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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 3 of 6

History of the Rise of the Mahomedan Power in India, till the Year AD 1612
  • Volume 2
  • Mahomed Kasim Ferishta
  • Translated by John Briggs
  • Published online:
    05 July 2014
    Print publication:
    28 March 2013
    First published in:
    1829
  • The Persian chronicler Ferishta (1560–1620) composed his great work, published in this four-volume English translation in 1829, at the court of Bijapur - where he spent most of his life - under the patronage of King Ibrahim Adil Shah II. It covers Muslim India from around 975 to 1612 and is notable for its balance, despite Ferishta's close involvement with some of the events and people he records. Valuable additions to the text made by the translator, East India Company officer John Briggs (1785–1875), include genealogical tables and notes, as well as a comparative chronology of events in Europe and India. Volume 2 examines the descendants of Timur (or Tamerlane) and the founding by Babur of the Mughal dynasty in the early sixteenth century. It also contains coverage of the kings of the Deccan to the dissolution of the Bahmani sultanate after 1518.

History of the Rise of the Mahomedan Power in India, till the Year AD 1612
  • Volume 3
  • Mahomed Kasim Ferishta
  • Translated by John Briggs
  • Published online:
    05 August 2014
    Print publication:
    28 March 2013
    First published in:
    1829
  • The Persian chronicler Ferishta (1560–1620) composed his great work, published in this four-volume English translation in 1829, at the court of Bijapur - where he spent most of his life - under the patronage of King Ibrahim Adil Shah II. It covers Muslim India from around 975 to 1612 and is notable for its balance, despite Ferishta's close involvement with some of the events and people he records. Valuable additions to the text made by the translator, East India Company officer John Briggs (1785–1875), include genealogical tables and notes, as well as a comparative chronology of events in Europe and India. Volume 3 continues with coverage of the five Deccan sultanate states from 1518. This includes Briggs' own valuable account of the history of the kings of Golkonda and a chronology of the Portuguese wars in India. The coverage of the Adil Shahi dynasty of Bijapur in the sixteenth century notably draws on Ferishta's first-hand knowledge.

History of the Rise of the Mahomedan Power in India, till the Year AD 1612
  • Volume 1
  • Mahomed Kasim Ferishta
  • Translated by John Briggs
  • Published online:
    05 August 2014
    Print publication:
    28 March 2013
    First published in:
    1829
  • The Persian chronicler Ferishta (1560–1620) composed his great work, published in this four-volume English translation in 1829, at the court of Bijapur - where he spent most of his life - under the patronage of King Ibrahim Adil Shah II. It covers Muslim India from around 975 to 1612 and is notable for its balance, despite Ferishta's close involvement with some of the events and people he records. In the translator's preface, East India Company officer John Briggs (1785–1875) highlights the danger of misconceptions about the people of India and the importance of religious policy in the success or failure of her various governments. Volume 1 includes introductory matter, a chapter on pre-Muslim India, histories of the Ghaznavid kings of Lahore, and information on the rulers of Delhi. Also included is Briggs' valuable comparative chronology of events in Europe and India.

Memoirs of the Emperor Jahangueir
  • Written by Himself
  • Jahangir
  • Translated by David Price
  • Published online:
    05 March 2014
    Print publication:
    28 March 2013
    First published in:
    1829
  • The manuscript source for this translation of the memoirs of the Mughal emperor Jahangir (1569–1627) is the spurious Tarikh-i-Salim Shahi, produced around three years after its subject's death. Serving the East India Company from 1781 as a soldier and, following injury, as a translator, agent and judge-advocate-general, David Price (1762–1835) studied Persian and collected many manuscripts. After leaving India in 1805, he devoted his time to scholarship as a member of the Royal Asiatic Society and the Oriental Translation Fund, which awarded him its gold medal in 1830. In this work, first published in 1829, Price notes throughout where the source is illegible, problematic or incongruous. The translation is carefully made and provides an account of the reign and character of Jahangir which corresponds in places to the authentic memoirs, although containing several factual inaccuracies. Despite this, it remains a colourful reflection of Mughal historiography.

History of the Rise of the Mahomedan Power in India, till the Year AD 1612
  • Volume 4
  • Mahomed Kasim Ferishta
  • Translated by John Briggs
  • Published online:
    05 July 2014
    Print publication:
    28 March 2013
    First published in:
    1829
  • The Persian chronicler Ferishta (1560–1620) composed his great work, published in this four-volume English translation in 1829, at the court of Bijapur - where he spent most of his life - under the patronage of King Ibrahim Adil Shah II. It covers Muslim India from around 975 to 1612 and is notable for its balance, despite Ferishta's close involvement with some of the events and people he records. Valuable additions to the text made by the translator, East India Company officer John Briggs (1785–1875), include genealogical tables and notes, as well as a comparative chronology of events in Europe and India. Volume 4 covers the kings of Gujarat, Malwa, Khandesh, Bengal and Bihar, Jaunpur, and Multan. There are also histories of Sindh and Kashmir. A comparative chronology of the minor kingdoms that eventually became part of the Mughal empire is included, and Briggs' appendices provide glossaries of names and places.

History of the Afghans
  • Translated from the Persian of Neamet Ullah
  • Haravi Nimat Allah
  • Translated by Bernhard Dorn
  • Published online:
    05 July 2014
    Print publication:
    06 June 2013
    First published in:
    1829
  • History of the Afghans was compiled by Nimat Allah (fl.1613–30) at the court of the Mughal emperor Jahangir (1569–1627). Drawing on various manuscript sources, it contains both mythical and historical accounts of the Afghan people. The wide coverage includes discussion of the Pashtun and their origins, the prophet Yakub (Jacob), King Talut (Saul) and the Afghan migration to Ghor, the late medieval sultans Bahlul, Sikandar and Ibrahim of the Lodi dynasty, and the lives of saints. The work also features the genealogy of Afghan tribes as well as reports of miracles. The German orientalist Bernhard Dorn (1805–81) published this English translation from the original Persian between 1829 and 1836. This reissue incorporates the separately published parts in one volume. Dorn's respected translation of this important text remains of interest to scholars of Asiatic history and tradition.

A Dictionary of the Burman Language
  • With Explanations in English
  • Adoniram Judson
  • Published online:
    05 March 2014
    Print publication:
    28 March 2013
    First published in:
    1826
  • This is the 1826 edition of the Burmese–English dictionary compiled from a grammar and other manuscripts written by the American Baptist missionary Adoniram Judson (1788–1850), with additional content by fellow missionaries Felix Carey and James Coleman. Prepared by the Baptist Mission Press while Judson was imprisoned on suspicion of spying in Ava, it is the fruit of his work towards making the written word an evangelistic tool. He was convinced from the first that the translation and publication of Christian scriptures and a familiarity with indigenous languages and customs was the most effective and enduring form of evangelism, and to this end he published a Burmese New Testament in 1832. Judson finished compiling his groundbreaking and comprehensive bilingual dictionary in 1849, shortly before his death. This earlier work, with headwords in Burmese script followed by English definitions, remains relevant in historical linguistics.

A Dictionary of the Bengalee Language
  • In Which the Words Are Traced to their Origin, and their Various Meanings Given
  • Volume 1
  • William Carey
  • Published online:
    05 March 2014
    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 first 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 of the Bengalee Language
  • In Which the Words Are Traced to their Origin, and their Various Meanings Given
  • Volume 2, Part 1
  • William Carey
  • Published online:
    05 March 2014
    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 second 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 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.

Notes of Proceedings and Occurrences, during the British Embassy to Pekin, in 1816
  • George Thomas Staunton
  • Published online:
    05 April 2014
    Print publication:
    28 March 2013
    First published in:
    1824
  • Sir George Thomas Staunton (1781–1859), Sinologist and politician, was a key figure in Anglo-Chinese relations, as had been his father. In 1798 he began working for the British East India Company in Canton (Guangzhou), where he was the only Englishman who could understand Chinese, having begun learning it as a child. By 1815, British trade with China was worth over £4 million in tea duties alone, and there was immense pressure for the Chinese to relax their restrictions. In 1816, following earlier failed missions, an embassy, including Staunton as second commissioner, was organised to seek better trading conditions and to press the emperor for the opening up of a second harbour. Chinese mistrust and British arrogance led to the failure of the embassy, with no imperial audience given. This account, privately published in 1824, is a valuable document in the understanding of the historical background to Britain's relationship with China into the twentieth century.

A Grammar of the High Dialect of the Tamil Language, Termed Shen-Tamil
  • To Which is Added, an Introduction to Tamil Poetry
  • C. G. Beschi
  • Translated by B. G. Babington
  • Published online:
    05 May 2014
    Print publication:
    18 April 2013
    First published in:
    1822
  • Published in 1822, but completed in manuscript form almost 100 years earlier, this work was designed to accompany Beschi's earlier Grammar of Common Tamil. While the latter enabled the student to speak the language, this reissue offers a way into reading Tamil's classical literature with its complexity of thought and technique. One of the earliest and most distinguished pioneers in the field of Tamil studies, C. G. Beschi (1680–1747) was a Jesuit missionary in Madura, as well as a translator and composer of Tamil poetry. Since this treatise was not previously formally printed, this translation by B. G. Babington (1794–1866), from the original Latin, is based on a collation of texts, transcriptions and copies. In his preface, Babington outlines errata and problems stemming from this process, and makes explanatory notes where necessary. The work nevertheless remains a groundbreaking study of an ancient and complex language by a sensitive and thorough scholar and a gifted translator.

History of the Indian Archipelago
  • Containing an Account of the Manners, Art, Languages, Religions, Institutions, and Commerce of its Inhabitants
  • Volume 1
  • John Crawfurd
  • Published online:
    05 July 2014
    Print publication:
    28 March 2013
    First published in:
    1820
  • Trained as a doctor, John Crawfurd (1783–1868) went on to have a distinguished career in colonial administration with the East India Company. He held senior posts in Java from 1811 to 1816, including that of resident at the court of Yogyakarta. A talented linguist and ethnologist, Crawfurd acquired a sound knowledge of ancient Kawi and contemporary Javanese. Upon his return to Britain in 1817, he became a fellow of the Royal Society and published this three-volume work on the Indonesian islands, principally Java, to great acclaim. Following further service abroad, he published accounts of his various missions in south-east Asia and an encyclopaedic sequel to the present work (all of which are reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection). Volume 1 examines the character and manners of the islanders as well as their arts, sciences, medicine, and agricultural techniques.

History of the Indian Archipelago
  • Containing an Account of the Manners, Art, Languages, Religions, Institutions, and Commerce of its Inhabitants
  • Volume 2
  • John Crawfurd
  • Published online:
    05 March 2014
    Print publication:
    18 April 2013
    First published in:
    1820
  • Trained as a doctor, John Crawfurd (1783–1868) went on to have a distinguished career in colonial administration with the East India Company. He held senior posts in Java from 1811 to 1816, including that of resident at the court of Yogyakarta. A talented linguist and ethnologist, Crawfurd acquired a sound knowledge of ancient Kawi and contemporary Javanese. Upon his return to Britain in 1817, he became a fellow of the Royal Society and published this three-volume work on the Indonesian islands, principally Java, to great acclaim. Following further service abroad, he published accounts of his various missions in south-east Asia and an encyclopaedic sequel to the present work (all of which are reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection). Volume 2 examines language, literature, religion, and history, and the impact of Islam, Christianity and European colonisation.

History of the Indian Archipelago
  • Containing an Account of the Manners, Art, Languages, Religions, Institutions, and Commerce of its Inhabitants
  • Volume 3
  • John Crawfurd
  • Published online:
    05 July 2014
    Print publication:
    28 March 2013
    First published in:
    1820
  • Trained as a doctor, John Crawfurd (1783–1868) went on to have a distinguished career in colonial administration with the East India Company. He held senior posts in Java from 1811 to 1816, including that of resident at the court of Yogyakarta. A talented linguist and ethnologist, Crawfurd acquired a sound knowledge of ancient Kawi and contemporary Javanese. Upon his return to Britain in 1817, he became a fellow of the Royal Society and published this three-volume work on the Indonesian islands, principally Java, to great acclaim. Following further service abroad, he published accounts of his various missions in south-east Asia and an encyclopaedic sequel to the present work (all of which are reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection). Volume 3 examines political institutions and commerce, covering major exports and imports along with demographics, public revenue and laws.

The Annals of the College of Fort William
  • From the Period of its Foundation to the Present Time
  • Compiled by Thomas Roebuck
  • Published online:
    05 June 2014
    Print publication:
    18 April 2013
    First published in:
    1819
  • Fort William College was an academy established in Calcutta in 1800 by the British colonial administrator Richard Wellesley (1760–1842). Its purpose was to train British officials in numerous oriental languages, which resulted in the publication of several pioneering reference works and thousands of translated texts. First published in 1819, this book was compiled by Thomas Roebuck (1781–1819), assistant secretary to the college's council, as a tribute to Lord Wellesley's work. It contains records of all the memorable events that had taken place at the college since its establishment; Roebuck believed this would help new students in learning the principles on which the college was founded, and how former students had benefited accordingly. Drawing on official documents and containing writings by Wellesley himself, the work offers historians and linguists a valuable insight into a highly influential institution in British India.

Historical Sketches of the South of India
  • In an Attempt to Trace the History of Mysoor, from the Origin of the Hindoo Government of that State, to the Extinction of the Mohammedan Dynasty in 1799
  • Volume 2
  • Mark Wilks
  • Published online:
    05 March 2014
    Print publication:
    28 March 2013
    First published in:
    1817
  • Classically educated, Mark Wilks (c.1760–1831) joined the Madras army of the East India Company and would go on to serve as political resident at the court of Mysore from 1803 to 1808. He also later served as governor of Saint Helena from 1813 to 1816, during which time he witnessed the arrival of Napoleon Bonaparte. Elected to the Manx parliament in 1816, Wilks became its speaker in 1826 and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in the same year. Drawing on state records and his own experiences, he first published this acclaimed three-volume history of the kingdom of Mysore between 1810 and 1817. Volume 2 details the first (1767–9) and second (1779–84) Anglo-Mysore wars, concluding with the death of Hyder Ali (c.1720–82) and the accession of Tipu Sultan (1750–99).

Algebra, with Arithmetic and Mensuration
  • From the Sanscrit of Brahmegupta and Bhascara
  • Brahmagupta
  • Translated by H. T. Colebrooke
  • Published online:
    05 June 2014
    Print publication:
    18 April 2013
    First published in:
    1817
  • The scholar and East India Company administrator Henry Thomas Colebrooke (1765–1837) brought India's rich mathematical heritage to the attention of the wider world with the publication of this book in 1817. Based on Sanskrit texts, it contains English translations of classic works by the Indian mathematicians and astronomers Brahmagupta (598–668) and Bhascara (1114–85), who were instrumental thinkers in the development of algebra. Included here are translations of chapters 12 and 18 of Brahmagupta's best-known work, Brahmasphutasiddhanta, focusing on arithmetic and algebra respectively. Also included in this book are translations of two of the greatest works by Bhascara: Lilavati, his treatise on arithmetic, and Bijaganita, on algebra. Furthermore, Colebrooke's introduction aims to position the Indian advancement of algebra in relation to its development by the Greeks and Arabs.

Historical Sketches of the South of India
  • In an Attempt to Trace the History of Mysoor, from the Origin of the Hindoo Government of that State, to the Extinction of the Mohammedan Dynasty in 1799
  • Volume 3
  • Mark Wilks
  • Published online:
    05 April 2014
    Print publication:
    28 March 2013
    First published in:
    1817
  • Classically educated, Mark Wilks (c.1760–1831) joined the Madras army of the East India Company and would go on to serve as political resident at the court of Mysore from 1803 to 1808. He also later served as governor of Saint Helena from 1813 to 1816, during which time he witnessed the arrival of Napoleon Bonaparte. Elected to the Manx parliament in 1816, Wilks became its speaker in 1826 and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in the same year. Drawing on state records and his own experiences, he first published this acclaimed three-volume history of the kingdom of Mysore between 1810 and 1817. Volume 3 narrates the history of the third (1789–92) and fourth (1798–9) Anglo-Mysore wars, the capture of Seringapatam and the death of Tipu Sultan (1750–99).

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.

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