Edward Byles Cowell

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Charles Edmund Brock
, 1895.

Edward Byles Cowell, FBA (23 January 1826 – 9 February 1903) was a noted translator of Persian poetry and the first professor of Sanskrit at Cambridge University. [1]

Early life

Cowell was born in Ipswich, the son of Charles Cowell and Marianne Byles.[2] Samuel Cowell, the printer, was his uncle and Elizabeth "Beth" Cowell, the painter, was his sister.[3]

He became interested in Oriental languages at the age of fifteen, when he found a copy of Sir William Jones's works (including his Persian Grammar) in the public library. Self-taught, he began translating and publishing Hafez within the year.

On the death of his father in 1842 he took over the family business. He married in 1845, and in 1850 entered

Asiatic Society's library and sent a copy to London for his friend and student, Edward Fitzgerald, who then produced the famous English translations (the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
, 1859). He also published, unsigned, an introduction to Khayyám with translations of thirty quatrains in the Calcutta Review (1858).

Having studied

Royal Asiatic Society's first gold medal in 1898, and in 1902 became a founding member of the British Academy
.

In 1904 Macmillan published Life and Letters of Edward Byles Cowell: Professor of Sanskrit at Cambridge, 1867–1903 by his cousin George Cowell, F.R.C.S.[6]

Selected works

  • "The Mesnavi of Jelaleddin Rumi," The Gentleman's Magazine, N.S. 30, 1848, pp. 39–46, 148–52.
  • "Persian Cuneiform Inscriptions and Persian Ballads," Westminster and Foreign Quarterly Review 53, 1850, pp. 38–56.
  • "Omar Khayyam, the Astronomer Poet of Persia", Calcutta Review 30, 1858, pp. 149–62.
  • "Gyges' Ring in Plato and Nizami," J(R)ASB 3, no. 2, 1861, pp. 151–57.
  • "An Inaugural Lecture, delivered October 23, 1867" [on the foundation of the Sanskrit Professorship at the University of Cambridge]. London ; Cambridge : Macmillan & Co., 1867.
  • "Two Kasídahs of the Persian Poet Anwarí," with E. H. Palmer, The Journal of Philology 4, no. 7, 1872, pp. 1–47.
  • Buddhist Mahâyâna Texts. Part 1. The Buddha-karita of
    Asvaghosha, translated from the Sanskrit, in the Sacred Books of the East, vol. 49, Oxford University Press
    , 1894.
  • The Jataka or Stories of the Buddha's Former Births, Vol.1-6, Cambridge at the University Press (1895).

References

  1. ^ "Review of Disraeli by Walter Sichel". The Oxford Magazine. 23. The Proprietors: 182–183. 8 February 1905.
  2. ^ Beard, Jacqui. "Family of Charles COWELL and Marianne BYLES". eastanglianancestors.co.uk. Jacqui Beard. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
  3. ^ "Suffolk Artists - COWELL, Betha". suffolkartists.co.uk. Suffolk ARtists. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
  4. ^ Official website of Sanskrit College, Principals of Sanskrit College
  5. ^ "Cowell, Edward Byles (CWL867EB)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  6. ^ "Review of Life and Letters of Edward Byles Cowell: Professor of Sanskrit at Cambridge, 1867–1903 by George Cowell, F.R.C.S." The Oxford Magazine. 23. The Proprietors: 182–183. 8 February 1905.

External links

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