and locally it is not unusual for it to be called le Chateau d'Antoine d'Abbadie.

The château was built between 1864 and 1879 on a cliff by the Atlantic Ocean, and was designed by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc in the Neo Gothic style. It is considered one of the most important examples of French Gothic Revival Architecture. It is divided in three parts: the observatory and library, the chapel, and the living quarters. Over the front entrance door of the château is engraved "Céd míle fáilte" Irish gaelic for one hundred thousand welcomes in honour of his Irish heritage.

The château still belongs to the Academy of Science to which it was bequeathed in 1895 on condition of its producing a catalogue of half-a-million stars within fifty years' time, with the work to be carried out by members of religious orders.

The château was classified as a protected historical monument by France in 1984. Most of the château property now belongs to the Coastal Protection Agency, and is managed by the city of Hendaye.

Awards and memberships
Antoine received the French Legion of Honor on 27 September 1850 with the order of chevalier or knight. He was a member of the Bureau des Longitudes and also the French Academy of Sciences. Both brothers received the grand medal of the Paris Geographical Society in 1850.