Identity area
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
Macan Turner 1792-1836
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Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
History
Captain Turner Macan (1792-1836) of Carriff, Co. Armagh, was Persian Interpreter to the Commander-in-Chief of the British Army in India. His edition of the Shahnameh was the first ever printed in Europe. The text was prepared from seventeen complete manuscripts and four fragments, most of which were written in Persia, lent to Macan by various British army officers and civil servants as well as local nawabs. One of these manuscripts (Rylands Persian MS 932, University of Manchester) was presented to the translator by Nasir-ud-Din Haidar, the King of Oudh.