author
Sir Henry Yule
1820–1889
A soldier-scholar of the British Empire, he turned years of work in India into vivid books about Asian travel, geography, and language. He is best remembered for making medieval travel narratives newly accessible to English readers and for co-creating the much-loved glossary Hobson-Jobson.
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About the author
Born near Edinburgh on May 1, 1820, he trained at Addiscombe and Chatham and joined the Bengal Engineers in 1840. His career in India gave him firsthand experience of the places, peoples, and languages that later shaped his writing, and he eventually became known not only as an officer but as a careful geographer and Orientalist.
He wrote and edited books that opened up the history of travel in Asia for Victorian readers. Among his best-known works are editions and translations connected with Marco Polo and the 14th-century traveler Jordanus, as well as Cathay and the Way Thither. His scholarship combined a love of old texts with a practical interest in routes, places, and historical detail.
Yule also remains famous for Hobson-Jobson, the dictionary of Anglo-Indian terms he compiled with Arthur Coke Burnell. That book helped preserve the rich mixture of words that grew out of contact between English and South Asian languages. He died on December 30, 1889, leaving behind a body of work that still appeals to readers interested in travel, empire, and the meeting of cultures.