Editing Solomon Caesar Malan

[[Image:Solomon Caesar Malan.jpg|thumb|250px|Solomon Caesar Malan, 1862]]
'''Solomon Caesar Malan''' (April 22, 1812 &ndash; November 25, 1894) was a British [[Anglicanism#Anglican divines|divine]] and [[oriental studies|orientalist]].

==Life==
[[Image:Stellenbosch2.JPG|thumb|Table Mountain (Cape Town). Drawing by Solomon Malan (1839), now at Sasol Art Museum Stellenbosch]]
By birth a [[Switzerland|Swiss]] descended from an [[Huguenot|exiled French]] family, Malan was born in [[Geneva]], where his father, Dr [[César Malan|Henri Abraham César Malan]] (1787–1864) enjoyed a great reputation as a [[Protestant]] divine.

From his earliest youth he manifested a remarkable faculty for the study of languages, and when he came to Scotland as tutor in the [[marquis of Tweeddale]]'s family at the age of 18 he had already made progress in [[Sanskrit]], [[Arabic language|Arabic]] and [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]]. In 1833 he matriculated at [[St Edmund Hall, Oxford]]; and English being almost an unknown tongue to him, he petitioned the examiners to allow him to do his paper work of the examination in French, German, Spanish, Italian, [[Latin]] or [[Greek language|Greek]], rather than in English.

But his request was not granted. After gaining the Boden and the Pusey and Ellerton scholarships, he graduated 2nd class in ''Literae humaniores'' in 1837. He then proceeded to [[India]] as classical lecturer at [[Bishop's College, Calcutta]], to which post he added the duties of secretary to the Bengal branch of the Royal Asiatic Society; and although compelled by illness to return in 1840, laid the foundation of a knowledge of [[Standard Tibetan|Tibetan]] and Chinese.

After serving various curacies, he was presented in 1845 to the living of [[Broadwindsor]], Dorset, which he held until 1886 During this entire period he continued to augment his linguistic knowledge; he was able to preach in [[Georgian language|Georgian]], on a visit which he paid to [[Nineveh]] in 1872. His translations from the [[Armenian language|Armenian]], Georgian and [[Coptic language|Coptic]] were numerous. He applied his Chinese learning to the determination of important points connected with Chinese religion, and published a vast number of parallel passages illustrative of the ''[[Book of Proverbs]]''.

In 1880 the [[University of Edinburgh]] conferred upon him the honorary degree of D.D.

No modern scholar, perhaps, has so nearly approached the linguistic omniscience of [[Giuseppe Caspar Mezzofanti|Mezzofanti]]; but, like Mezzofanti, Dr Malan was more of a linguist than a critic. He made himself conspicuous by the vehemence of his opposition to [[Brooke Foss Westcott|Westcott]] and [[Fenton John Anthony Hort|Hort]]'s text of the New Testament, and to the transliteration of Oriental languages, on neither of which points did he have the general support of scholars. His extensive and valuable library, some special collections excepted, was presented by him in his lifetime to the Indian Institute at Oxford. He died at [[Bournemouth]]. His life has been written by his son.

== Drawings an excavation in Nineveh by S. C. Malan (1850)==
<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px" perrow="5">
[[Image:S. C. Malan. Lion. Nimroud.jpg|Lion. Nimroud]]
[[Image:At Kooyoonjik.jpg|At Kuyunjik]]
[[Image:Excavtions at Kooyoonjik.jpg|Excavtions at Kuyunjik]]
[[Image:Mr. Layard at Kooyoonjik.jpg|[[Austen Henry Layard]] at Kuyunjik]]
</gallery>

==References==

==External links==
* Solomon Caesar Malan (1882). ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20160810164134/http://www.filbluz.ca/resources/The_conflict.of.Adam.and.Eve.against.satan_Malan.pdf The Conflict of Adam and Eve against Satan]''

==Further reading==
Malan, Arthur Noel. 1897. ''Solomon Caesar Malan, D.D. : memorials of his life and writings''. London : John Murray. in OCLC Worldcat [http://worldcat.org/oclc/13942098]

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[[Category:1812 births]]
[[Category:1894 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Geneva]]
[[Category:British orientalists]]
[[Category:Kartvelian studies]]
[[Category:Alumni of St Edmund Hall, Oxford]]