Person · b. 1727? – d. 1 March 1801 (15 Shawwal 1215 AH), Murshidabad · born 1727 · Vakeel (envoy) of the Nawab of Awadh at the East India Company's government in Calcutta; mathematician and astronomer

Tafazzul Husain Khan

Vakeel of the Nawab of Awadh to the East India Company's government at Calcutta, who wrote home in the 1780s that he was translating Newton's Principia into Arabic — a claim a widely copied 1804 obituary repeated as an accomplished fact, and that a 2022 history-of-science study finds no surviving translation to support.

"Principia of Sir Isaac Newton, Thomas Simpson's book on Algebra... All these books I am translating into Arabic" — his own letter to David Anderson, written in Persian at Calcutta, in Campbell's 1804 English translation as reproduced in Naqvi 2022, p. 134.

What the sources did afterwards. His own letter describing an Arabic Principia still in progress hardened, in a widely copied 1804 obituary, into the flat claim that he had completed it. A 2022 history-of-science paper calls that claim "insufficient to warrant this astounding and oft-repeated claim," finding none of his three surviving tracts to be that translation. Even his death is printed under two different years, 1800 and 1801, by the sources that repeat it.

Draft. This entry is an unreviewed first draft. It has not yet been checked by a subject reviewer — see sources and method.

Vakeel at Calcutta, and a letter about Newton

After a rupture and reconciliation with Nawab Asaf-ud-Daula, Tafazzul Husain Khan was, in 1788, "soon after appointed vakeel from the court of Lucknow to the British government. In this capacity he resided some years at Calcutta, where he cultivated the society of Sir William Jones and Lord Teignmouth" (Naqvi 2022, p. 133), pursuing mathematics and astronomy alongside his embassy. Writing home to his friend David Anderson in Persian, he reported work still in progress, not a finished feat, naming the books: "Principia of Sir Isaac Newton, Thomas Simpson's book on Algebra, Emerson on Mechanics, Appolonius de Sectione Rationis... All these books I am translating into Arabic" (Naqvi 2022, p. 134), alongside several shorter treatises he says he had already finished.

A death dated twice, and a claim that outgrew the letter

A contemporary Persian chronogram records that, returning from Calcutta, "he passed away in Muršid-Ābād on the fifteenth of Šawwāl 1215 Hijra [which corresponds, according to my reckoning, to 1st March 1801]" (Naqvi 2022, p. 132) — other sources print his death as 1800. The Arabic Principia his letter describes as underway hardened, in a widely copied 1804 obituary, into a flat achievement: "he translated the Principia from the original Latin, into Arabic." A 2022 history-of-science study calls that claim "insufficient to warrant this astounding and oft-repeated claim," finding none of his three surviving tracts to be that translation (Naqvi 2022, abstract).

Sources

p. 133 · read as web the latter was soon after appointed vakeel from the court of Lucknow to the British government. In this capacity he resided some years at Calcutta, where he cultivated the society of Sir William Jones and Lord Teignmouth
p. 134 · read as web Principia of Sir Isaac Newton, Thomas Simpson's book on Algebra, Emerson on Mechanics, Appolonius de Sectione Rationis... All these books I am translating into Arabic
p. 132 · read as web while returning home, he passed away in Muršid-Ābād on the fifteenth of Šawwāl 1215 Hijra [which corresponds, according to my reckoning, to 1st March 1801]
abstract, p. 127 · read as web According to Campbell, the author of an obituary notice (published in 1804), "he translated the Principia from the original Latin, into Arabic". The evidence gathered by Campbell is examined, and found insufficient to warrant this astounding and oft-repeated claim.