Charles James Lyall

Charles James Lyall
Born	1845 London
Died	1 September 1920 82 Cornwall Gardens, London
Occupation	Colonial Administrator

For the soldier and first-class cricketer, see Charles Ross Lyall.

Sir Charles James Lyall, KCSI, FBA (1845–1920) was an English civil servant working in India during the period of the British Raj, and also an Arabic scholar.

Life

Charles James Lyall was born in London on 9 March 1845.^[1] He was the eldest son of a banker, also called Charles, and his wife Harriet (née Matheson). Educated initially at King's College School and then King's College London, Lyall went on to Balliol College, Oxford, from which he graduated in 1867 with a BA degree. He had already come first in the 1865 competitive examination for appointments in the Indian Civil Service, and after graduation he left England for India.^[1] He arrived there on 4 December 1867 and was appointed assistant magistrate and collector in the North-Western Provinces.^[2]

Lyall spent a brief period, between April and June 1872, as assistant under-secretary in the foreign department of the British government of India. From September 1873 he was under-secretary in the department of revenue, agriculture and commerce, He was appointed Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire (CIE) in January 1880, having ended his role as under-secretary in the previous year. From 1880 he was primarily engaged as secretary to the Chief Commissioner of Assam, but also had two periods as judge and commissioner for the Assam valley districts and a few months as secretary in the department of revenue, agriculture and commerce.^[1][2]

He was the acting Chief Commissioner of Assam in 1894 and Chief Commissioner of the Central Provinces and Berar from 1895 to 1898. In 1898, he was transferred to the India Office in London as secretary to the Judicial and Public Department, a post that he held until his retirement in 1910.

Legacy

Lyall was known as a scholar of Arabic poetry. He published the two-volume Translations of Ancient Arabian Poetry (1885, 1894), and translations of The Diwan of Abid ibn al-Abras (1913), The Poems of Amr Son of Qamiah (1919), and The Mufaddaliyat (1921), as well as articles on Hindustani and Arabic literature

He was knighted with the K.C.S.I. in 1897, and was elected a Fellow of the British Academy; he also received honorary degrees from the universities of Oxford, Edinburgh and Strasbourg.

Publications

• A sketch of the Hindustani language. Edinburgh: Adam & Charles Black. 1880. http://www.archive.org/details/asketchhindusta01lyalgoog. 
• Translations of ancient Arabian poetry : chiefly, præ-Islamic, with an introduction and notes. 1. London: Williams and Norgate. 1885. 
• Report on the working of the Penal settlement of Port Blair. Calcutta: Printed by the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. 1890-1891.  (Co-authored with [[A. S. Lethbridge)
• Guide to the transliteration of Hindu and Muhammadan names in the Bengal army (3rd ed.). Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing. 1892. http://www.archive.org/details/guidetotranslite00lyalrich. 
• Translations of ancient Arabian poetry : chiefly, præ-Islamic, with an introduction and notes. 2. London: Williams and Norgate. 1894. 
• "The words "Ḥanif" and Muslim"". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (London): 771-784. October 1903. 
• The Mikirs; from the papers of the late Edward Stack. London: David Nutt. 1908. http://www.archive.org/details/mikirsfrompaper00lyalgoog.  ("Edited, arranged and supplemented" by Lyall)
• The Diwans of Abid ibn al-Abras, of Asad, and Amir ibn at-Tufail, of Amir ibn Sasaah, edited for the first time, from the ms. in the British museum, and supplied with a translation and notes. Leyden: E. J. Brill; London: Luzac & Co.. 1913. http://www.archive.org/details/diwansofabidibna21abiduoft. 
• The Mufaddaliyat; an anthology of ancient Arabian odes according to the recension. 1: Arabic text. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1921. http://www.archive.org/details/mufaddaliyatant01mufauoft.  (Edited by Lyall)
• The Mufaddaliyat; an anthology of ancient Arabian odes according to the recension. 2: Translation and Notes. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1918. http://www.archive.org/details/mufaddaliyatanth00mufauoft.  (Edited by Lyall)
• The Mufaddaliyat; an anthology of ancient Arabian odes according to the recension. 3: Indexes to the Arabic text. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1918. http://www.archive.org/details/mufaddaliyatanth03mufauoft.  (Edited by Lyall; compiled by A. A. Bevan)
• "Some aspects of ancient Arabic poetry as illustrated by a little-known anthology". Proceedings of the British academy (London) 8: 365-380. 1918. 
• "Transliteration of Arabic and Persian. Report of the committee appointed to draw up a practical scheme for the transliteration into English of words and names belonging to the languages of the nearer East.". Proceedings of the British Academy (London) 8. 1918. 
• The poems of 'Amr son of Qami'ah. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1919. http://www.archive.org/details/poemsofamrsonofq00amriuoft.  (Edited and translated by Lyall)

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} "Lyall, Sir Charles James", on the website of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Subscription or UK public library membership required), http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/34642 
2. ^ ^{a b} The India List and Office List. India Office. 1905. p. 552. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=3VQTAAAAYAAJ. Retrieved 2011-11-21. 

Further reading

• Nicholson, Reynold Alleyne (1919–20). "Sir C. J. Lyall, 1845–1920". Proceedings of the British Academy 9: 492–496. 

External links

• Works written by or about Charles James Lyall at Wikisource

Persondata
Name	Lyall, Charles
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1845
Place of birth	London
Date of death	1920
Place of death	London