Harold Walter Bailey | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 16 December 1899 |
| Died | 11 January 1996 |
| Occupation | Scholar |
Sir Harold Walter Bailey,FBA (16 December 1899 – 11 January 1996), who published asH. W. Bailey, was anEnglish scholar ofKhotanese,Sanskrit, and the comparative study ofIranian languages.
Bailey was born inDevizes,Wiltshire, and raised from age 10 onwards on a farm inNangeenan, Western Australia, without formal education. While growing up, he learnedGerman,Italian,Spanish,Latin, andGreek from household books, andRussian from a neighbour. After he grew interested in the lettering on tea-chests fromIndia, he acquired a book of Bible selections translated into languages with non-European scripts, includingTamil,Arabic, andJapanese. By the time he had left home, he was readingAvestan as well.
In 1921 he entered theUniversity of Western Australia to study classics. In 1927, after completing his master's degree onEuripides, he won a Hackett Studentship toOxford where he joined the Delegacy of Non-Collegiate Students, laterSt Catherine's College. There he studied underFrederick William Thomas.[1] In 1928 he was awarded the inaugural Nubar Pasha Scholarship in Armenian studies. The eminent Oxford ArabistDavid Margoliouth is said to have asked, upon awarding Bailey the scholarship, "By the way, Mr Bailey, do you intend actually to learn Armenian?".[2]
After graduating with first class honours in 1929, Bailey was appointed as Parsee Community Lecturer in the thenLondon School of Oriental Studies. In 1936 Bailey became Professor of Sanskrit (succeedingE. J. Rapson, who had held the post since 1906) and a Fellow atQueens' College, Cambridge;[1] he was succeeded atSOAS byW. B. Henning. DuringWorld War II he worked in theRoyal Institute of International Affairs.[3]
Bailey was not religious in his personal life. He was avegetarian and enjoyed playing the violin.[1] He retired in 1967. After his death, he left his enormous library to theAncient India and Iran Trust in Cambridge.
Bailey has been described as one of the greatest Orientalists of the twentieth century. He was said to read more than 50 languages.
In 1929 Bailey began his doctoral dissertation, a translation with notes of theGreater Bundahishn, a compendium ofZoroastrian writings inMiddle Persian recorded in thePahlavi scripts. He became the world's leading expert in the Khotanese dialect of theSaka language, the mediaevalIranian language of theKingdom of Khotan (modernXinjiang). His initial motivation for the study of Khotanese was an interest in the possible connection with theBundahishn.[1] He later passed his material on that work toKaj Barr.[4]
He was known for his immensely erudite lectures, and once confessed: "I have talked for ten and a half hours on the problem of one word without approaching the further problem of its meaning."[5]
Bailey was elected a Fellow of theBritish Academy in 1944, and subsequently a member of the Danish, Norwegian and Swedish Academies. He received honorary degrees from four universities including Oxford; served as president ofPhilological Society, theRoyal Asiatic Society, the Society for Afghan Studies, and the Society of Mithraic Studies; and chaired the Anglo-Iranian Society and Ancient India and Iran Trust. He wasknighted for services to Oriental studies in 1960.[6][7] He was also a Fellow of theAustralian Academy of the Humanities.[8]
