Edward Granville Browne


Browne, Edward Granville

 

Born Feb. 7, 1862, in Uley, Gloucestershire; died Jan. 5, 1926, in Cambridge. English orientalist. Studied medicine and Eastern languages. Traveled through Iran (1887-88). Gave courses in Persian and Arabic at Cambridge (1888-1925).

Browne concentrated on the study of the culture and literature of the peoples of the Middle East. His four-volume work, A Literary History of Persia, is of great scholarly value; it is filled with factual material and traces the development of the literature from earliest times to the 19th century. His work, The Persian Revolution, also contains much factual material; however, it exaggerates the importance of the clergy and liberal circles and minimizes the role of the democratic strata in the revolution of 1905-11. In his works on the Babists and Babism, the Babist movement is considered only as a religious movement, and its social nature is ignored. He translated and published many works of Persian and Arabic literature.

WORKS

A Literary History of Persia, vols. 1-4. London-Leipzig-Cambridge, 1902-24.
A Year Amongst the Persians. Cambridge, 1927.
The Persian Revolution of 1905-1909. Cambridge, 1910.
The Press and Poetry of Modern Persia. Cambridge, 1914.
Materials for the Study of the Bábí Religion. Cambridge, 1918.
Arabian Medicine. Cambridge, 1921.