Solomon Caesar Malan

Who was Solomon Caesar Malan?

Solomon Caesar Malan was a British divine and orientalist. By birth a Swiss descended from an exiled French family, Malan was born in Geneva, where his father, Dr Henri Abraham César Malan enjoyed a great reputation as a Protestant divine.

From his earliest youth he manifested a remarkable faculty for the study of languages, and when he came to Scotland as tutor in the marquis of Tweeddale's family at the age of 18 he had already made progress in Sanskrit, Arabic and Hebrew. In 1833 he matriculated at St Edmund Hall, Oxford; and English being almost an unknown tongue to him, he petitioned the examiners to allow him to do his paper work of the examination in French, German, Spanish, Italian, Latin or Greek, rather than in English.

But his request was not granted. After gaining the Boden and the Pusey and Ellerton scholarships, he graduated 2nd class in Literae humaniores in 1837. He then proceeded to India as classical lecturer at Bishop's College, Calcutta, to which post he added the duties of secretary to the Bengal branch of the Royal Asiatic Society; and although compelled by illness to return in 1840, laid the foundation of a knowledge of Tibetan and Chinese.