PRICE, William. Worcester 1780 (or 1771 acc. to G.-V.) — Merryman’s Hill near Worcester ?.6.1830. British Colonial Officer and Oriental Scholar in India. In 1811-12 Assistant Secretary and Interpreter of Gore Ouseley’s mission to Persia. He kept a detailed diary, draw buildings and landscapes and copied cuneiform inscriptions. Returned to England he concentrated on writing and taught Oriental languages at the seminary of his friend, Alexander Humphreys, at Netherstone House, near Worcester. He founded his own printing press in Worcester. Died of apoplexy.
The existence of two partly contemporaneous William Prices caused some uncertainty, to which each title should be ascribed. Fortunately, all are now available as Internet scans and with one exception each title page makes the ascription unquestionable.
Publications: Dialogues on the Vulgar Arabic of Morocco. L. 1797 (material obtained from a Moroccan visitor in London).
– Kitāb dar naḥwī zabān-i hindī o fārsī o ‘arabī taṣnīf walīm (?). A Grammar of the three principal Oriental Languages, Hindoostanie, Persian and Arabic, on a plan entirely new and perfectly easy; to which is added a set of Persian dialogues, composed for the author by Mirza Mohammed Sâlih, of Shiraz, accompanied with an English translation. 13+236 p. L. 1823.
– Journal of the British Embassy to Persia, embellished with numerous Views taken in India and Persia; also a Dissertation upon the Antiquities of Persepolis. 1-2. L. 1825.
– Elements of the Sanscrit language, or an easy Guide to the Indian tongues. 6+63 p. London 1827; A new Grammar of the Hindoostanee Language. 96 p. L. 1828.
– Husn oo Dil, or Beauty and Heart; a pleasing allegory in eleven chapters composed by Alfettah of Nishapoor. In Persian and English. 8+42+42 p. L. 1828.
Sources: *A. González-Vázquez, Historiogr. Linguistica 43, 2016, 61-97; S.F.S[mith], D.N.B. 46, 1896, 343f.; Oxford D.N.B.; Wikipedia briefly (with SFS as the only source, but without mentioning the second W. Price; French version adds the place and cause of his death).
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