Edward Henry Palmer (1840-1882)
Author(s): R.L. Bidwell
Source: Bulletin (British Society for Middle Eastern Studies), Vol. 13, No. 1 (1986), pp. 45-50
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/194966
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EDWARD HENRY PALMER (1840-1882)
R. L. Bidwell
Edward Henry Palmer
in 1840,
was born in Cambridge
the son of a
who died
schoolmaster
his
son
little
more
very
leaving
young,
'a tendency
than
towards
asthma
and bronchial
He was,
diseases'.
who sent
him to the Perse
School
in
however,
adopted
by an aunt,
the
where
he quickly
an unusual
interest
discovered
in
city,
to him for sweets
the money given
all
languages,
spending
nearly
on buying
drinks
for
in
for
return
their
gypsies
being
taught
lore
and the
in which
he became
Romany tongue,
proficient
very
and remained
interested
for the rest
of his
life.
and went to work in
Palmer
left
school
at the age of sixteen
and once
of a wine merchant
in London,
office
near St Paul's
time
and money
he
most
of
his
free
spent
up
picking
again
-this
the docks
and talking
time
to
by frequenting
languages
a particular
He worked
sailormen.
ear,
entirely
taking
by
interest
in dialects,
several
in French
and soon
and
mastered
friends
with
another
his
Italian.
he became
London
During
days
of English
man who was to win
fame as the greatest
poor
young
on the
himself
Sir
and
Palmer
appeared
actors,
Henry
Irving,
to a
a great
are
doubtless
histrionic
skills
advantage
stage;
a very
serious
he suffered
these
also
During
years
linguist.
he was
and later
he was cured by a herbalist,
from which
illness
back to life.
died
and been brought
to claim
that
he had in fact
the
he became
where
In
1860
returned
to
Palmer
Cambridge,
who had hoped to teach
with
an Indian,
Abdoolah,
friendly
Sayyid
who was denied
an
but
at
the
oriental
University,
languages
to members of
be given
these
could
official
because
only
position
heard of
of St John's
In 1863 two Fellows
the Church of England.
to receive
a
Palmer
for
man and arranged
unusual
this
young
for certain
in return
-which
enabled
a position
him,
sizarship
much
In fact,
he spent
to study
for
a degree.
domestic
services,
the
in
oriental
the
time
in
his
of
manuscripts
cataloguing
had
the Librarian
of which
a collection
-library
University
the mass of confusion
to express
words are sufficient
written,'No
down on us the
and which brought
our collection
which
presented,
the basis
Palmer
of Orientalists'.
censure
well-deserved
produced
went
and later
and Persian
of Arabic
of the catalogue
manuscripts
His
and
of
the
to
those
of
libraries
on
King's.
Trinity
described
were
later
in this
field
achievements
by G.F.Nicholl,
and wonderful
at Oxford,
as 'the most arduous
of Arabic
Professor
an Arabic
works'.
He wrote
ramal,
describing
poem in the metre
of
his
own name and that
it by fitting
and ended
the cataloguing
of Palmer,
This
was characteristic
into
the metre.
who,
Trinity
not to be in religious
scholars
as one of the first
major Islamic
his work.
In six
into
humour
some
to
introduce
free
felt
orders,
that
of oriental
such
a knowledge
he acquired
languages
years
in the
as an interpreter
for
a post
his
application
although
45
in
Tehran
was
Legation
rejected,
stated
that he both spoke
and wrote
the
the
Persian
to
language
Ambassador
perfection.
fact
that
he achieved
a poor degree,
he
only
to
election
a Fellowship
at
St
by
John's,
the famous
on the
in Gibbon
qualifying
by translating
passage
Muhammad into
Persian
In the same year,
rhetoric.
Prophet
1867,
he published
his
Oriental
dedicated
to
Mysticism,
curiously
the Emperor
III.
He had become
in Sufism
interested
Napoleon
while
his
of
and
book
preparing
catalogues
manuscripts,
the
works
of
Aziz
b.
with
Muhammad al-Nasafi
summarizing
chosen
that
Palmer
made
carefully
paragraphs.
says
Arberry
several
mistranslations
and
to
that
he was
important
wrong
it
assume
that
had originally
been
and
written
in Turkish
translated
into
but nevertheless
the book is of value.
Persian,
was
Despite
consoled
the
the
next
few years
Palmer
his
During
interests,
expanded
and
in
Persian
and
for
Indian
Urdu
poems
writing
essays
an immensely
account
of a state
newspapers,
including
lengthy
visit
by the Shah with
many topical
jokes,
translating
poetry
and Danish
from Finnish
in addition
to becoming
an authority
on
he
which
contributed
to
an
article
the
(on
legerdemain
transference
Britannica),
Encyclopaedia
table-turning,
thought
and mesmerism,
he succeeded
in curing
a man dying
of
by which
He was a knowledgeable
little
but took
hiccups.
ornithologist
interest
in other
outdoor
it is recorded
activities,
although
once
that
in his
life
he played
his
bat so
cricket,
swinging
that
the
to be carried
had
off
on a
wildly
wicket-keeper
stretcher.
In 1867 Palmer went to the Middle
East for the first
time,
the Palestine
for
to trace
working
Exploration
Society
trying
the route
the Sinai
Israelites
had crossed
by which the ancient
Peninsula
and identifying
the place-names.
His Desert
of the
and the following
Exodus
was a result,
shows the
(1871)
passage
at St
he wrote.
On arrival
pleasant,
unpedantic
way in which
Catherine's
'there
issues
forth
from the gate
at the
Monastery
side
an
old
reverend
in
fuddled
gentleman,
mien,
though
-- with
in gait
a patriarchal
though
dignified
unsteady
beard,
and
the
most
mediaeval
of
if
such
who,
costumes,
serge
attention
be not dexterously
will
fall
avoided,
upon your neck
and greet
a patriarchal
kiss.
This
is Brother
you with
Jacobus,
the
or bursar,
of
the
a flourishing
once
oeconomos,
convent,
but now,
either
he is
tired
of the
because
Smyrna merchant,
more probably,
because
the world
is tired
of him,
world,
or,
here to end his days'.
brought
This
was
followed
expedition
when,
by a second,
taking
with
him a tent
and three
months'
of tea,
flour,
supply
bacon,
extract
a
onions,
and brandy
(and
tobacco,
sugar,
Liebig's
he travelled
in the Levant,
Richard
camera),
Burton,
meeting
who was then Consul
in Damascus.
He also
met Arminius
Vambery
as a result
of his
two books,
one The
and,
journey,
produced
46
and the other
a work on Jerusalem,
Secret
Sects
of Syria,
written
Walter
in
his
future
with
conjunction
biographer,
new
Besant.
Neither
book contains
information,but
significant
each is lively
and easy to read.
these achievements
and his first-hand
Despite
knowledge of
the Middle East,
to the Sir Thomas Adams's Chair
the electors
of
at
to
the
Arabic
more
appoint
preferred
Cambridge
was
'never
conventional
scholar
Besant,
This,
says
W.A.Wright.
or forgiven'
He was, however,
somewhat
forgotten
by Palmer.
consoled
in 1871 to the Lord Almoner's Chair
by being appointed
at the University,
which was the gift of the Dean of Windsor as
of only ?40 a
Lord Almoner to the Queen. It brought a stipend
two
year in return for which the incumbent was bound to deliver
income up
lectures.
This, with his Fellowship,
brought Palmer's
to ?350 a year,and,
he felt,
it enabled him to get married.
There followed
in
a busy decade at Cambridge,
lecturing
for
Persian
and Urdu, and Palmer was partly
Arabic,
responsible
the setting
and Indian
Languages Tripos,
up of the Semitic
until
within
which
remained
unaltered
living
practically
in 1876 the poems of Bah' al-Din Zuhayr -memory. He published
edition
of any Arab poet
said to have been the first
complete
- and prepared
a work on oriental
in England
published
his death.
Another major
which was published
after
penmanship
was a revision
of
work, said by some to be his most important,
into Persian.
of the New Testament
Henry Martyn's translation
to
The demands of scholarship
had, however,
constantly
and Palmer was
a family,
with
of supporting
those
compete
of hack work in order to
forced
to undertake
great quantities
nation
for the
of the Jewish
earn money. He wrote a history
and
to material
SPCK, which added nothing
published,
already
his Haroun al-Rashid
but not a piece of research.
is charming,
He had to work fast and did not have time for reflection,
and,
is not
when caught in error, had to admit 'perhaps my rendering
as it might be'. The general urgency for publication
as precise
and unable to spare the time
made him slipshod
in proof-reading
to verify
a reference
or resolve
a doubt. His Koran has many
of detail
errors
but still
manages to convey the authentic
atmosphere.
and
a Persian
an Arabic
Palmer
grammar
published
without
He had
not
value.
both
which
are
still
of
dictionary,
all
rules
and
on learning
views
detesting
strong
languages,
without
that they should be studied
grammar and that,
believing
the grammar
the
student
acquires
by stressing
vocabulary,
'either
He declared
you want to
insensibly.
belligerently,
or you do not. If you do not, follow the way
learn a language
that any intelligent
of the English
and he believed
schools',
person should be able to read a new language in a few weeks and
he did make an
it
within
a few months -although
speak
He became
a
oriental
for
first
language.
exception
person's
47
which aimed at teaching
editor
without
of a series
languages
and
to the simplest
the accidence
grammar; 'reduced
principles,
on one
can be thoroughly
comprehended by the student
syntax
and a few hours'
him to
enable
perusal,
study will
diligent
in the language'.
The series
subsequently
any sentence
analyse
so
the famous
included
grammar of the Revd. G.W.Thatcher,
must have changed! Nicholl
wrote of Palmer's
editorial
policy
own grammar that it was designed
for those who knew no Latin or
of Arabic
had
Greek at a time when all
learners
potential
education
and that
from
a classical
it was 'far
received
its predecessors'
and contained
superseding
'many deficiencies
and errors'.
remarried
In 1881, having
after
the death of his first
that he
Palmer found himself
wife,
poorer than ever. He decided
of teaching
and hoped 'to
was tired
get time to work at
than teaching
And
boys the Persian alphabet'.
something better
his
the
so he resigned
for
all
posts,
Cambridge
except
in London to make
Chair, and settled
undemanding Lord Almoner's
as a journalist.
a living
He could write
easily
upon demand,
Dick
that
he covered
and the topics
included
French slang,
the wandering Jew, modern Indian magic and trained
Whittington,
but he was still
a
when he was offered
elephants,
struggling
chance
to achieve
substantial
wealth and national
recognition.
In the summer of 1882 Whitehall
decided
that an invasion
of Egypt was the only way to extinguish
the dangers to British
had
interests
movement that
represented
by the nationalist
It was
formed around Ahmad 'Ura-b (Col.Arabi,
or Arabi Pasha).
force should land, not upon the
planned that the expeditionary
but attack by means of the Suez Canal, and
Mediterranean
coast,
it was obviously
to find
out what would be the
important
existed
attitude
of the Sinai
tribes
in its rear, what links
the
and the Ottoman forces
in Syria and to assess
between'Urabi
was
of
a possible
Palmer
effects
of jihad.
proclamation
revive
his past
approached by the Government to go to Sinai,
a
to Wilfrid
and report.
Scawen Blunt,
contacts
According
offered
was
and
unreliable
Palmer
reporter,
always
prejudiced
at least
?500 in advance and led to hope that he might receive
or
a further
Whether this is correct
?2,000 and a decoration.
with alacrity.
In June he was on his
not, he certainly
accepted
set
way, and early in July he was at Jaffa and a few days later
out from Gaza in the character
a Syrian
of Shaykh'Abd Allah,
reached
of importance.
the Peninsula,
official
He rode across
and reported
Suez in safety
that there was indeed talk of a
but that
for
or ?30,000
he could
?20,000
jihad,
buy the
of the 50,000 Bedouins of the area.
allegiance
The money was made available
and Palmer set out again,
to purchase
the British
for,
camels,
ostensibly
naturally,
to bribery
or corruption.
He was
Government could not descend
in order to show that his mission was official,
by
accompanied,
two officers
in uniform,
one of whom, Lieutenant
W.M.Gill of
48
the Royal Engineers,
had already made a considerable
reputation
as a traveller
in the Caucasus,
and Libya and
China, Tibet,
held the Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical
Gill had
Society.
the further
task of cutting
the wires of the telegraph
between
Cairo and Damascus. They were accompanied by a Jewish cook but
had no military
escort.
on 12 August 1882,
Two days after
their
in Sinai,
arrival
the party was led astray
guide into an ambush
by a treacherous
of Huwaytat
offered
Bedouins.
tribesman
?10 for
A friendly
to
their
raised
this
he subsequently
release,
and, although
It
?30, it does not seem a great sum for a Cambridge Professor!
with swords,
and the four men were cut to pieces
was rejected,
it was said that they had previously
been offered
the
although
Their bodies
of being shot or thrown over a precipice.
choice
were left
thirteen
tribesmen
for the vultures.
Subsequently
to death.
were brought to trial,
of whom five were sentenced
landed and
In September the forces
of Sir Garnet Wolseley
The statement
defeated
tUrabl's
men at Tel el Kebir.
by an
scouts had been suborned by
Egyptian author that one of'Urabl's
claim that
Palmer seems as improbable
as his own biographer's
that there
the victory
was made possible
ensuring
by Palmer's
would be no attack in the rear, for, by the time of the battle,
Palmer had been dead for over a month.
remains
of
the
two
In October
a search-party
found
one of Gill's
foot still
in
socks with his
officers,
including
of Palmer.
There were
trace
was no identifiable
it, but there
held as a captive,
and, as a
alive,
hopes that he was still
decided
to send
the Foreign Office
of public
result
pressure,
then Consul in
Richard Burton,
the doyen of Arabian travellers,
and long
to go look for him. Burton, now over sixty
Trieste,
with
and
enthusiasm
of an active
role,
responded
deprived
and refurbishing
cutlass
an ancient
in Cairo sharpening
arrived
demand was for a gunboat, and
His first
pistols.
long-outdated
at the thought of what
on the spot, terrified
British
officials
orders
could be
he might
him until
do, managed to detain
The search was
to Trieste.
obtained
from London for his recall
Colonel Warren,who had
put in the hands of the less flamboyant
and in
known Palmer
in the Palestine
Society,
Exploration
had died at
November he was able to confirm that the professor
The remains were put in a
the same time as his companions.
interred
in
tin-lined
box, brought back to England and solemnly
and Wellington.
St Paul's
of Nelson
Cathedral
between
those
denied that Palmer
this pomp, the Government naturally
Despite
its story that his
had been on a secret
mission
and maintained
sole task had been to buy camels.
to Palmer as'a scholar
The Times, in an obituary,
referred
whose attainments
have been equalled
by few and whose work has
been surpassed
oddly, 'if spared he
by none' and ended rather
to the
of Babel, and restored
might have remedied the confusion
49
after
the
all
human race,
primitive
learning
languages,
claimed that his work, particularly
in
His biographer
tongue'.
These
never be forgotten
Sinai
'will
by future
generations'.
for
the
of his
life
are
circumstances
claims
excessive,
contribution
Palmer from making any very significant
prevented
to oriental
as a
his undoubted
brilliance
studies,
despite
of
The
Times
him
for
'the
bookish
least
praised
being
linguist.
these
a single
trace of pedantry',
men...[without]
but, alas,
which make a great orientalist.
are the very qualities
Palmer,
in history,
the
first
has his
as perhaps
however,
place
to put his gifts
of his
of Arabic
at the disposal
professor
and certainly
the only one to be
politics,
country in practical
his
St
of
in
Paul's
commemorated
Cathedral.
Many
and indeed
that Arabic and
felt
successors,
contemporaries,
were merely vehicles
for long-dead
Persian
poets -- there was
-- but Palmer showed
between Hafiz and Virgil
difference
little
that they were living
tongues used by ordinary
people for the
not one of
of
he
life.
was
clearly
everyday purposes
Although
our greatest
one may agree with Arberry that
he was
scholars,
in the history
of Oriental
'one of the most romantic
figures
studies'.
50