The Works of Sir William Jones

A renowned Enlightenment polymath, Sir William Jones (1746–94) was a lawyer, translator and poet who wrote authoritatively on politics, comparative linguistics and oriental literature. Known initially for his Persian translations and political radicalism, Jones became further celebrated for his study and translation of ancient Sanskrit texts following his appointment to the supreme court in Calcutta in 1783. He spent the next eleven years introducing Europe to the mysticism and rationality of Hinduism through works such as his nine 'Hymns' to Hindu deities and his translation of the Sanskrit classic Sacontalá, influencing Romantic writers from William Blake to August Wilhelm Schlegel. Volume 12 of his thirteen-volume works, published in 1807, contains the final book of Jones's Histoire de Nader Chah (1770), a memoir of the famed Iranian ruler, translated into French from the Persian. This volume also includes Jones' Traité sur la poësie orientale (1770), an essay exploring Arabic and Persian poetry.