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Binning, Robert Blair Munro, 1814-1891 (Linguist; East India Company Official, Madras Civil Service)

 Person

Dates

  • Existence: 1814 - 1891

Biography

Robert Blair Munro Binning was the third son of David Monro of Softlaw (who by deed of entail assumed the surname and arms of Binning), by his second wife Isabella Blair. Binning had a career as an administrator in the East India Company Service in Madras. He was an enthusiastic linguist in Arabic, Persian and Hindi, in the pursuance of which he collected many manuscripts and other examples of the use of these languages, and published A grammar, with a selection of dialogues and familiar phrases, and a short vocabulary in modern Arabic, edited by Fletcher Hayes, in 1849. He travelled in the Cape of Good Hope, the Levant, Arabian peninsula and Egypt in 1845-1847, but had to quit his post for health reasons in 1850. For the next two years he travelled again, in Ceylon [Sri Lanka] and Persia [Iran], which he described in his published Journal of two years' travel in Persia, Ceylon, etc., (2 volumes, London: 1857). Binning bequethed his substantial book and manuscript collection to New College, Edinburgh, and Edinburgh University Library.

Found in 1 Collection or Record:

Or Ms 359: قواعد فارسی Qawā‘id-i Fārsī, undated copy (earliest version compiled 18th-19th cent. C.E.)

 Item
Identifier: Or Ms 359
Scope and Contents

A short treatise on grammar by Rawshan ‘Alī Anṣārī of Jawnpur (d. circa 1225 A.H., 1810 C.E.), who was a professor in the College at Fort William, Calcutta (Kolkata). In the introduction it is stated that the author compiled this work for his son Faz̤l ‘Alī.

Dates: undated copy (earliest version compiled 18th-19th cent. C.E.)

Filtered By

  • Subject: Persian language--Grammar X