Persia Past and Present: A Book of Travel and Research (Classic Reprint)
(University. I have entitled it a book of travel and resea...)
University. I have entitled it a book of travel and research, having essayed the somewhat difficult task of combining these two themes into a union which I hope will be found true, at least in spirit, even if imperfect when judged by the standards that I should like to uphold. I was tempted at first to label some of the chapters, like those on Takht-i Suleiman, Kangavar, Ragha, and a part of the section on theO ld Persian I nscriptions, with a warning, this chapter is dedicated to the student, and to prefix to other chapters, like those on the different cities, By Caravan and Cavalcade, Pasargadae, and Persepolis, a prefatory line, dedicated to the general reader. I decided against such a procedure, because I believe that the interests of both are ultimately one, and if the general reader enjoys a comfortable forty winks while certain technical matters are being discussed, he will awaken refreshed to resume his interest at a point where the specialist may begin to nod. But these very comments may have in themselves a somnolent effect and defeat their own end by superinducing the results they are seeking to avert. For that reason I shall refrain from adding others, and shall proceed rather to bring out the points which I wish to emphasize.
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)
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From Constantinople to the Home of Omar Khayyam: Travels in Transcaucasia and Northern Persia for Historic and Literary Research (Classic Reprint)
(Excerpt from From Constantinople to the Home of Omar Khay...)
Excerpt from From Constantinople to the Home of Omar Khayyam: Travels in Transcaucasia and Northern Persia for Historic and Literary Research
Among the generous criticisms of the book that appeared five years ago was a special comment by George Edward Wood berry in approval of the 'blending of scholarship and travel the research side imparting a touch of romance, and dignifying the travel.' I hope that the present pages may not be found to fall too far below the standard which the critic demanded to have maintained. For that reason I have refrained, as before, from an earlier idea of labeling certain chapters as 'dedicated to the special student,' because of their more technical con tents, and of designating others as 'dedicated to the general reader.' It will not be found difficult, I think, to distinguish the appeal in either case.
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An Avesta Grammar in Comparison With Sanskrit and the Avestan Alphabet and Its Transcription
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This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
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(This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)
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Zoroaster, the Prophet of Ancient Iran (Classic Reprint)
(Excerpt from Zoroaster, the Prophet of Ancient Iran
This...)
Excerpt from Zoroaster, the Prophet of Ancient Iran
This work deals with the life and legend of Zoroaster, the Prophet of Ancient Iran, the representative and type of the laws of the Medes and Persians, the Master whose teaching the Parsis to-day still faithfully follow. It is a biographical study based on tradition; tradition is a phase of history, and it is the purpose of the volume to present the picture of Zoroaster as far as possible in its historic light.
The suggestion which first inspired me to deal with this special theme came from my friend and teacher, Professor Geldner of Berlin, at the time when I was a student under him, ten years ago, at the University of Halle in Germany, and when he was lecturing for the term upon the life and teachings of Zoroaster. It was from him that I received my earliest vivid impression of the historic reality of the Ancient Sage. The special material for the work, however, has grown out of my own lectures, delivered several times in the regular university curriculum of Columbia. Students who may have attended the course will perhaps recognize some of the ideas as discussed with them in the class. As I have had the preparation of this volume in view for some time, I have naturally been constantly adding to my material or collecting new facts to throw light on the subject. It is the aim of the book to bring together all that is generally known at the present time, either from history or from tradition, about this religious teacher of the East.
Our knowledge of Zoroaster has been greatly augmented from the traditional side, during the past few years, especially through the translations made by Dr. West from the Pahlavi texts.
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Abraham Valentine Williams Jackson was an American specialist on Indo-European languages.
Background
Jackson was born on February 9, 1862, in New York City, the eldest of three children and the only son of David Sherwood and Elizabeth (Williams) Jackson. His parents were both of old American stock. His father, who died when he was only nine, was a New York City merchant who took some part in politics, serving briefly in Congress as a Democrat, 1847-48. His maternal grandfather, after whom he was named, was a physician and at one time president of the board of aldermen of New York City. One of his sisters became the wife of his college classmate, the celebrated physicist Michael Idvorsky Pupin.
Education
Young Jackson attended private schools and in 1879 matriculated in Columbia College, from which he was graduated with honors and at the head of his class in 1883. During his college course Jackson had become attracted to the ancient languages of India, and more especially of Iran. He received the advanced degrees of A. M. (1884), L. H. D. (1885), and Ph. D. (1886) from Columbia. He received from Columbia University, of which he was a devoted alumnus, an honorary LL. D. in 1904.
Career
After receiving the degrees, Jackson was appointed assistant in English and instructor in Zend. Shortly afterwards, in 1887, he received a leave of absence to pursue advanced study in Germany, and for a year and a half he worked at Halle under Karl F. Geldner in Avestan and Sanskrit and Richard Pischel in Sanskrit and Prakrit. The first notable fruit of his studies was An Avesta Grammar in Comparison with Sanskrit (1892), modeled after W. D. Whitney's Sanskrit Grammar, and this was followed by his Avesta Reader in 1893. It was, however, his Zoroaster, the Prophet of Ancient Iran (1899), a masterpiece of detailed study and sympathetic interpretation, which gave him celebrity as a scholar and established him as an authority on Iranian religion, so that he was chosen to write the section on this subject in the Grundriss der Iranischen Philologie (1900-1904). Meanwhile he had continued to teach at Columbia and in 1895 had been appointed professor of Indo-Iranian languages, a position which he held until his retirement in 1935. His long-cherished desire to visit India and Iran was fulfilled by four journeys between 1901 and 1910. It was on his first one to Iran, in 1903, that he made the daring ascent to read the inscription of Darius on the Rock of Behistun. Two volumes, Persia Past and Present (1906) and From Constantinople to the Home of Omar Khayyam (1911), contain the record of these travels, presented in a singular combination of antiquarian scholarship and popular description. Subsequently he went to India in 1911, to India and Persia in 1918-1919 as a member of the American Persian Relief Commission, and finally to India, Afghanistan, and eastern Persia in 1926. While his main interest was always in the Zoroastrian period of Iranian civilization, Jackson was also attracted by the classical poetry of New Persian, and he published in 1920 the first and only volume of a projected series on early Persian poetry. In his later years the discovery of original Manichaean texts in Central Asia drew his attention to that religion as being partly of Iranian origin, and he threw himself into the study of the sources with the enthusiasm of a pioneer. His work in this field, however, principally his Researches in Manichaeism (1932), must be regarded as tentative. Besides his own prolific scholarly activity Jackson did much editorial work, particularly in the thirteen volumes of the Columbia University Indo-Iranian Series, which was largely made up of dissertations and other works by his students and associates. He enjoyed teaching and gave an almost disproportionate amount of time to his classes. He was for many years a trustee of the public library and a member of the board of education in Yonkers, New York, where he lived from his youth till about 1910. In the summer of 1931 he was stricken with a severe heart attack and was never well afterwards, although he recovered sufficiently to carry on his academic and scholarly work to a considerable extent. He died of a sudden second attack at his home in New York on August 8, 1937, and was buried in the family plot in Woodlawn Cemetery.
Achievements
Jackson is best remembered for his scholar works, for which he received many marks of distinction.
President of the American Oriental Society (1915-1916, 1929-1930); honorary member of the Royal Asiatic Society; honorary member of the Société Asiatique
Personality
In his personal characteristics Jackson was a remarkable combination of the scholar and the gentleman of the old school. Formal in dress, invariably courteous, obliging to a fault, he was destitute of envy and scarcely ever made a harsh remark.
Connections
In 1889, Jackson married his first wife, Dora Elizabeth Ritter, who died in 1909 after a long illness. In 1911 he married Kate Brigham of Savannah, Georgia, a woman of rare charm, who was an ideal helpmate to him. He had no children.
