Edward Henry Palmer

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Edward Henry Palmer

Edward Henry Palmer (7 August 1840 – 10 August 1882), known as E. H. Palmer, was an English orientalist and explorer.

Nitzana
) in the Negev Desert as illustrated by Palmer (1872) in his The Desert of the Exodus.

Biography

Youth and education

Palmer was born in Green Street, Cambridge the son of a private schoolmaster. He was orphaned at an early age and brought up by an aunt. He was educated at The Perse School, and as a schoolboy showed the characteristic bent of his mind by picking up the Romani language and a great familiarity with the life of the Romani people. From school he was sent to London as a clerk in the city. Palmer disliked this life, and varied it by learning French and Italian, mainly by frequenting the society of foreigners wherever he could find it.[1]

In 1859 he returned to Cambridge, almost dying of tuberculosis. He made a miraculous recovery, and in 1860, while he was thinking of a new start in life, fell in with Sayyid Abdallah, teacher of Hindustani at Cambridge, under whose influence he began his Oriental studies. He matriculated at St John's College, Cambridge in November 1863, and in 1867 was elected a fellow on account of his attainments as an orientalist, especially in Persian and Hindustani.[1][2]

Orientalism and exploration

During his residence at St John's he catalogued the Persian,

Charles Drake. They completed this journey on foot and without escort, making friends among the Bedouin, to whom Palmer was known as Abdallah Effendi.[1]

Front page of Edward Palmer's The Desert of the Exodus (1872)

After a visit to the

Arminius Vambéry. The results of this expedition appeared in the Desert of the Exodus (1871); in a report published in the journal of the Palestine Exploration Fund (1871); and in an article on the "Secret Sects of Syria" in the Quarterly Review (1873).[1]

In the close of the year 1871 he became

Cambridge University, married, and settled down to teaching. His salary was small, and his affairs were further complicated by the long illness of his wife, who died in 1878. In 1881, two years after his second marriage, he left Cambridge, and joined the staff of the Standard to write on non-political subjects. He was called to the English bar in 1874.[citation needed
]

Murder

Early in 1882 Palmer was asked by the government to go to the East and assist the Egyptian expedition by his influence over the Arabs of the El-Tih desert. He was instructed, apparently, to prevent the Arab sheikhs from joining the Egyptian rebels and to secure their non-interference with the Suez Canal. He went to Gaza without an escort; made his way safely through the desert to Suez, an exploit of singular boldness; and was highly successful in his negotiations with the Bedouin. He was appointed interpreter-in-chief to the force in Egypt, and from Suez he was again sent into the desert with Captain William Gill and Flag-Lieutenant Harold Charrington to procure camels and gain the allegiance of the sheikhs by considerable presents of money. On this journey he and his companions were led into an ambush and murdered (August 1882). Their remains, recovered after the war by the efforts of Sir Charles (then Colonel) Warren, now lie in St Paul's Cathedral.[1]

Works

Books

According to the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, "Palmer's highest qualities appeared in his travels, especially in the heroic adventures of his last journeys. His brilliant scholarship is displayed rather in the works he wrote in Persian and other Eastern languages than in his English books, which were generally written under pressure. His scholarship was wholly Eastern in character, and lacked the critical qualities of the modern school of Oriental learning in Europe. All his works show a great linguistic range and very versatile talent; but he left no permanent literary monument worthy of his powers."[1]

His chief writings are

He was also an editor of Name Lists of the Palestine Exploration.

Manuals of Arabic language and grammar (links)

  • Edward Henry Palmer (1881). The Arabic manual: Comprising a condensed grammar of both the classical and modern Arabic; reading lessons and exercises, with analyses; and a vocabulary of useful words. W.H. Allen & co. p. 315. Retrieved 6 July 2011.
  • E H Palmer (1885). The Arabic manual: comprising a condensed grammar of both the classical and modern Arabic, reading lessons and exercises, with analyses, and a vocabulary of useful words (2 ed.). W. H. Allen. pp. 315. Retrieved 6 July 2011.
  • Edward Henry Palmer (1874). A grammar of the Arabic language. W.H. Allen. pp. 414. Retrieved 6 July 2011.
  • Edward Henry Palmer (1874). A grammar of the Arabic language. W.H. Allen & Co. pp. 414. Retrieved 6 July 2011.
  • Edward Henry Palmer (1874). A grammar of the Arabic language. W.H. Allen & Company. Retrieved 6 July 2011.
  • Edward Henry Palmer (1874). A grammar of the Arabic language (Harvard University ed.). W.H. Allen & Co. pp. 414. Retrieved 6 July 2011.

Articles

Several articles in the

Legerdemain.[3]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f Chisholm 1911.
  2. ^ "Palmer, Edward Henry (PLMR863EH)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  3. ^ Important Contributors to the Britannica, 9th and 10th Editions, 1902encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 17 April 2017.

References

External links