The Second Turkish Linguistic Congress was convened in Istanbul in August 1934 to discuss the position of the Turkish language among the languages of the world; the historical evolution of the Turkish language; and the meaning and aims of the linguistic revolution in Turkey.
Anton Tien was born in Beirut, Syria, in 1834. He studied theology in Rome for several years but then converted to Anglicanism. He came to England with letters of introduction to William Gladstone who advised him to go to theological college. Therefore he entered St Augustine's College, Canterbury. During the Crimean War he was Oriental Secretary on Lord Baglan's staff. In 1860 he travelled to Constantinople as a priest where his knowledge of Middle Eastern languages enabled him to tutor both at missions schools and privately.
Tien acted as interpreter between a visiting Omani dignitary and representatives of Queen Victoria in 1886 and, in 1896, he was appointed Professor of Turkish at King's College, London, a position he held until 1913. He was a member of the Royal Asiatic Society. He died in 1920 in Sussex.
Theobald arrived in Calcutta on the ship Hindostan in March 1847 and worked as a volunteer in the coal exploration of the upper Damodar and Son valleys under David Williams. During this time Joseph Hooker visited him and they spent time together. Later Theobald became an assistant to John McClelland who took over the exploration from David Williams. He went to Burma in 1855 as a staff of the Geological Survey of India and took over the Pegu survey. He returned to Bengal on completion of the survey in 1873 to be appointed Deputy Superintendent of Bengal in 1876. From 1868 to 1876 he described a dozen new species of reptiles. Theobald is known chiefly as a malacologist and naturalist but also seems to have an interest in the coinage of Hindustan, perhaps after his retirement from service in 1881.