III: Abraham Victor Salamé
Abraham Victor Salamé (1788- 1850) was the last Georgian Interpreter of Oriental Languages. His life is quite well-documented, because he was a public figure, and his publications survived. Like his early predecessors in the position, he was an Eastern Christian, a Catholic from Egypt. He learned French, Italian, and English as a child and wanted to live in England. He ended up there after years of adventurous employment by foreign merchants and diplomats, arriving in 1815 just in time to accompany Admiral Lord Exmouth as his interpreter on a punitive expedition to Algiers, where corsairs and slavers were an ongoing problem. Salamé’s 1816 Narrative of the British Expedition to Algiers is one of the best accounts of that venture; it includes an account of his upbringing and his interpreting experience in Algiers, shedding some light on his practice.
The word ” Salame,” in Arabic, signifies Salvation, Peace, Tranquillity, Safety, 8cc. &c. I insert this explanation of our family name, on account that, in the Italian language, there is a word ” salame” which is the name of a kind of sausage. 1
In 1816 the Royal Navy bombarded the city of Algiers from the sea in an attempt to put an end to corsairing and white slavery. 2
On the 28th of July we left Plymouth, and on the 9th of August arrived at Gibraltar, from which place on the 14th we sailed; on Tuesday the 27th anchored at Algiers, where we fought, released slaves, restored money, abolished Christian slavery, made treaties, concluded peace, and settled every thing. On Tuesday, the 3d of September, we left Algiers, and on the 12th arrived at Gibraltar; sailed on the 15th, and on the 6th of October anchored at Portsmouth.3
Salamé’s Early Years
The first chapter of the Narrative, “Introduction” explains how Salamé came to be an interpreter. He had childhood memories of the French soldiers in Rosetta during the Napoleonic wars, where his parents were part of a group of well-regarded Christian families. Their visitors included the French General, Jacques-François Menou, the former general-in-chief of the French army in Egypt who had surrendered after the siege of Alexandria on August 30, 1801. Menou had married a wealthy Egyptian woman, converted to Islam and changed his name to Abdallah. He made quite an impression on the young Salamé:
Philip James de Loutherbourg (1740–1812). Public Domain.
I remember that I asked his interpreter, ” Why General Abdallah did not wear the Turkish dress” Upon his requiring of the interpreter the explanation of what I said, he called me to him, and asked me, ” Why I did not learn the French language?” I said, “because my school-master does not understand it; but if you will teach me,” said I, ” I shall like to learn it.” He then laughed, and wrote out the Alphabet for me, and read it with me several times; after which he asked my father why he did not send me to France? My father, in reply, said, that I was too young yet. But as the name of England was known as the greatest country in the world, especially among the easterns on account of the superiority of the British manufactories, I said, ” No! I should like to go to Inkilterra” He then laughed and went away. 4
Salamé did not have good memories of his poorly equipped Catholic school in Rosetta, where idle masters focused on religion rather than languages. He left when he was fourteen and worked with his father, who was a customs officer, dealing with the town’s cotton and linen producers. He took advantage of the presence of French and English officers to learn more vocabulary and was able to help his father – who spoke only Arabic. It is thanks to Salamé’s long subsequent career as an interpreter that we are granted this insight into the experience of a boy picking up words of French and English from soldiers in his father’s warehouse.5. By his own account, after a family friend gave him French, Italian, and English dictionaries, I began to look over this grammar and requested every officer who came to our house to read with me; so that in about six months I made some progress, especially in the Italian language.6 He expresses some regret in the Narrative that he was not sent to Europe as a boy. Instead, he was apprenticed to a Syrian merchant who expected to be waited on hand and foot – and had a serious arak habit. After three months of this, he demanded that his father find him another occupation.
Salamé took a job in the counting-house of Carlo Rossetti for one year and then moved on to serve as an interpreter for Francesco Petrucci, Consul General of Sweden, and Vice-Consul and Agent for England (Narrative, p. xv). This meant that he was able to resume his study of European languages, as well as learn about trade and diplomacy. It was while working for Petrucci that he embarked upon a decade of travels and (mis)adventures. He covers this period of his life in the “Itinerary” section of his book, 124 breathless pages, including his time in Egypt as well as a history of the Mamluks, and his trip to Constantinople, where he met the British Ambassador Sir Robert Liston, with whom he travelled to England in December 1815. He must have had good connections there as he was appointed Royal Interpreter for Oriental Languages soon after he arrived.
The Expedition
Salamé’s first employment in the honourable service of this Sublime Throne was the performance of [his] duty as Interpreter, on the occasion of the Expedition to Algiershe.7. His account of that expedition makes up the heart of the book and takes up 230 pages. His first task once he had joined Exmouth in Portsmouth on July 18, 1816, was to prepare for a meeting with the Dey of Algiers by translating both a Declaration for the Abolition of Christian Slavery and Exmouth’s letter to the ruler outlining his demands,. The Dey was to abolish Christian slavery and free all Christian slaves held in Algeria, repay the money he had been given by the kings of the Two Sicilies and Sardinia for the release of slaves, make peace with the Netherlands and free the British consul he had arrested, as well as the crew of the ship, the Prometheus, that had been sent to collect him.8
When the expedition reached the Algerian coast, Exmouth proposed that Salamé himself deliver the documents to the Dey. He also suggested that it would be better for me to change my Turkish costume, and to put on the European dress; for, knowing the Algerines to be a treacherous people, his Lordship thought I should be less exposed in the English costume.[efn_note]Salamé, op. cit., p. 20.[/efn_note] On the morning of July 27, he set off in a boat with flag-lieutenant Burgess. The two of them met the Dey’s representative, the Captain of the Port, and handed over the papers. They were to wait for three hours for a reply.9They were at risk since there was no guarantee that they would not be shot at; by the time they rowed back to their ship, Salamé was in a state of agitation.
As the Dey had not responded to Exmouth’s letter, the fighting began soon afterwards, with overwhelming explosions that darkened the sky. I observed, with great surprize, how, in these nine hours time, our shot had effected so horrible a destruction of their batteries instead of walls, I saw nothing but heaps of rubbish, and a number of people dragging the dead bodies out. Algiers was destroyed in nine hours.10
Thomas Luny (1759-1837). Public Domain – Photo via Good Free Photos
The next morning, August 28, Salamé had another letter to translate and deliver to the Dey.11 This time, the Dey sent representatives to meet with Exmouth: the Captain of the Port and the Swedish Consul. There was negotiation as to the schedule of events, as the Algerians needed time for slaves and prisoners to be gathered for their release, and for money to be collected. The British Consul was freed the next day and reunited with his family. He had been badly treated, however, and had lost some property, so Exmouth was displeased.12 Salamé was therefore sent with Captain Brisbane, the Consul and Major Gosset to present a new list of demands.13. This time, the delegation met with the Dey himself.
After we had paid him the customary compliments, the Captain of the Port presented me, saying, “This is a gentleman from Constantinople;” in reply he asked, how the great Admiral was? I answered, he desires his best compliments to your Highness.14
Explaining
Salamé gives a full account of the exchange between Captain Brisbane and the Dey about Exmouth’s demands – and his role in it. He refers to it as “explaining,” making it clear that he was interpreting for the two parties, rather than representing Exmouth as he did when delivering his letters. He had to stress that point again to the Dey when the question of his apology to the Consul was raised:
Captain Brisbane. —Are you sorry for the violent measures you adopted, in the heat of the moment, towards the British Consul, and do you beg pardon for the same?
The Dey—(very cross) —Yes, I do.
Salame. —But, it is necessary that your Highness should address these words to the Consul ; or, as you do not know the language, if you please to authorize me, or any of your people, to repeat them to him.
The Dey—(more cross) —Very well, you may say what you please to the Consul.
Salame—(with pretended mildness) — beg your pardon, without your Highness’ dictation, I can say nothing on my part.15
The Dey, though clearly put out, produced words of apology, which Salamé interpreted into both English and French, just to make sure that everybody understood.16 The meeting ended having covered all of Exmouth’s points to the satisfaction of the British. There were subsequent meetings to bring all these matters to a conclusion. 1211 Christian slaves were released and made their way home. Two Spaniards who had been arrested in 1813 were freed and the Consul was compensated for his property.
Mission Accomplished
The Expedition to Algiers was a minor instance of British gunboat diplomacy in the Mediterranean which had no long-term effects as corsairing resumed soon afterwards. The mission was, however, deemed a success, and Salamé’s role was acknowledged. This recommendation by Brisbane shows how well the Interpreter for Oriental Languages acquitted himself of his job:
In justice to Salame, I have to state that, in all my conference with the Dey, and especially on the occasion of his being obliged to beg the Consul’s pardon, Salame faithfully discharged his office with much talent, perspicuity, and temper, and with dignified firmness. I have great satisfaction in bearing this testimony to his abilities; and am thoroughly convinced, a more competent and able person could not have been selected for this important service.17
The Book
This endorsement, as well as one from Exmouth and another from Rear-Admiral Penrose, appear at the end of the Narrative. Salamé got to work on his account of the expedition soon after his return and fully used the opportunities it afforded him to establish his credentials as a narrator. He made full use of the paratextual opportunities offered by his frontispiece, dedications, and acknowledgements to stress his qualifications – and his Anglophilia. His lengthy title page establishes his position as Interpreter in his Britannic Majesty’s service.
His generous dedication to Exmouth is full of praise for the Expedition leader and his “illustrious Nation.” He is similarly effusive in his praise of his British friends. His reviewer in the “Literary Gazette” – who mentioned early on that this account of the Expedition was by a foreigner, an Egyptian – took issue with the tone of those acknowledgements, claiming that “had the author written an express satire on those too prevalent flatteries which disfigure almost every volume that is published in our time of puff and panegyric, we do not think he could have rendered them more truly ridiculous”18. That reader may have missed the point, however. Salamé’s publisher, John Murray, was well aware of the significance of an author’s association with influential people, the role of patronage and social networks so he would have been happy to have him dedicate the book to Exmouth and thank his supporters with such enthusiasm.[efn-note]Keighren, I.M., Withers, C.W.J., Bell, B., Travels into Print: Exploration, Writing, and Publishing with John Murray, 1773-1859, p. 154. U of Chicago Press, Chicago and London[/efn_note] Indeed [s]uch name-dropping was by no means unusual in contemporary books by European authors, but the anonymous reviewer takes the opportunity to mock the otherwise sophisticated Salamé as a servile Oriental.19
Salamé was mindful of how he was pictured in the book. He was not happy with the original frontispiece portrait of him: “… the only likeness in that engraving is the forehead, & the upper part of the Eyes; but from the under lash of the Eyes to the chin is not mine.”20 The book appeared with a different likeness, with the author portrayed as an Egyptian in national dress rather than a European dressed as an Arab. Salamé’s approach to his narrative is to portray himself as an outside authority, a non-British writer who had the temerity to tell his story in a language not his own. Here too, we have signs of a rhetorical device, a bid for credibility through modesty: the story of the Expedition to Algiers ought to be told and it was the (reluctant) author’s duty to bring it to readers. “Utility, together with the status of the dedicatee, justified the presentation of content and subordinated the speaker to the fact. Effective communication depended on the performance of humility.”21
Salamé appears in the archive after the publication of his book: there are references to his translations, a mention of his British naturalisation in 1837 and of the sale of the Alexandrian Cottage, on the Old Kent Road in London, the residence of Abraham Victor Salame, Esq., the celebrated oriental interpreter in the Morning Herald of March 7, 1843.
He continued interpreting. His last mission had him return to Egypt, which is where he died. The London Evening Standard for September 3, 1850, reporting on a cholera epidemic in Egypt, says [t]he suite of the Pacha of Yemen in passing through Egypt, on their way to the Red Sea, suffered much from the prevailing epidemic, and 16 of the party died, including the English interpreter, Mr. Salamé, a gentleman long employed at the foreign Office in London.
As for his Narrative, its account of Exmouth’s inconclusive attack on Algiers is a useful source to this day, making the last royal interpreter of oriental languages a historian as well as a linguist.
- Salamé, A.V, 1816, Narrative of the Expedition to Algiers, John Murray, p iii.
- Colley, L,. 2003, Captives: Britain, Empire and the World, 1600-1850, Pimlico, p.132.
- Salamé, op. cit. p 161.
- Salamé op. cit., pp. v-vi.
- Mairs, R. 2024 Arabic Dialogues, UCL Press, p. 52.
- Salamé, op. cit., p. ix.
- Salamé, op. cit., Dedication
- Salamé, op. cit., p. 5.
- Salamé, op. cit., pp. 27-8.
- Salamé, op. cit., p. 52.
- Salamé, op. cit., p. 57
- Salamé, op. cit., p. 75.
- Salamé, op. cit., p. 80.
- Salamé, op. cit., p. 84.
- Salamé, op. cit. p. 95.
- Salamé, op. cit. p. 97.
- Salamé, op. cit. pp. 228-9.
- The Literary Gazette, 1819, p. 277.
- Mairs, R, Muratov, M. 201, .Archaeologists, Tourists, Interpreters, p. 3. Bloomsbury, London, and New York
- Keighren, Withers and Bell, op. cit. p. 144.
- Keighren, Withers and Bell, op. cit. p. 104.
