GHILAIN, Antoine. Petit-Rœulx-les-Braine, Hainaut 25.1.1901 — Arguennes, Hainaut 1.4.1947. Abbé. Belgian Catholic Priest and Schoolteacher, Iranian Scholar specialized in Parthian. After school in Soignies attended the seminaries of Bonne-Espérance near Binche (Hainaut) and Tournai. Ordained as priest in 1924. Studied at Leuven (cand.phil. 1926), then taught Latin and Greek at Institut Saint-Joseph in La Louvière, Hainaut, until 1946, when released. At the same time continued with Oriental studies at Leuven, also under Henning at Göttingen and London. M.A. 1931 Leuven, Ph.D. 1939. From 1941 Lecturer (maître de conférences) in Avestan, Pahlavi, and Manichean studies. He himself explained his grammatical studies as a tool for understanding the early history of Christianity, but in 2009 his dissertation was still called “an indispensable reference tool”.
Publications: Index to Henning’s diss. in Middle Persian Turfan fragments, publ. separately as “Index de termes en moyen-iranien”, Le Muséon 50, 1937, 367-395.
– Diss. Essai sur la langue parthe. 8+195 p. Bibl. du Muséon 9. Louvain 1939; “Un feuillet manichéen reconstitué,” Le Muséon 59, 1946, pp. 535-45.
Sources: *G. Garitte, Annuaire de l’Univ. cath. de Louvain:1944-1948 87:3, 1951, 304-307, 1063; A. van Tongerloo, Encyclop. Iranica 2009 with photo (online); not in Dict. Nat. Belg. 1-44, Nat. Biogr. Woordenboek 1-14; Le Dict. des Belges.
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