This manuscript, written around 1839-52, contains a dictionary of Arabic and Persian words used in Ottoman Turkish, with definitions given in Ottoman Turkish by the British lexicographer James W. Redhouse (1811-92).

Redhouse first travelled to Turkey on a merchant ship in the late 1820s and learnt the Turkish language at the Ottoman naval arsenal in Istanbul. After a brief stay in England during 1834-38, he returned to Turkey to work for the Ottoman government as an interpreter to the Grand Vizier and the Minister for Foreign Affairs. He later transferred to the Ottoman Admiralty. In 1843, he was appointed secretary and interpreter to Captain William Fenwick Williams, the British officer then arranging a peace treaty between the Ottoman Empire and Persia that established the Persian-Ottoman boundary (later known as the Treaty of Erzurum).

This manuscript is in the author’s own hand, written in riqa script and preserving numerous emendations, marginal notes and additions. Redhouse’s work was published at least five times in the 19th century, in addition to three enlarged versions. They were used as the basis for many Turkish-English dictionaries. At Queen Victoria’s command, the British government also commissioned Redhouse to make an English translation of the diary by Nasser al-Din Shah of Iran during his tour of Europe in 1873. He later published an English translation of Rumi’s Masnavi.

Binding description
London, 19th century. Purple goatskin with gold-tooled and blind-stamped ornamentation. Bound by Staunton.