A Grammar of the Turkish Language

1832

Shoults Ec 1832 D

London: Sold by Parbury & Allen, and John Taylor

At a very early age, Arthur Lumley Davids (1811-1832) learnt oriental languages such as Hebrew, Arabic and Persian, and European languages such as Greek, Latin, French, Italian and German. He particularly liked Turkish. His Grammar of the Turkish Language (Kitāb al-ʿilm al-Nāfiʿ fī taḥṣīl Ṣarf wa Naḥw Turkī; 1832) was dedicated to Mahmud II, the Sultan of Turkey. Davids managed to enjoy the fruits of authorship; he died aged 21, three weeks after the book was published. It was a seminal work, one of the first to cover the topic in Europe since the early 18th century. The terms for ‘Arts, Trades, and Professions’ make interesting reading.