Papers of Michael John Rowlandson

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Michael John Rowlandson was born in 1804, in Hungerford, Berkshire, his father being the Vicar of Warminster. He joined the Indian army as a cadet in 1820, becoming a lieutenant in 1821 and a major in 1824.He served at the College of Fort St. George as a Persian and Arabic translator and teacher and produced an Arabic textbook, "An analysis of Arabic quotations which occur in the Gulistan of Muslih-ud-Deen Sheikh Sadi, as collated with and according to the editions of Gentius and Gladwin, accompanied by a free translation: to which are added Persian illustrations of the same, and remarks on Arabic grammar, both in the English and Persian languages, the latter being extracts from the Muntiʼkhib alsurf of Moulevy Syed Ameer Hyder", for use at the College in 1828. He then went on to translate "Tohfut-ul-mujahideen", which was published by the Oriental Translation Society in 1833. He was also the author of some Christian tracts including "A Basket of Fragments and Crumbs for the Children of God" and "Specimens of Much Fine Gold". He died in Bournemouth in 1894.

Due to the small size of the Collection it was catalogued as one series.

Open. Please contact the archivist using the email address given here. The archive is open on Tuesdays and Fridays 10-5, and Thursdays 2-5. Access is to any researcher without appointment but it will help if an appointment is made via phone or email. Please bring photo ID

The Papers were donated by Muriel Turner, great-granddaughter of Rowlandson, in 1982.

The Papers were catalogued by Nancy Charley, RAS Archivist, in 2018.

Digital photography (without flash) for research purposes may be permitted upon completion of a copyright declaration form, and with respect to current UK copyright law.

The papers were the private documents of Rowlandson and seem to have been kept within the family until their donation to the Royal Asiatic Society in 1982.

Within the RAS Collections we also have:

• Tohfut-ul-mujahideen : an historical work in the Arabic language / translated into English by M.J. Rowlandson. (1833)
• An analysis of Arabic quotations which occur in the Gulistan of Muslih-ud-Deen Sheikh Sadi, as collated with and according to the editions of Gentius and Gladwin, accompanied by a free translation: to which are added Persian illustrations of the same, and remarks on Arabic grammar, both in the English and Persian languages, the latter being extracts from the Muntiʼkhib alsurf of Moulevy Syed Ameer Hyder / by M.J.Rowlandson. (1828)
• Tuḥfat al-mujāhidīn fī baʻḍ akhbār al-Burtukālīyīn / Malībārī, Zayn al-Dīn ibn ʻAbd al-ʻAzīz (مليباري، زين الدين بن عبد العزيز) (1246) - "Copy of the Tohfat al-mujahiden to accompany Capt. Rowlandson's translation when sent to the Oriental Translation Committee April 18th 1830" RAS Arabic 28 in . Arabic