John Andrew Boyle (10 March 1916 – 19 November 1978), was a British historian, an accomplished linguist, and Oriental scholar.

Life and career

John was born at

Worcester Park Worcester Park is a suburban town in South London, England. It lies in the London boroughs of Sutton and Kingston, and partly in the Surrey borough of Epsom and Ewell. The area is southwest of Charing Cross. The suburb's population was 16,031 ...

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, on 10 March 1916. His father, Andrew Boyle, was the first editor of ''

Everyman's Encyclopaedia ''Everyman's Encyclopaedia'' is an encyclopedia published by Joseph Malaby Dent, Joseph Dent from 1913 as part of the Everyman's Library. The set was descended from the 1850s ''English Cyclopaedia'' of 1854, which in turn was based on the ''Pen ...

'' (1913–1914), he revised ''

Roget's Thesaurus ''Roget's Thesaurus'' is a widely used English-language thesaurus, created in 1805 by Peter Mark Roget (1779–1869), British physician, natural theologian and lexicographer. History It was released to the public on 29 April 1852. Roget was ...

'', and he translated

Spinoza Baruch (de) Spinoza (24 November 163221 February 1677), also known under his Latinized pen name Benedictus de Spinoza, was a philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, who was born in the Dutch Republic. A forerunner of the Age of Enlightenmen ...

's ''

Ethics Ethics is the philosophy, philosophical study of Morality, moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates Normativity, normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches inclu ...

'' into English and excerpts of ''

The Pickwick Papers ''The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club'' (also known as ''The Pickwick Papers'') was the Debut novel, first novel serialised from March 1836 to November 1837 by English author Charles Dickens. Because of his success with ''Sketches by Bo ...

'' into Portuguese for a Brazilian paper. In 1933, John won a scholarship to

Birmingham University The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...

where he graduated with first-class honours in German in 1936. He later pursued the studies of Oriental languages at the universities of Berlin and Göttingen. In 1941 he became a

sapper A sapper, also called a combat engineer, is a combatant or soldier who performs a variety of military engineering duties, such as breaching fortifications, demolitions, bridge-building, laying or clearing minefields, preparing field defenses ...

(a soldier who performs a variety of military engineering duties). In 1942 he was assigned to the

Foreign Office Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * United ...

where he remained until 1950. "In 1945 he married a colleague, Margaret Elizabeth Dunbar, who gave him three daughters, a life of great domestic happiness, and constant support in his work". He completed his doctoral dissertation under the guidance of

Vladimir Minorsky Vladimir Fyodorovich Minorsky (; – 25 March 1966) was a White Russian academic, historian, and scholar of Oriental studies, best known for his contributions to the study of history of Iran and the Iranian peoples such as Persians, Lurs, and ...

. Boyle received his doctorate in 1947. He later became a professor of Persian at

Manchester University The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

. He produced a Persian dictionary and a grammar book of modern Persian. He was the only European ever to receive the Iranian order of Sepas. He died of heart failure on November 19, 1978, at the age of 62.

Bibliography

Boyle was the author, translator, or editor of the following works:

Books

* Persian words are

romanized In linguistics, romanization is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and transcription, ...

in this dictionary. * Juvaini stopped working on the original Persian-language text in 1260, leaving it in a disorganized and incomplete state. Mirza Muhammad Qazvini completed the best text and published it in 1937. The 1958 edition (Boyle's English translation) is in two volumes. A book review of the 1958 edition was published by ''

The American Historical Review ''The American Historical Review'' is a quarterly academic history journal published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Historical Association, for which it is an official publication. It targets readers interested in all period ...

''. A revised edition of the Boyle translation was published in 1997. * (Porta linguarum orientalium; N.S., 9). A review of this book was published in a journal in 1967. Public page displays a small preview. * Foreword by

Ehsan Yarshater Ehsan Yarshater (; April 3, 1920 – September 1, 2018) was an Iranian historian and linguist who specialized in Iranology. He was the founder and director of the Center for Iranian Studies, and Hagop Kevorkian Professor Emeritus of Iranian Stud ...

; Preface by John Andrew Boyle. This is a translation of Volume 2 of Rashīd's

Jami' al-Tawarikh ''Jāmiʿ al-Tawārīkh'' () is a work of literature and history, produced in the Mongol Ilkhanate. Written by Rashid al-Din Hamadani (1247–1318 AD) at the start of the 14th century, the breadth of coverage of the work has caused it to be call ...

("Compendium of Chronicles"). * Foreword by Annemarie Schimmel. The 'Ilāhī-nāma is a 12th century Persian poem
An incompletely edited version is publicly accessible, here:
* Preface by

Owen Lattimore Owen Lattimore (July 29, 1900 – May 31, 1989) was an American Orientalist and writer. He was an influential scholar of China and Central Asia, especially Mongolia. Although he never earned a college degree, in the 1930s he was editor of '' Pac ...

Journal articles

* * Attempts to identify two city names that crop up in the description of Chingis’ Western campaigns. Webpage shows first page preview. * D̲j̲uwaynī was a Persian bureaucrat and historian. "

Ata-Malik Juvayni Ata-Malik Juvayni ; 1226 – 5 March 1283) was a bureaucrat and historian from the Juvayni family who served under the Mongol Empire. He is known for composing the ''Tarikh-i Jahangushay'' ("History of the World Conqueror"), an important account ...

" is the spelling of D̲j̲uwaynī's name used in the title of his English Wikipedia article. * * Webpage shows short preview. * Webpage shows first page preview. * Webpage shows first page preview. * Volume 4 is entitled "From the Arab invasion to the Saljuqs"; a PDF of volume 4 is availabl
here:
* * Webpage shows first page preview. * Makes some comparisons with the '' Yuan Shih'' (''History of Yuan''). An 8-page print book was created from this same Iran-Shinasi journal article, having the same author and title, and published by the Keyan Foundation in 1970. * "Una lettera di Ghāzān Khan (anni di regno: 1295-1304), il mecenate di Rashīd al-Dīn, indirizzata a papa Bonifacio VIII (anni di pontificato: 1294-1303), datata 12 aprile 1302 e ora custodita nell’Archivio Segreto Vaticano, mostra gli stretti contatti tra l’Ilkhan e il Pontefice suo contemporaneo28." [A letter from Ghāzān Khan (reign: 1295-1304), the patron of Rashīd al-Dīn, addressed to Pope Boniface VIII (pontificate: 1294-1303), dated 12 April 1302 and now kept in the Vatican Secret Archives, shows the close contacts between the Ilkhan and his contemporary Pontiff. 28] (Quotation from "La strada per il Catai. Contatti tra Oriente e Occidente al tempo di Marco Polo" ISBN 8862507739, ISBN 9788862507738, Pages 213/216, Year 2019, Alvise Andreose, editor) * * Webpage shows first page preview. * * * Webpage shows first page preview. * - - - - - - - - * - "Mongolia before Genghis Khan: the native tradition", Journal of the Anglo-Mongolian Society 2:1 (1975), 60-69. - "The last barbarian invaders: the impact of the Mongol conquest upon East and West," Memoirs and Proceedings 112 (1969–70), 5-19. - "The burial place of the Great Khan Ogedei," in 11th PIAC (1970), 45-50. - "Sites and localities connected with the history of the Mongol empire," in Olon Ulsyn, v. 1 (1972), 75-79. - "The seasonal residences of the Great Khan Ogedei, Central Asiatic Journal 16 (1972), 125-131. Also in 12th PIAC (1974), 145-151. - "Kirakos of Ganjak on the Mongols", Central Asiatic Journal 8 (1963), 199-214 - "The summer and winter camping grounds of the Kereit", Central Asiatic Journal 17 (1973), 108-110.

References

External links

* https://archive.org/details/historyoftheworl011648mbp * http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0015587X.1979.9716129?journalCode=rfol20#.UmJthnDXCE4 * http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/boyle-john-andrew-1916-78-british-orientalist {{DEFAULTSORT:Boyle, John Andrew 1916 births 1978 deaths Academics of the Victoria University of Manchester 20th-century British historians English orientalists British Iranologists Zoroastrian studies scholars 20th-century British translators Alumni of the University of Birmingham