BLOCHMANN, Henry (Heinrich) Ferdinand. Dresden 8.1.1838 — Calcutta 13.7.1878. German Oriental Scholar in India, Specialist of Arabic, Persian, and Urdu. Son of a printer, Ernest Ehrenfried Blochmann (1789–1862), educated in Dresden, studies at Leipzig (Arabic under Fleischer) and Paris. In order to be able to go to India he joined the British army in 1858. In India he soon left the army and worked as an interpreter. From 1860 Assistant Professor of Urdu and Persian at Calcutta Madrasa. Graduated from Calcutta University in 1861, 1865 M.A. there. After three years at Doveton College he returned to Madrasa 1865, and became its Principal until his death. In 1868-78 also Secretary of A.S.B. Married an Irish woman, four children.
Publications: A great number of articles on Islamic epigraphy and numismatics in the JASB.
– Contributions to the geography and history of of Bengal (Muhammedan period). Series of articles in the JASB 1873–75, repr. as a book, 171 p. Calcutta 1968.
– Romanized English and Urdu School Dictionary. 7th ed. 180 p. Calcutta 1867, 8th ed. 1877.
– Edited: Abul Fazl: The Ain i Akbaree. Bibl. Ind. Calcutta 1864-77; translated the same. I:1-7. Bibl. Ind. Calcutta 1868-73 (then completed by —> H. S. Jarrett); edited other Persian works.
Sources: H. Beveridge, D.N.B. Suppl. 1, 1901, 220f., then in *Oxford D.N.B.; Buckland, Dictionary; Boase in Br. Biogr. Arch.; J.T.P. de Bruijn, Encyclop. Iranica 4, 1989, 314f.; JRAS Proc. 1879, iii-v; Wikipedia with bust (mainly from D.N.B., see also German version).
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