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Sir William Muir, KCSI (27 April 1819 – 11 July 1905) was a Scottish Orientalist.
He was born at Glasgow and educated at Kilmarnock Academy, at Glasgow and Edinburgh Universities, and at Haileybury College. In 1837 he entered the Bengal Civil Service. He served as secretary to the governor of the North-West Provinces, and as a member of the Agra revenue board, and during the Mutiny he was in charge of the intelligence department there. In 1865 he was made foreign secretary to the Indian Government. In 1867 he was knighted (K.C.S.I.), and in 1868 he became lieutenant-governor of the North-West Provinces. In 1874 he was appointed financial member of the Council, and retired in 1876, when he became a member of the Council of India in London. He had always taken an interest in educational matters, and it was chiefly through his exertions that the central college at Allahabad, known as Muir College, was built and endowed. Muir College later became a part of the Allahabad University. In 1885 he was elected principal of Edinburgh University in succession to Sir Alexander Grant, and held the post till 1903, when he retired.
Sir William Muir was an Orientalist specialising in the history of the time of Muhammad and the early caliphate. His chief books are A Life of Mahomet and History of Islam to the Era of the Hegira; Annals of the Early Caliphate; The Caliphate, an abridgment and continuation of the Annals, which brings the record down to the fall of the caliphate on the onset of the Mongols; The Koran: its Composition and Teaching; and The Mohammedan Controversy, a reprint of five essays published at intervals between 1885 and 1887. In 1888 he delivered the Rede lecture at Cambridge on The Early Caliphate and Rise of Islam.
He has been credited by some authors with inventing the phrase "the Satanic Verses".
He married in 1840 Elizabeth Huntly Wemyss (d. 1897), and had five sons and six daughters; four of his sons served in India, and one of them, Colonel A. M. Muir (d. 1899), was Political Officer for South Baluchistan, and was acting British Resident in Nepal when he died.
Works
- A Life of Mahomet and History of Islam to the Era of the Hegira. 1858-1862. 4 Vols.
- A Life of Mahomet and History of Islam to the Era of the Hegira. 2nd ed. 1878, in 1 Vol., xi+errata slip, xxviii, 624 pp. 3 fold-out maps. London: Smith, Elder, & Co.
- A Life of Mahomet and History of Islam to the Era of the Hegira. 3rd ed. 1894.
- The Mameluke or Slave Dynasty of Egypt, 1260-1517 AD, end of the Caliphate
- The Caliphate: Its rise, decline and fall
- The Apology of al-Kindy
- Annals of the Early Caliphate
- The Koran: its Composition and Teaching: full text online
- The Mohammedan Controversy: full text online
- The Sources of Islam, A Persian Treatise, by the Rev. W. St. Clair-Tisdall, translated and abridged by W. M. 1901. Edinburgh, T & T Clark.
- Records of the Intelligence Department of the Government of the North-West Provinces of India during the Mutiny of 1857 including correspondence with the supreme government, Delhi, Cawnpore, and other places. 1902. 2 vols, Edinburgh, T & T Clark.
- Two Old Faiths: Essays on the Religions of the Hindus and the Mohammedans. J. Murray Mitchell and Sir William Muir. 1901. New York: Chautauqua Press.
- Mahomet and Islam
- The Rise and Decline of Islam
- The Lord's Supper: an abiding witness to the death of Christ
- Sweet First-Fruits. A tale of the Nineteenth Century, on the truth and virtue of the Christian Religion
- The Beacon of Truth; or, Testimony of the Coran to the Truth of the Christian Religion
- The Teaching of the Coran
References
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
See also
| Government offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Edmund Drummond |
Lieutenant Governor of the North-Western Provinces 1868–1874 |
Succeeded by Sir John Strachey |
| Academic offices | ||
| Preceded by Sir Alexander Grant |
Principal of Edinburgh University 1885–1903 |
Succeeded by William Turner |
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