Born 28 September, 1746 Sir William Jones was among the first British scholars to take a serious interest in Oriental cultures. Educated at Harrow and University of Oxford, he studied Classics and Semitic languages (Arabic and Hebrew) and became interested in Persian. He published a

Grammar of the Persian Language

in 1771 and to support himself trained for the law, being called to the bar in 1774. He published his translation of seven Arabic odes, the

Moallakât

in 1782 and was given knighthood and joined the East India Company Civil Service as a supreme court judge in 1783. Once in Calcutta he formed the Asiatic Society of Bengal to foster scholarly interest in Muslim and Hindu cultures. He published the

Muhammedan Law of Inheritance

in 1792 and

Institutes of Hindu Law

just before he…

364 words

Citation: Clark, Robert. "Sir William Jones". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 22 December 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2406, accessed 19 March 2024.]

2406 Sir William Jones 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.