The Persian Moonshee. by GLADWIN, Francis (-1813) - 1801

Calcutta & Re-Printed in London:: Oriental Press, by Wilson & Co., … for J. Debrett, Opposite Burlington-House, Piccadilly; and J. Sewell, 1801., 1801. Three parts in one. 4to. [vi], 106 pp., 74 ff., 82 pp. 1-13, + pls. numbered: 81-92, 95, 97, 99, 101, 103, 106[a], 106[b] plates [i.e. 32 total plates, each displaying Arabic or Persian typesetting]; light foxing, marginal worm trails at rear (about 16 leaves – none with any effect to the typography). Lacks half-title and publisher's ads (2 pp., at end). Modern antique-style half calf, brown cloth sides, raised bands, gilt spine title, edges with original marbling, preserving original endleaves. Very good copy. Third edition (First London issue), preceded by two Calcutta printings [attributed to 1795, 1800]. "The Persian Moonshee is a Book well known to Oriental Scholars. It was compiled upwards of twenty years ago for the use of the Students in the College of Fort William, and went through two Editions in India. In 1801, a reprint was made in London, which being now all disposed of, and no other edition having been announced to the Public, the present Editor considers he will render an essential service to Students of the Persian Language, in publishing such parts of the above work as he has already printed for the use of use own pupils." – Carmichael William Smyth, The Persian Moonshee, by the late Francis Gladwin, abridged, 1822. CONTENTS: I. Persian Grammar with 13 copper plates of specimens of Nastalik writing. II. The Pandnamah of S'adi in Persian on 12 copper plates, with an English translation. III. Specimens of Shikast-amiz writing on 5 copper plates. IV. Specimens of Naskh character on 2 copper-plates. V. Hikayat-i latif dar 'ibarat-i salis Pleasant Stories in an easy style. VI. Ahval-i hukama az khulasat al-akhbar tasnif-i Amir Khavandshah [Mir Khvand] An account of the Philosophers from the Khulasat al Akhbar of Amir Khawand Shah or rather Khandamir. VII. Qava'id al-sultanat-i Shah-i Jihan, or Rules observed during the reign of Shahjehan. VIII. Phrases and dialogues in Persian and English, compiled under the direction of W. Chambers. IX. Three chapters of St. Matthew's Gospel, translated into Persian by W. Chambers.] Persian and English]. / "GLADWIN, FRANCIS (d. ca. 1813), lexicographer and prolific translator of Persian literature into English. He served in the Bengal Army and later, owing to his remarkable linguistic ability, became one of the three professors of Persian at Fort William College in Calcutta in 1800, the year of its establishment. He was a founding member of the Asiatic Society of Bengal and carried out his scholarly works and translations under the patronage of Warren Hastings. / "Gladwin published several dictionaries, including The Persian Guide, Exhibiting the Arabic Derivatives (Calcutta, 1800) and A Dictionary, Persian, Hindoostanee and English, including Synonyma (Calcutta, 1809), which was based on John Richardson's Dictionary, Persian, Arabic, English … (2 vols., Oxford, 1777) but omitted the Arabic synonyms. / "Gladwin was an able translator with an elegant and precise diction. His translations were accompanied by the original Persian text. His complete translation of Sa'di's Golestan (The Gulistan of Sady, 2 vols., Calcutta, 1806), written in lucid, uniform prose (no distinction being made between its poetry and prose passages), succeeds in conveying much of the rhetoric of the original. … His Dissertations on the Rhetoric, Prosody and Rhyme of the Persians (Calcutta, 1801) is based on translations from Persian works including Sayfi's Aru. He also translated Jami's Neab-e tajnis al-loat as Resemblances Linear and Verbal, a Philological Poem(2nd. ed., London, 1811). Gladwin's translation of Aar's Pand-nama (as A Compendium of Ethics, Calcutta, 1788), which he erroneously attributed to Sadi, is included in his famous Persian Moonshee (Calcutta, 1795), which is itself a collection of various pieces of work, ranging from a grammar of Persian to the translation of three chapters of St. Matthew's Gospel into Persian by William Chambers, whose Persian monsi (scribe/tutor) had provided the contents of section four of part two of the book and who most probably inspired its title. The book was also meant to replace a Persian monsi for would-be students of Persian. Gladwin also translated Jean Frederic Osterwald's Abrege de l'histoire sainte et du catechisme into Persian as Ostervald's Abridgement of the History of the Bible; and Catechetical Instructions, with a Persian Translation (Calcutta, 1792). / "Among his many other works, Gladwin's translation of the A'in-e Akbari (as Ayeen Akbery, or the Institutes of the Emperor Akber, 3 vols. in 2, London, 1783-86) is well known. He also compiled A Dictionary of Religious Ceremonies of the Eastern Nations (Calcutta, 1787), based on Barthelemy d'Herbelot's Bibliotheque orientale (Maestricht, 1776), and he translated a polyglot medical dictionary by Mohammad 'Abd-Allah Sirazi (as Ulfaz Udwiyeh or the Materia Medica, in the Arabic, Persian, and Hindevy Languages, Calcutta, 1793). He edited the Asiatic Miscellany (2 vols, Calcutta, 1785-86) and the New Asiatic Miscellany (Calcutta,1789), which include many translations from Persian by himself and other authors." – Parvin Loloi. REFERENCES: Ghani 482; Graesse III, 91; Arthur J. Arberry, Classical Persian Literature, London, 1958; John D. Yohannan, Persian Poetry in England and America: A 200-Year History, Delmar, N.Y., 1977. – Parvin Loloi – for the Encyclopaedia Iranica.