Sir Henry Rawlinson

Sir Henry Rawlinson
Henry Wyndham Phillips (1820-1868). Nota: en http://www.livius.org señalan a Tho · Public domain · source
Name	Sir Henry Rawlinson
Birth date	11 April 1810
Birth place	Chadlington, Oxfordshire
Death date	5 March 1895
Death place	Kensington, London
Nationality	British
Occupation	Diplomat, Army officer, Assyriologist
Awards	Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath

Sir Henry Rawlinson

Sir Henry Rawlinson was a 19th-century British army officer, diplomat, and pioneering Assyriologist whose work on Mesopotamian inscriptions transformed knowledge of Assyria, Babylonia, and ancient Near Eastern history. A prominent figure in imperial British India and later a scholar in London, Rawlinson combined fieldwork at Kandahar, Persepolis, and Behistun' with publication and public service that connected the fields of epigraphy, philology, and archaeology. His career intersected with leading contemporaries and institutions of Victorian scholarship.

Early life and education

Born at Chadlington in Oxfordshire to a family connected with the East India Company, Rawlinson received formative education at Bloxham School and later pursued private tutelage before entering military service. He apprenticed his linguistic and administrative skills during postings that brought him into contact with Persian, Kurdish, and Afghan communities while serving in the Madras and Bombay presidencies of the British Indian Army. Exposure to the ruins and inscriptions of Persepolis and the Persian plateau galvanized his interest in old Iranian and Mesopotamian scripts. His early relationships with figures such as Lord Ellenborough and Sir John Malcolm informed both his imperial career and scholarly pursuits.

Diplomatic career

Rawlinson's diplomatic trajectory advanced through roles as political agent and resident in Kandahar, representative at the Trek of frontier negotiations, and later as envoy in Tehran during the tense years of "The Great Game". He served under governors and commanders including Sir William Nott and engaged with key events such as the First Anglo-Afghan War and Anglo-Persian frontier disputes. Stationed at the British Residency, Tehran, he negotiated with Persian statesmen and monitored Russian expansion through contacts with envoys from Saint Petersburg. His standing in the India Office and later the Foreign Office reflected links with administrators like Lord Dalhousie and politicians such as Viscount Palmerston.

Assyriology and cuneiform decipherment

Rawlinson achieved renown for his work on the Old Persian cuneiform inscriptions, most notably the inscriptions at Behistun on the Kermanshah slope, which paralleled the revolutionary role of the Rosetta Stone for Egyptian hieroglyphs. He copied and collated multilingual trilingual inscriptions that included Old Persian, Elamite, and Akkadian forms, coordinating with assyriologists and linguists such as Edward Hincks, Julius Oppert, and Georg Friedrich Grotefend whose earlier decipherments of Old Persian provided crucial keys. His field methods linked him to explorers and consuls including William Ouseley and Hermann B.],] and he corresponded with scholars at institutions like the British Museum and the Royal Asiatic Society. Rawlinson's readings of royal nominatives, titulary formulas, and historical lists at Behistun enabled reconstruction of the reigns of Darius I, Xerxes I, and other Achaemenid rulers, thereby influencing chronology used by historians of Ancient Near East.

Scholarly works and publications

Rawlinson published extensively, producing editions, transcriptions, and translations that became standard references for Assyriology and Iranian studies. His major works included annotated editions of the Behistun Inscription, collections of inscriptions from Persia, and analytical essays in journals affiliated with the Society of Biblical Archaeology and the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. He collaborated with and critiqued the output of contemporaries such as Sir Austen Henry Layard and Hormuzd Rassam while contributing to catalogues at the British Museum and to lectures at the University of Oxford. His publications addressed linguistic problems alongside historical reconstruction, citing parallels with texts discovered in Nineveh, Khorsabad, and elsewhere in Mesopotamia.

Political activity and later life

Returning to England, Rawlinson transitioned into public life, taking seats in conservative political circles and engaging with parliamentary figures in Westminster. He accepted honors including knighthoods and senior orders connected with Victorian state recognition and maintained influence on imperial policy through advisory roles touching on India Office affairs and frontier administration. In later decades he continued scholarship from his London residence, corresponding with younger Assyriologists and supporting archaeological expeditions to sites such as Nimrud and Kish. His death in Kensington provoked obituaries in leading periodicals and reflections from members of learned societies including the Royal Geographical Society and the British Academy. His legacy endures in institutional collections and in the foundational status of his readings for subsequent generations of Orientalists and historians of the ancient Near East.

Category:British diplomats Category:Assyriologists Category:19th-century British people