Abraham Valentine Williams Jackson,

L.H.D. LHD can mean: * Landing helicopter dock, a type of warship. * Large Helical Device, a major Japanese nuclear fusion reactor. * Leatherhead railway station, Surrey, England, by National Rail station code * Left hand drive, a vehicle with the driv ...

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

LL.D. A Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) is a doctoral degree in legal studies. The abbreviation LL.D. stands for ''Legum Doctor'', with the double “L” in the abbreviation referring to the early practice in the University of Cambridge to teach both canon law ...

(February 9, 1862 – August 8, 1937) was an American specialist on

Indo-European languages The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia (e. ...

Biography

He was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

on February 9, 1862. He graduated from

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

in 1883. He was a fellow in letters there from 1883 to 1886, and an instructor in

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...

and the Iranian languages from 1887 to 1890. After studying at the

University of Halle Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (), also referred to as MLU, is a public research university in the cities of Halle and Wittenberg. It is the largest and oldest university in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. MLU offers German and i ...

from 1887 to 1889 he became an

adjunct professor An adjunct professor is a type of academic appointment in higher education who does not work at the establishment full-time. The terms of this appointment and the job security of the tenure vary in different parts of the world, but the term is gen ...

of English language and literature. In 1895, he was appointed public lecturer and also appointed to the newly founded professorship of Indo-Iranian languages at

, where he remained until 1935. He was well known as a lecturer on

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from the English-speaking world. The English language has developed over more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian languages, Anglo-Frisian d ...

and the Orient. In 1901, during a visit to

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

and

Ceylon Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

, he received special attention from the

Parsees The Parsis or Parsees () are a Zoroastrian ethnic group in the Indian subcontinent. They are descended from Persian refugees who migrated to the Indian subcontinent during and after the Arab-Islamic conquest of Iran in the 7th century, whe ...

, who presented to Columbia a valuable collection of

Zoroastrian Zoroastrianism ( ), also called Mazdayasnā () or Beh-dīn (), is an Iranian religion centred on the Avesta and the teachings of Zarathushtra Spitama, who is more commonly referred to by the Greek translation, Zoroaster ( ). Among the wo ...

manuscripts in recognition of the instruction there given by him in their ancient texts. In 1903 he made a second journey to the Orient, this time visiting

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

. He also visited

Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...

sometime before 1918. Jackson's grammar of

Avestan Avestan ( ) is the liturgical language of Zoroastrianism. It belongs to the Iranian languages, Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family and was First language, originally spoken during the Avestan period, Old ...

, the language used in the Zoroastrian scriptures, is still considered to be the seminal work on the topic. Jackson was one of the directors of the

American Oriental Society The American Oriental Society is a learned society that encourages basic research in the languages and literatures of the Near East and Asia. It was chartered under the laws of Massachusetts on September 7, 1842. It is one of the oldest learned ...

. He was elected to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

in 1909. He died on August 8, 1937.

Publications

* ''A Hymn of Zoroaster'' (1888) * ''An Avesta Grammar in Comparison with Sanskrit'' (1892) * ''An Avesta Reader'' (1893) * '' Avesta, the Bible of Zoroaster'' (1893) * ''Zoroaster, the Prophet of Ancient Iran'' (1898) * ''Die iranische Religion'' (1900) * ''Persia, Past and Present'' (1906) * Descriptive Catalogue of the Persian MSS. in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’ (1913) * ''From Constantinople to the Home of Omar Khayyam'' (1911) * ''A Descriptive Catalogue of the Persian Manuscripts Presented to the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

by A. S. Cochran'' (1914), with A. Yohannan * ''Early Persian Poetry'' (1920) * (Editor). Full text online at ibiblio.org (All nine volumes in HTML form, complete, chapter-by-chapter, with all illustrations, footnotes and a combined index) He made many contributions to the ''Journal'' of the American Oriental Society. He edited the ''

Columbia University Indo-Iranian Series The ''Columbia University Indo-Iranian Series'' is a 13-volume book series edited by A. V. Williams Jackson and published by the Columbia University Press between 1901 and 1932. Volumes See also *''Harvard Oriental Series'' *Loeb Classical Lib ...

'' (13 vols., New York, 1901–32). p. 257

References

Sources

''New General Catalog of Old Books and Authors''
* * *Encyclopaedia Iranica, https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-iranica-online/jackson-abraham-valentine-williams-COM_3772?s.num=0&s.f.s2_parent=s.f.book.encyclopaedia-iranica-online&s.q=jackson%2C+william

External links

on Vohuman.Org * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jackson, A. V. Williams 1937 deaths 1862 births Linguists from the United States American translators Columbia College (New York) alumni Columbia University faculty Historical linguists University of Halle alumni American Iranologists American expatriates in Germany Members of the American Philosophical Society