Henry George Raverty
Encyclopedia
Henry George Raverty was a British Indian Army
officer and linguist.
Raverty fought in the Punjab campaign of 1849–1850 and Swat
campaign of 1850. He compiled a gazetteer
of Peshawar
. While serving in Peshawar he was taught Pashto by the scholar Abdur Rahman Khan Muhammadzai and he began to study Afghan poetry
.
On retirement from the army, he returned to England and continued his oriental studies, culminating in his vast Notes on Afghanistan and part of Baluchistan and his unpublished History of Herat. He died in Cornwall
, England in 1906.
British Indian Army
The British Indian Army, officially simply the Indian Army, was the principal army of the British Raj in India before the partition of India in 1947...
officer and linguist.
Life
He served from 1843 to 1864, rising to the rank of Major in the 3rd Bombay Native Infantry.Raverty fought in the Punjab campaign of 1849–1850 and Swat
Swat (Pakistan)
Swat is a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, located close to the Afghan-Pakistan border. It is the upper valley of the Swat River, which rises in the Hindu Kush range. The capital of Swat is Saidu Sharif, but the main town in the Swat valley is Mingora...
campaign of 1850. He compiled a gazetteer
Gazetteer
A gazetteer is a geographical dictionary or directory, an important reference for information about places and place names , used in conjunction with a map or a full atlas. It typically contains information concerning the geographical makeup of a country, region, or continent as well as the social...
of Peshawar
Peshawar
Peshawar is the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the administrative center and central economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan....
. While serving in Peshawar he was taught Pashto by the scholar Abdur Rahman Khan Muhammadzai and he began to study Afghan poetry
Afghan poetry
Poetry of Afghanistan has ancient roots, which is mostly written in Pashto and Dari . Afghan poetry relates to the culture of Afghanistan, the Afghan people and the region of Afghanistan or the former Khorasan region.-History:...
.
On retirement from the army, he returned to England and continued his oriental studies, culminating in his vast Notes on Afghanistan and part of Baluchistan and his unpublished History of Herat. He died in Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
, England in 1906.
Works
- A Grammar of the Pukhto, Pushto or Language of the Afghans (1855; 2nd edition 1860; 3rd edition, 1867)
- Thesaurus of English and Hindūstānī Technical Terms (1859)
- A Dictionary of the Puk'hto, Pushto, or Language of the Afghans (1860; 2nd edition, 1867)
- Selections from the Poetry of the Afghāns, from the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Century (1862)
- The Gulshan-i-roh : being selections, prose and poetical, in the Pus'hto, or Afghān language (1867)
- The Fables of Aesop al-Hakīm (1871)
- A Pushto Manual (1880)
- The Tabakat-i-Nasiri of Minhaj-i-Saraj, Abu-Umar-i-Usman: A general history of the Muhammadan dynasties of Asia, including Hindustan from A. H. 194 (810 A. D.) to A. H. 658 (1260 A. D.), and the irruption of the infidel Mughals into Islam (1881) (translation from the Persian)
- Notes on Afghanistan and part of Baluchistan (1881–1888)
External links
- Selections from the Poetry of the Afghāns, from the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Century, 1869 (full text)
- A dictionary of the Puk'hto, Pus'hto, or language of the Afghans: with remarks on the originality of the language, and its affinity to other oriental tongues. Second edition, with considerable additions. London: Williams and Norgate, 1867 (as digital dictionary).