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A long-standing European fascination with Asia, from the Middle East to China and Japan, came more sharply into focus during the early modern period, as voyages of exploration gave rise to commercial enterprises such as the East India companies and their attendant colonial activities. This series is a collaborative venture between the Cambridge Library Collection and the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, founded in 1823. The series reissues works from the Royal Asiatic Society's extensive library of rare books and sponsored publications that shed light on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century European responses to the cultures of the Middle East and Asia. The selection covers Asian languages, literature, religions, philosophy, historiography, law, mathematics and science, as studied and translated by Europeans and presented for Western readers.

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103 results in Cambridge Library Collection - Perspectives from the Royal Asiatic Society

Page 1 of 6

A Synopsis of Science
  • From the Standpoint of the Nyaya Philosophy
  • Volume 1
  • James R. Ballantyne
  • Published online:
    05 December 2015
    Print publication:
    21 February 2013
    First published in:
    1852
  • James Robert Ballantyne (1813–64) taught oriental languages in India for sixteen years, producing grammars of Hindi, Sanskrit and Persian, along with translations of Hindu philosophy. In 1859, for the use of Christian missionaries, he prepared a guide to Hinduism, in English and Sanskrit (also reissued in this series). Published in two volumes in 1852, Synopsis of Science was intended to introduce his Indian pupils to Western science by using the framework of Hindu Nyaya philosophy, which was familiar to them and which Ballantyne greatly respected. Volume 1 proceeds through a series of aphorisms exemplifying Western logic, forms of argument, the workings of the body and the senses, basic astronomy, geography, laws of Newtonian motion, the action of liquids, pneumatics, acoustics and optics. The second part of the volume is a Sanskrit translation. Overall, the work serves as an excellent primary source on the educational aspects of British imperialism.

The Oriental Collections
  • Consisting of Original Essays and Dissertations, Translations and Miscellaneous Papers
  • Volume 3
  • Edited by William Ouseley
  • Published online:
    05 December 2015
    Print publication:
    21 March 2013
    First published in:
    1800
  • As editor and contributor, William Ouseley (1767–1842) published this three-volume collection of essays between 1797 and 1800. Educated at Paris and Leiden, Ouseley became an honorary fellow of the royal societies of Amsterdam, Göttingen and Edinburgh. He researched extensively on Persia, producing important work on Persian handwriting. Several of his translations of works by fellow orientalist J. L. Burckhardt (1784–1817) are also reissued in this series. Ouseley's Oriental Collections consists of miscellaneous pieces contributed by a number of writers on aspects of Asian history, culture and literature. Volume 3 includes an exegesis on Hafez, essays on Chinese dialogue and the Korean alphabet, a catalogue of Sanskrit manuscripts, translated extracts from the historian al-Tabari, and several Persian odes and sonnets, as well as answers to readers' queries. The diverse subject matter will appeal to readers interested in the nature and progress of oriental scholarship in the late eighteenth century.

A Dictionary of the Bengalee Language
  • In Which the Words Are Traced to their Origin, and their Various Meanings Given
  • Volume 2, Part 2
  • William Carey
  • Published online:
    05 December 2015
    Print publication:
    28 February 2013
    First published in:
    1825
  • The language of Bangladesh, West Bengal and parts of Tripura and Assam, Bengali is the sixth most spoken language in the world. A member of the Indo-Aryan family, with its origins in Sanskrit, it has over 230 million speakers. Published in 1825, this is the third volume of a revised three-part dictionary of Bengali, compiled by the Baptist missionary William Carey (1761–1834) during his time in India. Its purpose was to assist Carey's European students at Fort William College in Calcutta, and he endeavoured to include every simple word used in the language, along with all the compound terms found in Bengali literature. Containing over 100,000 entries in Bengali script with English translations, and providing etymologies for most words, it remains of great interest to linguists today. Carey's reference works on Marathi and Sanskrit are also reissued in this series.

A Dictionary and Grammar of the Malayan Language
  • William Marsden
  • Published online:
    05 November 2015
    Print publication:
    28 March 2013
    First published in:
    1812
  • Published in 1812, this study of Malay in its written form was begun during William Marsden's service with the East India Company in Sumatra (1771–9). He continued his textual work in England upon his return, thus putting his practical knowledge into a solid scholarly frame. An expert in Asian languages and an outstanding Malay scholar in the English-speaking world, Marsden (1754–1836) was a fellow of the Royal Society from 1783 and later its vice-president and treasurer. This work is distinctive for its substantial Malay–English section, and for the use of examples from original Malay texts collected by the author. Despite being superseded by subsequent dictionaries, it is still a highly regarded and valuable source of information, especially about older, specialised and regional terms. The introduction provides the reader with a history of the Malayan language, including its spread, usage and regional variations.

Traité de la chronologie chinoise, divisé en trois parties
  • Antoine Gaubil
  • Edited by Antoinne Isaac Silvestre de Sacy
  • Published online:
    05 January 2015
    Print publication:
    28 March 2013
    First published in:
    1814
  • A French Jesuit and missionary to China, Antoine Gaubil (1689–1759) spent half his life in Beijing. His rigorous translations and studies in the fields of history, geography, astronomy and cartography made him one of the finest sinologists of his day. Thanks to his remarkable mastery of Chinese language, he also became the official interpreter to European embassies for the imperial court. Respected throughout Europe, he was a corresponding member of the Royal Society of London, the French Académie Royale des Sciences and the St Petersburg Academy of Sciences. Edited by the French philologist and orientalist Antoine Isaac Silvestre de Sacy (1758–1838), this work was published posthumously in 1814. In it, Gaubil comments on Chinese chronology from the beginning of time until 206 BCE and the start of the Han dynasty. Expertly examining the sources on which this chronology is based, this remains an important contribution to Chinese historiography.

A Grammar of the Sungskrit Language
  • To Which Are Added Examples for the Exercise of the Student, and a Complete List of the Dhatoos or Roots
  • Volume 1
  • William Carey
  • Published online:
    05 December 2014
    Print publication:
    28 February 2013
    First published in:
    1806
  • The Indo-Aryan language of Sanskrit is the primary language of Hinduism and also a scholarly language of Buddhism. Dating back to the second millennium BCE, it is considered to be the parent of most modern languages of India, and remains central to work in Indo-European studies, philology and linguistics today. First published in 1806, this is a comprehensive grammar of Sanskrit, compiled by the Baptist missionary William Carey (1761–1834) during his time in India. Its purpose was to make the language accessible to European learners, presenting its complex systems of verb conjugation, compound words and affixation in a straightforward way. Reissued here in a two-volume set, Volume 1 contains Books 1–3 of the work, covering characters, pronouns and verbs, and clearly laying out the rules of their formation by way of numerous illustrative examples. Carey's reference works on Marathi and Bengali are also reissued in this series.

Ferishta's History of Dekkan, from the First Mahummedan Conquests
  • Volume 1
  • Ferishta
  • Edited and translated by Jonathan Scott
  • Published online:
    05 December 2014
    Print publication:
    28 February 2013
    First published in:
    1794
  • Serving in Bengal as a captain of the East India Company, Jonathan Scott (1753–1829) became a private Persian translator to Governor-General Warren Hastings in 1783. A gifted orientalist, he was elected a member of the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1784, returned to England in 1785, and a year later published the first of his many translations, Memoirs of Eradut Khan (also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection), shedding light on the Mughal empire in the seventeenth century. This two-volume work, published in 1794, narrates the fortunes of the Islamic kingdoms in southern India from the thirteenth century onwards. Volume 1 comprises a translation of the work of the Persian chronicler Ferishta (1560–1620), documenting the history of the Deccan Plateau to the end of the sixteenth century.

The Hedaya, or Guide
  • A Commentary on the Mussulman Laws
  • Volume 2
  • Translated by Charles Hamilton
  • Burhan al-Din al-Marghinani
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    28 February 2013
    First published in:
    1791
  • Composed in the twelfth century by the leading Muslim jurist Burhan al-Din al-Marghinani (1135–97), the original Arabic al-Hidāyah remains a central text of Islamic personal law. This English translation, from a Persian version of the work, was prepared by the orientalist Charles Hamilton (c.1752–92) for the East India Company in 1791. Although since superseded, it remains a fascinating document in the history of colonial jurisprudence. The legal system was central to the entrenchment of British rule in India, providing the framework for active control of civil administration and the courts. Translations of Islamic texts were intended to remove the language barrier for colonial officials, and blurred British and native law for the first time. Volume 2 contains sections on punishments, larceny, the rules of war, foundlings, the absconding of slaves, missing persons, partnerships, sales, bail, the transfer of debts, the duties of judges, and evidence.

The Sikh Religion
  • Its Gurus, Sacred Writings and Authors
  • Volume 6
  • Max Arthur Macauliffe
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    28 March 2013
    First published in:
    1909
  • Born and educated in Ireland, Max Arthur Macauliffe (1841–1913) joined the Indian Civil Service in 1862. In 1882 he was promoted to the post of deputy commissioner of the Punjab. But it was after he retired from the civil service in 1893 that he gained public attention. Macauliffe developed a close affinity with Sikhism while in the Punjab, eventually converting to the religion. His translation into English of the Guru Granth Sahib, the holy book of Sikhism, is recognised as the most accurate to date. Following this project, he set to work on this six-volume set, covering the history and philosophy of Sikhism, first published in 1909 and still regarded as the definitive work on the subject. Volume 6 covers the lives of the Hindu and Muslim saints whose compositions are included in the Sikh holy book. Translations of these compositions are also provided.

History of the War in Bosnia during the Years 1737–8 and 9
  • Omer Ofendi
  • Translated by Charles Fraser
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    28 March 2013
    First published in:
    1830
  • Serving as a judge in his native Bosnia in 1737 when war broke out between the Austrians and the Turks, Omer Efendi (about whose life little else is known) produced this vivid account of the conflict from an Ottoman perspective. Important for what it reveals about the region's social history, the work was revised and published by Ibrahim Müteferrika (c.1672–1745), the founder of Turkish printing. It was first published in English in 1830 after being translated by Charles Fraser, a professor at Edinburgh's Naval and Military Academy. Fraser also added an introduction to the work that gives both a brief history of Bosnia and an overview of the text. The narrative begins with a description of the army of the invading Austrians, who are described throughout as 'infidels'. An account is then given of the operations of the war, through to the signing of the Belgrade treaty in 1739.

The Tezkereh al Vakiat; or, Private Memoirs of the Moghul Emperor Humayun
  • Written in the Persian Language, by Jouher, a Confidential Domestic of His Majesty
  • Jauhar
  • Translated by Charles Stewart
  • Published online:
    05 September 2014
    Print publication:
    28 March 2013
    First published in:
    1832
  • The Mughal emperor Humayun (1508–56) ruled over parts of modern-day India, Afghanistan and Pakistan during his eventful reign. He came to the throne at the age of twenty-two in 1530 and thereafter faced a series of challenges to his control. Throughout this time he was served by his water-bearer, Jauhar, who later wrote these memoirs of his master and his campaigns. This translation from Persian to English was first published in 1832 by Charles Stewart (1764–1837), who had been a professor of oriental languages at the East India College, Haileybury. Jauhar gives a valuable eyewitness narrative of events during a fraught period of Indian history, also providing an insight into Humayun's character. The work begins with an account of his victory over Bahadur Shah and the conquest of Gujarat in the 1530s. It goes on to describe battles with Sher Shah Suri and other campaigns until his death.

Two Anglo-Indian Cookery Books
  • Edited and translated by Sandford Arnot
  • Henrietta A. Hervey
  • Published online:
    05 September 2014
    Print publication:
    21 February 2013
    First published in:
    1831
  • A product of Britain's long political and commercial involvement in India, Anglo-Indian cuisine has since become firmly embedded in British culinary life: curries, kedgeree and chutneys have taken their place on the nation's tables. These two fascinating texts on Anglo-Indian cookery were written for the instruction of the wives of returning expatriates. Sandford Arnot's collection of recipes, which he translated from Persian and Hindustani, was first published in 1831. Arnot (fl.1840) was, at the time, working at the London Oriental Institution, a college established in 1805 to teach Indian languages to civil servants. Henrietta Hervey (1850–1932) first published Anglo-Indian Cookery at Home in 1895, which distils her knowledge of the subject gained through twenty-three years spent living in India as the wife of a colonial officer. It is full of practical advice - from methods of preparation to the utensils required - as well as an array of colourful recipes.

The Works of Sir William Jones
  • With the Life of the Author by Lord Teignmouth
  • Volume 12
  • William Jones
  • Edited by Lord Teignmouth
  • Published online:
    05 September 2014
    Print publication:
    28 March 2013
    First published in:
    1807
  • A renowned Enlightenment polymath, Sir William Jones (1746–94) was a lawyer, translator and poet who wrote authoritatively on politics, comparative linguistics and oriental literature. Known initially for his Persian translations and political radicalism, Jones became further celebrated for his study and translation of ancient Sanskrit texts following his appointment to the supreme court in Calcutta in 1783. He spent the next eleven years introducing Europe to the mysticism and rationality of Hinduism through works such as his nine 'Hymns' to Hindu deities and his translation of the Sanskrit classic Sacontalá, influencing Romantic writers from William Blake to August Wilhelm Schlegel. Volume 12 of his thirteen-volume works, published in 1807, contains the final book of Jones's Histoire de Nader Chah (1770), a memoir of the famed Iranian ruler, translated into French from the Persian. This volume also includes Jones' Traité sur la poësie orientale (1770), an essay exploring Arabic and Persian poetry.

Relation de l'Égypte par Abd-Allatif, médecin arabe de Bagdad
  • Suivie de divers extraits d'écrivains orientaux, et d'un état des provinces et des villages de l'Égypte dans le XIVe siècle
  • Edited and translated by Antoine Isaac Silvestre de Sacy
  • Published online:
    05 September 2014
    Print publication:
    28 March 2013
    First published in:
    1810
  • A native of Baghdad, Abd-Allatif (1162–1231) was a versatile scholar and scientist of vast erudition. This prolific author travelled widely throughout the Muslim world and wrote an account of Egypt at a time when the country was rarely visited by Europeans. The book covers matters ranging from natural history and medicine to culture and domestic economy. It also includes a vivid description of the terrible famine that Abd-Allatif witnessed in 1200 and 1201 when the Nile failed to flood. The text was widely known in Europe at the end of the eighteenth century thanks to Latin and German translations. Orientalist Antoine Isaac Silvestre de Sacy (1758–1838) translated and edited this version, first published in French in 1810. Complementing this invaluable account are excerpts from several other Arab writers, a detailed biography of Abd-Allatif, and a general overview of the provinces and villages of Egypt in the fourteenth century.

The Oriental Collections
  • Consisting of Original Essays and Dissertations, Translations and Miscellaneous Papers
  • Volume 1
  • Edited by William Ouseley
  • Published online:
    05 September 2014
    Print publication:
    21 March 2013
    First published in:
    1797
  • As editor and contributor, William Ouseley (1767–1842) published this three-volume collection of essays between 1797 and 1800. Educated at Paris and Leiden, Ouseley became an honorary fellow of the royal societies of Amsterdam, Göttingen and Edinburgh. He researched extensively on Persia, producing important work on Persian handwriting. Several of his translations of works by fellow orientalist J. L. Burckhardt (1784–1817) are also reissued in this series. Ouseley's Oriental Collections consists of miscellaneous pieces contributed by a number of writers on aspects of Asian history, culture and literature. Volume 1 includes translations from Persian of the poetry of Saadi, remarks on manuscript collation, translations of Arabic stories, and essays on Moroccan Arabic and the poetry of Hafez. The diverse subject matter will appeal to readers interested in the nature and progress of oriental scholarship in the late eighteenth century.

Ferishta's History of Dekkan, from the First Mahummedan Conquests
  • Volume 2
  • Ferishta
  • Edited and translated by Jonathan Scott
  • Published online:
    05 September 2014
    Print publication:
    28 February 2013
    First published in:
    1794
  • Serving in Bengal as a captain of the East India Company, Jonathan Scott (1753–1829) became a private Persian translator to Governor-General Warren Hastings in 1783. A gifted orientalist, he was elected a member of the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1784, returned to England in 1785, and a year later published the first of his many translations, Memoirs of Eradut Khan (also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection), shedding light on the Mughal empire in the seventeenth century. This two-volume work, published in 1794, narrates the fortunes of the Islamic kingdoms in southern India from the thirteenth century onwards. Based around translations from various manuscripts, Volume 2 covers the conquest of the Deccan Plateau by the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, the rise of the Maratha leader Shivaji and the reigns of the later Mughal emperors. Also included is an account of the state of Bengal from the mid-eighteenth century.

The Mulfuzat Timury, or, Autobiographical Memoirs of the Moghul Emperor Timur
  • Written in the Jagtay Turky Language
  • Timur
  • Translated by Charles Stewart
  • Published online:
    05 September 2014
    Print publication:
    18 April 2013
    First published in:
    1830
  • The Mughal emperor Timur (1336–1405), known also as Tamerlane, conquered large parts of central Asia in the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. He was renowned for being an exceptionally good military strategist, but also for being a ruthless conqueror. His purported autobiography was not published in English until 1830, when it was translated by the orientalist Charles Stewart (1764–1837) from a Persian version of the Chagatai original. This reissue offers an insight into Timur's motives and the detail of his strategy. The book begins with a statement of the principles that he ruled by, along with an account of certain events which led him to believe he was receiving divine aid. The narrative then becomes chronological and covers the period of his life up to 1375, when Timur was in his forties.

The Works of Sir William Jones
  • With the Life of the Author by Lord Teignmouth
  • Volume 4
  • William Jones
  • Edited by Lord Teignmouth
  • Published online:
    05 September 2014
    Print publication:
    28 March 2013
    First published in:
    1807
  • A renowned Enlightenment polymath, Sir William Jones (1746–94) was a lawyer, translator and poet who wrote authoritatively on politics, comparative linguistics and oriental literature. Known initially for his Persian translations and political radicalism, Jones became further celebrated for his study and translation of ancient Sanskrit texts following his appointment to the supreme court in Calcutta in 1783. He spent the next eleven years introducing Europe to the mysticism and rationality of Hinduism through works such as his nine 'Hymns' to Hindu deities and his translation of the Sanskrit classic Sacontalá, influencing Romantic writers from William Blake to August Wilhelm Schlegel. Volume 4 of his thirteen-volume works, published in 1807, contains Jones' extensive Indic scholarship and translations published in British periodicals such as Asiatick Researches and The Asiatick Miscellany, and includes the unprecedented 'On the Musical Modes of the Hindus' (1792) and 'On the Mystical Poetry of the Persians and Hindus' (1791).

The Works of Sir William Jones
  • With the Life of the Author by Lord Teignmouth
  • Volume 2, Memoirs of the Life, Writings and Correspondence of Sir William Jones 2
  • William Jones
  • Edited by Lord Teignmouth
  • Published online:
    05 September 2014
    Print publication:
    28 March 2013
    First published in:
    1807
  • A renowned Enlightenment polymath, Sir William Jones (1746–94) was a lawyer, translator and poet who wrote authoritatively on politics, comparative linguistics and oriental literature. Known initially for his Persian translations and political radicalism, Jones became further celebrated for his study and translation of ancient Sanskrit texts following his appointment to the supreme court in Calcutta in 1783. He spent the next eleven years introducing Europe to the mysticism and rationality of Hinduism, becoming a pioneer in comparative religion. Through works such as his nine 'Hymns' to Hindu deities and his translation of the Sanskrit classic Sacontalá, Jones inspired and influenced Romantic writers from William Blake to August Wilhelm Schlegel. These thirteen volumes of his works, published in 1807, begin with a memoir by his friend and editor Lord Teignmouth (1751–1834). Volume 2 covers Jones' life and death in India, and includes important correspondence and unpublished work.

The Sikh Religion
  • Its Gurus, Sacred Writings and Authors
  • Volume 1
  • Max Arthur Macauliffe
  • Published online:
    05 September 2014
    Print publication:
    28 March 2013
    First published in:
    1909
  • Born and educated in Ireland, Max Arthur Macauliffe (1841–1913) joined the Indian Civil Service in 1862. In 1882 he was promoted to the post of deputy commissioner of the Punjab. But it was after he retired from the civil service in 1893 that he gained public attention. Macauliffe developed a close affinity with Sikhism while in the Punjab, eventually converting to the religion. His translation into English of the Guru Granth Sahib, the holy book of Sikhism, is recognised as the most accurate to date. Following this project, he set to work on this six-volume set, covering the history and philosophy of Sikhism, first published in 1909 and still regarded as the definitive work on the subject. Volume 1 narrates the life of Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh religion, with translations of his compositions in the Sikh holy book.

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