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Henry Rawlinson | |
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.jpg) Rawlinson in 1850 | |
| President of theRoyal Geographical Society | |
| In office 1871–1873; 1874–1876 | |
| Preceded by | SirRoderick Murchison |
| Succeeded by | SirHenry Frere |
| Member of Parliament for Frome | |
| In office 1865–1868 | |
| Preceded by | Lord Edward Thynne |
| Succeeded by | Thomas Hughes |
| Member of Parliament for Reigate | |
| In office February – October 1858 | |
| Preceded by | William Hackblock |
| Succeeded by | William Monson |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Henry Creswicke Rawlinson (1810-04-05)5 April 1810 Chadlington, England |
| Died | 5 March 1895(1895-03-05) (aged 84) London, Middlesex, England |
| Resting place | Brookwood Cemetery, Surrey |
| Political party | Liberal Party |
| Relatives | George Rawlinson (brother) |
| Employer | British East India Company |
| Awards | |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United Kingdom |
| Branch | British Army |
| Rank | Major-general |
| Wars | First Anglo-Afghan War |
Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson, 1st Baronet,GCB FRSKLS (5 April 1810 – 5 March 1895) was aBritish East India Company army officer, politician, andOrientalist, sometimes described as the Father ofAssyriology. His son, alsoHenry, was to become a senior commander in the British Army during the First World War.
Rawlinson was born on 5 April 1810 at the place now known asChadlington,Oxfordshire,England.[1] He was the second son of Abram Tyack Rawlinson and elder brother of the historianGeorge Rawlinson. In 1827, having become proficient in theFarsi, he was sent toPersia in company with other British officers to drill and reorganize theShah's troops. Disagreements between the Persian court and the British government, alsoinvolving Russia, ended in the departure of the British officers.
Rawlinson began to study Persian inscriptions, more particularly those in thecuneiform character, which had been only partially deciphered byGrotefend andSaint-Martin. For two years from 1836, he was inKermanshah in westernIran, near the great cuneiforminscription at Behistun, written in Old Persian,Elamite, andBabylonian (a later form ofAkkadian) byDarius the Great between 522 and 486 BC. Standing on a shaky ladder, Rawlinson was the first Westerner to transcribe theOld Persian portion of the text. With his knowledge of Old Persian, he set about deciphering the Elamite and Babylonian sections.[2]
Rawlinson was appointed political agent atKandahar in 1840, serving for three years. In 1844, for his service to theBritish Empire in the course of theAfghan War, he was made Companion of theOrder of the Bath.[3]
A chance encounter with the governor-general resulted in his appointment as political agent inOttomanArabia. Settling inBaghdad, he devoted himself to cuneiform studies, and in 1847 he was able to send to Europe a full and accurate transcript of the Behistun inscription, which he was also successful in deciphering and interpreting. Having collected a large amount of antiquarian and geographical information in the pursuit of various explorations, including visits with SirAusten Henry Layard to the ruins ofNineveh, he returned to England on leave of absence in 1849.[4]
He was elected aFellow of the Royal Society in February 1850, praised as "The Discoverer of the key to the Ancient Persian, Babylonian, and Assyrian Inscriptions in the Cuneiform character. The Author of various papers on the philology, antiquities, and Geography of Mesopotamia and Central Asia. Eminent as a Scholar".[5]
Remaining at home for two years, in 1851 he published his memoir on the Behistun inscription and was promoted to lieutenant-colonel. TheBritish Museum took custody of his valuable collection ofBabylonian,Sabaean andSassanian antiquities, and made him a considerable grant to continue Layard'sAssyrian and Babylonian excavations. In 1851, he returned to Baghdad, where his archaeological finds contributed greatly to the final decipherment and interpretation of the cuneiform character.[6] Rawlinson's greatest contribution was the discovery that individual cuneiform signs had multiple readings depending on their context.[7] Rawlinson worked with the youngerGeorge Smith at the British Museum.
An equestrian accident in 1855 hastened his determination to return to England, and in that year, he resigned his post in the East India Company.[6] Prior to his return, Rawlinson was involved in theill-fated French mission to ship over 200 cases of antiquities to Europe, which were mostly lost atAl-Qurnah.[8][9]
On his return to England, he received the distinction ofKnight Commander of the Order of the Bath, and he was appointed a crown director of theEast India Company.[6]
The remaining forty years of his life were full of activity (political, diplomatic and scientific) and were spent mainly in London. From February to September 1858, he sat asMember of Parliament forReigate, and he was appointed a member of the firstIndia Council. He left again in 1859, when he was sent to Persia as envoy plenipotentiary, but returned after a year owing to his dissatisfaction with the position. He was MP forFrome from 1865 to 1868, and again served on the Council of India from 1868 until his death.[6]
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Rawlinson was one of the most important figures arguing that Britain mustcheck Russian ambitions in South Asia. He was a strong advocate of theForward Policy inAfghanistan and counselled the retention ofKandahar. He argued thatTsarist Russia would attack and absorbKokand,Bukhara andKhiva (whichoccurred, and the regions are now parts ofUzbekistan) and warned that it would invade Persia (Iran) and Afghanistan as springboards toBritish India.[7]
He was a trustee of the British Museum from 1876 to his death. He was appointed aKnight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath in 1889, and created abaronet in 1891; he was president of theRoyal Geographical Society from 1874 to 1875 and of theRoyal Asiatic Society from 1869 to 1871 and 1878 to 1881; and received honorary degrees atOxford,Cambridge, andEdinburgh.[6]
He married Louisa Caroline Harcourt Seymour, daughter of Jane (née Hopkinson) andHenry Seymour, on 2 September 1862, with whom he had two sons:Henry andAlfred. He was widowed on 31 October 1889 and died in London of influenza five years later. He is buried inBrookwood Cemetery inSurrey.
Rawlinson's published works include four volumes of cuneiform inscriptions, published under his direction between 1870 and 1884 by the trustees of the British Museum;The Persian Cuneiform Inscription at Behistun (1846–1851) andOutline of the History of Assyria (1852), both reprinted from the Asiatic Society's journals;A Commentary on the Cuneiform Inscriptions of Babylon and Assyria (1850);Notes on the Early History of Babylonia (1854); andEngland and Russia in the East (1875). He also made a variety of minor contributions to the publications of learned societies. He contributed articles on Baghdad, the Euphrates and Kurdistan to the ninth edition of theEncyclopædia Britannica, together with several other articles dealing with the East; and he assisted in editing a translation ofThe Histories ofHerodotus by his brother, CanonGeorge Rawlinson.[6]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Rawlinson, Sir Henry Creswicke".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 22 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 928–929.| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
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| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forReigate February 1858 –October 1858 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forFrome 1865 –1868 | Succeeded by |
| Baronetage of the United Kingdom | ||
| New creation | Baronet (of North Walsham) 1891–1895 | Succeeded by |
Media related toHenry Rawlinson (Sir), 1st Baronet at Wikimedia Commons
