Bøger i Cambridge Library Collection - Perspectives from the Royal Asiatic Society serien

First published in 1834, this was the first known dictionary of Tibetan, by the founder of the field of Tibetology. Containing over 20,000 entries with English translations, it begins with a useful guide to understanding Tibetan words, and the entries themselves are arranged primarily under the language's thirty consonants.

While living in India for sixteen years, James Robert Ballantyne (1813-64) taught oriental languages to Indian pupils and became fascinated by Hindu philosophy, seeking to harmonise it with the Western tradition. He produced grammars of Hindi, Sanskrit and Persian, translations of Indian linguistics, and a science primer in English and Sanskrit (also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection). Intended for the Tyro missionary and published in 1859, this work offers a summary of Hinduism (covering the Nyaya, Sankhya and Vedanta schools) and argues for the truth of Christianity, while acknowledging certain shared ideas. It contains a facing Sanskrit translation (with redactions of parts considered to be of no importance to 'those whom the missionary has to teach'). A valuable primary source for scholars of orientalism, this work helps to illuminate the religious dimensions of British imperialism.

Marathi, an official language of Maharashtra and Goa, is among the twenty most widely spoken languages in the world. The southernmost Indo-Aryan language, it is also spoken in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, and Daman and Diu, and is believed to be over 1,300 years old, with its origins in Sanskrit. First published in 1805, this grammar of Marathi (then known as Mahratta) was 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 their learning of the language, and it is comprehensive in ITS coverage, providing numerous examples. Containing detailed descriptions of Marathi's Devanagari alphabet, its word and sentence formation, and its complex tense, voice, gender, agreement, inflection, and case systems, the work remains an invaluable resource for linguists today. Carey's 1810 dictionary of Marathi is also reissued in this series.

Marathi, an official language of Maharashtra and Goa, is among the twenty most widely spoken languages in the world. The southernmost Indo-Aryan language, it is also spoken in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, and Daman and Diu, and is believed to be over 1,300 years old, with its origins in Sanskrit. First published in 1810, this dictionary of Marathi (then known as Mahratta) was compiled by the Baptist missionary William Carey (1761-1834). Written during his time in India, it aimed to help European visitors communicate for business and social purposes with native speakers of the language. Methodical in its approach, it gives concise meanings and labels the various parts of speech. Containing over 9,500 entries in Devanagari script with English translations, it remains of interest to historical linguists and language typologists. Carey's 1805 grammar of Marathi is also reissued in this series.

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.

An English civil servant who worked in British India and Nepal, Brian Houghton Hodgson (c.1801-94) was also a specialist in Tibetan Buddhism. First published in 1874, this is a collection of his essays on nineteenth-century Nepal and Tibet, earlier versions of which had appeared in the Journal of the Bengal Asiatic Society and two books of Hodgson's own, later updated for the Phoenix, a monthly magazine for China, Japan and eastern Asia. Diverse in coverage, the essays represent over thirty years' research. Those in Part 1 focus on Buddhism, covering religious practices, writing, literature, attitudes to Buddhism and the differences between Buddhism and Shaivism. The pieces in Part 2 explore other aspects of Nepal and the Himalayas, such as tribal culture, colonisation and commerce. Discussing a range of linguistic, cultural, sociological and economic topics, this collection remains relevant to scholars working in these fields.

An important mathematician and astronomer in medieval India, Bhascara Acharya (1114-85) wrote treatises on arithmetic, algebra, geometry and astronomy. He is also believed to have been head of the astronomical observatory at Ujjain, which was the leading centre of mathematical sciences in India. Forming part of his Sanskrit magnum opus Siddhanta Shiromani, the present work is his treatise on algebra. It was first published in English in 1813 after being translated from a Persian text by the East India Company civil servant Edward Strachey (1774-1832). The topics covered include operations involving positive and negative numbers, surds and zero, as well as algebraic, simultaneous and indeterminate equations. Strachey also appends useful notes made by the orientalist Samuel Davis (1760-1819). Of enduring interest in the history of mathematics, this was notably the first work to acknowledge that a positive number has two square roots.

Chinese, in its various forms, is spoken today by over a billion people, making it the most spoken language in the world. A member of the Sino-Tibetan family, it is a tone language with an analytic structure. First published in 1814, this grammar of colloquial Chinese was compiled by the Christian missionary Joshua Marshman (1768-1837), who was inspired to do so after preparing a Chinese translation of the Bible. It begins with a preliminary essay outlining the characters of Chinese, its tones, its system of monosyllables and its relationship to neighbouring languages. The grammar itself is extensive, covering all aspects of the language's structure, including case, agreement, pronouns, verbs, mood, tense, prosody, parts of speech and dialect variation. Illustrated with numerous examples and explaining each grammatical concept in detail, this work remains useful and relevant in historical linguistics.

The orientalist Edward William Lane (1801-1876) is best remembered for his mighty Arabic-English Lexicon and his classic translation of One Thousand and One Nights. Fascinated by Egypt, he made his first visit in 1825, undertaking a study of Egyptian life and customs which became his Description of Egypt, unpublished until more than a century after his death. His two-volume Modern Egyptians (also reissued in this series) remains an important text today. Material for the lexicon was collected in Cairo between 1842 and 1849 and, upon returning to England, Lane became a virtual recluse while compiling it. Following his death, the publication of the last three volumes was supervised by his great-nephew Stanley Lane-Poole (1854-1931). The sixth was prefaced with this biographical account, first published separately in 1877. It is based upon family recollections, the manuscript of Description of Egypt, and Lane's diary of his second stay there.

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 GBP4 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.

Eugene Burnouf (1801-52), an eminent French orientalist and scholar of Sanskrit, made groundbreaking contributions to the knowledge of Zoroastrianism and to the deciphering of the Zend and Pali languages. He was a member of the Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, and of numerous Asiatic societies throughout Europe. When he first published this monumental work of scholarship in 1844, Burnouf established European Buddhist studies on solid foundations. In it, he presents the Indian historical context in which Buddhism developed, as well as its connections and debates with Brahmanism. He also sheds light on the role of the caste system in this religion. To this day, Burnouf's pioneering vision continues to shape our understanding of Buddhism. This second edition was published posthumously in 1876, with an introduction by the French philosopher and journalist Jules Barthelemy Saint-Hilaire (1805-95). It remains of relevance to students of religion, oriental studies and Indian history.

Scotsman Charles Grant (1746-1823) travelled to India in 1767. During his 22-year stay, he rose through the ranks of the East India Company, serving as a member of the company's board of trade. Following his return to Britain, he served three times as the company's chairman and was also elected to Parliament. His conversion to a fervent form of Christianity had occurred in 1776, making him a well-known advocate of evangelisation in the newly acquired British territories. In this work, he launches a strong attack on Hindu belief, labelling it as depraved, degenerate and despotic. 'The true cure of darkness is the introduction of light,' he argues. Written in 1792 but first published in 1797, this work was also presented to Parliament in 1813 in a bid to influence the renewal and amendment of the East India Company's charter.

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.

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 Muteferrika (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.

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 Academie 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.

The orientalist James Robert Ballantyne (1813-64) published this two-volume work in 1852. Intended for his Indian pupils, with Sanskrit translation and employing the style of Hindu philosophy, it is an excellent primary source on the educational aspects of British imperialism. Volume 1 introduces astronomy, geography, Newtonian motion, pneumatics, acoustics and optics.

A key figure in Benares (Varanasi), James Prinsep (1799-1840) was instrumental in expanding Western knowledge of Indian civilisation. Collected in two volumes in 1858 and edited by the numismatist Edward Thomas (1813-86), these essays are generously illustrated and display the enormous breadth of Prinsep's knowledge.

An honorary professor of Sanskrit at Calcutta's Fort William College, Henry Thomas Colebrooke (1765-1837) became Britain's foremost orientalist during the early nineteenth century. Published in 1801, this three-volume compilation and translation of Brahman law was based on the unfinished work of the scholar Sir William Jones (1747-94).

Published between 1867 and 1877, this is an extensive eight-volume translation and study of the histories of Muslim India. The work is not only valuable for its translation of important extracts, but also serves as a fascinating example of the use of historiography as a colonial tool.

Published in 1794, this is a two-volume history of the Islamic kingdoms of southern India based around translations by orientalist Jonathan Scott (1753-1829). Volume 1 comprises the work of the renowned Persian chronicler Ferishta (1560-1620) from the thirteenth to the end of the sixteenth century.

In 1838, Silvestre de Sacy (1758-1838), the father of Arab scholarship in Europe, published this pioneering two-volume work on the Druze, before many sources were brought to light. Volume 1 reveals the doctrine's origins in the early history of the Ismaili movement during the reign of al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah.

Little is known of Captain Alexander Hamilton (b. before 1688, d. around 1733) other than what he tells us in this lively and compelling travelogue. First published in 1727, his invaluable historical and geographical picture of south-east Asia between 1688 and 1723 is spiced with tales of piracy and poisoning.

This four-volume work, published in 1829, was the first major English translation of Persian chronicler Ferishta's monumental history of the Muslim presence in India. Notable as the most reliable of contemporary accounts of the Mughal empire, Ferishta's seventeenth-century work is a valuable source on life in India before British colonisation.

This 1791 four-volume English translation of a key text of Islamic law was undertaken by Charles Hamilton (c.1752-92), an orientalist working for the East India Company. It is an important work in the administrative history of British India, reflecting the development of the Anglo-Islamic legal system.

Still valuable today for its insight into the workings of the Siamese (Thai) court and its diplomatic relations in the mid-nineteenth century, this 1857 two-volume study was the most successful of Bowring's varied body of work. It also contains an introduction to the country of Siam and its people.

A celebrated lawyer, translator and poet, Sir William Jones (1746-94) wrote prolifically and authoritatively on politics, comparative linguistics and oriental literature. These thirteen volumes, first published in 1807, contain Jones' complete writings, including seminal works such as The Principles of Government (1782), 'On the Hindus' (1786), and Sacontala (1789).

Published in 1825, this is the first volume of a revised three-part dictionary of the Indo-Aryan language Bengali. Containing over 100,000 entries with English translations, it was intended to include every simple word in the language. The author's reference works on Marathi and Sanskrit are also reissued in this series.

This six-volume work on the history and philosophy of Sikhism, published in 1909 by Max Arthur Macauliffe (1841-1913), a former deputy commissioner of the Punjab, is considered his magnum opus. Volume 1 covers the life and compositions of Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh religion.

Fluent in Arabic, Edward William Lane (1801-76) devoted his life's study to Egypt, where he lived for many years. This well-illustrated two-volume work was first published in 1836. Volume 1 covers climate, housing, education and domestic life; systems of religion, law and government; and language, literature, sciences and magic.

Mountstuart Elphinstone (1779-1859) was a respected and enlightened administrator in India. This two-volume history, based on a range of Indian sources and first published in 1841, is infused with his lifelong understanding of Indian culture. It was the most popular work of its kind among the early Victorian public.