Alexander Dow (1735 or 1736 – 31 July 1779) was a Scottish Orientalist, writer, playwright and army officer in the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

Life

He was a native of

Crieff Crieff (; , meaning "tree") is a Scottish market town in Perth and Kinross on the A85 road between Perth, Scotland, Perth and Crianlarich, and the A822 road, A822 between Greenloaning and Aberfeldy, Scotland, Aberfeldy. The A822 road, A822 joins ...

Perthshire Perthshire (Scottish English, locally: ; ), officially the County of Perth, is a Shires of Scotland, historic county and registration county in central Scotland. Geographically it extends from Strathmore, Angus and Perth & Kinross, Strathmore ...

. Alexander Dow's father worked at the Customs at

Dunbar Dunbar () is a town on the North Sea coast in East Lothian in the south-east of Scotland, approximately east of Edinburgh and from the Anglo–Scottish border, English border north of Berwick-upon-Tweed. Dunbar is a former royal burgh, and ...

. The younger Dow was educated in Dunbar for a time, and, in conjunction with his father's job, this would suggest that he lived in the area for a time. Dow was in the process of being educated for a mercantile career in

Eyemouth Eyemouth is a town and civil parishes in Scotland, civil parish in Berwickshire, in the Scottish Borders area of Scotland. It is east of the main north–south A1 road (Great Britain), A1 road and north of Berwick-upon-Tweed. The town's name ...

, when he abruptly left aboard the ''King of Prussia'' as a

midshipman A midshipman is an officer of the lowest Military rank#Subordinate/student officer, rank in the Royal Navy, United States Navy, and many Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth navies. Commonwealth countries which use the rank include Royal Cana ...

. The reason for this turn of events is not known, but one reason posited for this was that he was involved in a fatal duel. Dow then worked his way to Bencoolen. There he became secretary to the

Governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

, and was commended to the patronage of the officials of the

Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...

. He joined the army there as an ensign in the Bengal infantry on 14 September 1760, and was rapidly promoted lieutenant on 23 August 1763, and then captain on 16 April 1764. He returned to Britain on leave in 1768, and published in that year two translations, ''Tales translated from the Persian of Inatulla of Delhi'' and the ''History of Hindostan, translated from the Persian of Ferishta'', from

Firishta Firishta or Ferešte (), full name Muhammad Qasim Hindu Shah Astarabadi (), was a Persian historian, who later settled in India and served the Deccan Sultans as their court historian. He was born in 1570 and died between 1611 and 1623. Life F ...

. Both works had a great success, and in the following year Dow had a five-act tragedy on

Genghis Khan Genghis Khan (born Temüjin; August 1227), also known as Chinggis Khan, was the founder and first khan (title), khan of the Mongol Empire. After spending most of his life uniting the Mongols, Mongol tribes, he launched Mongol invasions and ...

, '' Zingis'', which was acted with some success at

Drury Lane Drury Lane is a street on the boundary between the Covent Garden and Holborn areas of London, running between Aldwych and High Holborn. The northern part is in the borough of London Borough of Camden, Camden and the southern part in the City o ...

. He then returned to India, and was promoted lieutenant-colonel on 25 February 1769, and in 1772 published the continuation of his history of Hindostan to the death of Aurungzeb, with two dissertations, 'On the Origin and Nature of Despotism in Hindostan,’ and 'An Enquiry into the State of Bengal.' In 1774, he again returned to England, and

David Garrick David Garrick (19 February 1716 – 20 January 1779) was an English actor, playwright, Actor-manager, theatre manager and producer who influenced nearly all aspects of European theatrical practice throughout the 18th century, and was a pupil a ...

produced his second tragedy in verse at Drury Lane, entitled 'Sethona', set in a mythic ancient Egypt. It was acted only for nine nights, and was said by David Erskine Baker in his ''Biographia Dramatica'' to be not really by Dow at all. Dow returned once more to India, and died in

Bhagalpur Bhagalpur, historically known as Champapuri, Champa Nagari, is a city in the Indian state of Bihar, situated on the southern bank of the Ganges river. It is the Bihar#Government and administration, third largest city of Bihar by population and ...

on 31 July 1779.

Works

*''Tales Translated from the Persian of Inatulla of Delhi'' (1768) *'' Zingis'' (1769) - 5-act tragedy *'' Sethona'' (1774) - verse tragedy

References

External links

*
Persian Tales of Inatulla of Delhi
in anthology work, Tales of the East: Continuationof the New Arabian nights. Persian tales rom the translation of F. Pétis de la CroixPersian tales of Inatulla of Delhi r. by A. DowOriental tales y A. C. P., comte de CaylusThe history of Nourjahad y Mrs. Frances SheridanAdditional tales from the Arabian nights, J. Ballantyne and company, 1812, at

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical charac ...

Sethona. A Tragedy
at

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dow, Alexander 1730s births 1779 deaths People from Crieff Military personnel from Perth and Kinross Scottish orientalists British East India Company Army officers 18th-century Scottish dramatists and playwrights 18th-century Scottish male writers 18th-century Scottish translators