The Travels of Mirza Abu Taleb Khan: in Asia, Africa, and Europe, during the years 1799, 1800, 1801, 1802, and 1803

459 Pages·2008·6.13 MB·English

by  Abu Talib Khan

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TRAVELS OF
MIRZA ABU TALEB KHAN
A First Modern English Edition of
Les Évangiles des Quenouilles
broadview editions
series editor: L.W. Conolly
THEDISTAFFGOSPELS 1
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This engraving of Mirza Abu Talib by W.Bond,which served as a
frontispiece for both the 1810 and 1814 editions of the Travels,is
from a portrait by James Northcote that was painted during his stay
in London.See p.134.
2 THEDISTAFFGOSPELS
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TRAVELS OF
MIRZA ABU TALEB KHAN
in Asia, Africa, and Europe,
during the years 1799, 1800, 1801,
1802, and 1803
Mirza Abu Talib
Translated by Charles Stewart
Les Évangiles des Quenouilles
translated by Thomas K.Abbott
with revisions by Lara Denis
edited by Daniel O’Quinn
broadview editions
THEDISTAFFGOSPELS 3
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©2009 Daniel O’Quinn
All rights reserved.The use of any part of this publication reproduced,transmitted in
any form or by any means,electronic,mechanical,photocopying,recording,or other-
wise,or stored in a retrieval system,without prior written consent of the publisher—
or in the case of photocopying,a licence from Access Copyright (Canadian Copyright
Licensing Agency),One Yonge Street,Suite 1900,Toronto,Ontario M5E 1E5—is an
infringement of the copyright law.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Abu Talib Khan,1752-1806?
Travels of Mirza Abu Taleb Khan / Mirza Abu Talib ;translated by Charles
Stewart ;edited by Daniel O’Quinn.
Translation of:Masir-i Talibi.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-1-55111-672-3
1. Abu Talib Khan,1752-1806?—Travel. 2. Voyages and travels.
I.Stewart,Charles,1764-1837. II. O’Quinn,Daniel,1962- III. Title.
G490.A1613 910.4 C2008-905863-1
Broadview Editions
The Broadview Editions series represents the ever-changing canon of literature in
English by bringing together texts long regarded as classics with valuable lesser-
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Advisory editor for this volume:Michel Pharand
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Contents
Acknowledgements (cid:127) 7
Introduction (cid:127) 9
Mirza Abu Talib and Charles Stewart:ABrief Chronology (cid:127) 49
A Note on the Text (cid:127) 53
Travels of Mirza Abu Taleb Khan in Asia,Africa,and Europe,
during the years 1799,1800,1801,1802,and 1803 (cid:127) 55
Appendix A:The Social Context (cid:127) 371
1. Mirza Abu Talib Khan,“Poem in Praise of Miss Julia
Burrell”(1807) (cid:127) 371
2. The Duchess of Devonshire’s Gala Breakfast,Morning Post
and Gazetteer(7 and 8 July 1800) (cid:127) 378
3. The Lord Mayor’s Feast,Oracle and Daily Advertiser
(11 November 1800) (cid:127) 381
Appendix B:Contemporary Reviews (cid:127) 385
1. The Quarterly Review(August 1810) (cid:127) 385
2. The Eclectic Review(August 1811) (cid:127) 401
Appendix C:Persia:Orientalist Translations and Essays (cid:127) 404
1. From Sir William Jones,“A Persian Song of Hafiz”
(1772) (cid:127) 404
2. From Sir William Jones,“Essay on the Poetry of the Eastern
Nations”(1772) (cid:127) 406
3. From John Nott,Select Odes from the Persian Poet Hafez
(1787) (cid:127) 411
4. Sir Willam Jones,“The Sixth Discourse;on the Persians”
(1790) (cid:127) 419
Appendix D:Comparative Ethnographies (cid:127) 435
1. From Montesquieu,Persian Letters(1762) (cid:127) 435
2. From Lady Mary Wortley Montagu,Letters(1763) (cid:127) 448
3. From Charles Grant,“Observations on the State of Society
among the Asiatic Subjects of Great Britain”(1792) (cid:127) 451
Select Bibliography (cid:127) 457
THEROMANCEOFASHOP 5
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For Eli
6 CONTENTS
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Acknowledgements
In a project such as this one accrues many debts. My primary
research assistant Laura Stenberg deserves special thanks for her
tenacious pursuit of facts and her patience with my errors.Ingrid
Mundel helped prepare the text at an early stage. Nigel Leask
and Tim Fulford were very supportive from the outset and their
suggestions were most valuable. Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi
offered much needed guidance early in the project and his schol-
arship has been particularly helpful along the way.Thanks to Jane
Moody for assistance at the British Library.Teresa Heffernan,
Michael J.Franklin,Dan White,and Donna Andrew all read the
introduction and provided extremely useful commentary. I am
deeply indebted to the legion of scholars who have contributed to
the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Julia Gaunce, Mar-
jorie Mather, Michel Pharand, and Leonard Conolly at Broad-
view Press were wonderful to work with and they deserve thanks
for supporting such an unusual project. Finally, I would like to
thank the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of
Canada for generously supporting my research.
TRAVELSOFMIRZAABUTALEBKHAN 7
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8 INTRODUCTION
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Introduction
When contemplating the complex history of British imperialism
in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it is important to
remember that the vast archive of official policy documents and
published representations of colonial transactions overlays a
more diffuse record of the intimate social interactions of people
directly and indirectly caught in the web of imperial relations.
Take for example the following post script to a letter dated 12 to
17 September 1799 from Capetown’s chief hostess, Lady Anne
Barnard,to one of Britain’s most powerful authorities on Indian
affairs,Lord Dundas:
I have sent a few letters of Introduction with Capt. Richard-
son & Khan Sayb [Mirza Abu Talib Khan] the first is a man of
learning and Intelligence who returns for health chiefly after
20 years spent in India he is much esteemed,& is of the party
with Khan Saijb a persian chief, a clever, agreeable & good
man, a man of letters also, and far superior to most of the
grandees of Indostan—he has the Honor to be a particular
friend of Lord Cornwallis & travels chiefly to see the world,
possibly he may combine some other motive which he will
communicate to Lord Cornwallis but both are worthy of your
notice I believe—Capt Richardson has translated many things
from the persian & in particular part of the asiatic
researches—The figurative style of the East breaks forth from
the Khan whenever his Imagination is struck—a person
remarked to him tother evening at our House,that he was sup-
ported by a pretty woman on each side,he smiled and point-
ing to himself,said in English—“one night–two days—”allud-
ing to his dark complexion of course—1
This note captures many of the key questions raised by The
Travels of Mirza Abu Taleb Khanand can serve as a starting point
for considering the demands of this text. Arising from social
interactions in Lady Anne’s house in Capetown, the letter is a
private document that records a fleeting moment in the move-
1 Anne Barnard,The Letters of Lady Anne Barnard to Henry Dundas from
the Cape and Elsewhere,1793-1803 together with her Journal of a Tour into
the Interior and Certain Other Letters ed.A.M.Lewin Robinson (Cape
Town:A.A.Balkema,1973),199.
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