View source for Forster Fitzgerald Arbuthnot

{{Short description|British orientalist (1833–1901)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
'''Forster Fitzgerald Arbuthnot''' (21 May 1833 &ndash; 25 May 1901) was a notable [[British people|British]] [[oriental studies|Orientalist]] and [[translation|translator]].

==Biography==
Arbuthnot's early career was spent as a civil servant in [[India]]; his last post was as [[District collector|Collector]] for the [[Bombay]] government. He was named after his grandfather, Field Marshal [[Sir John FitzGerald]]. His first name is sometimes spelled "Foster".

Arbuthnot was well versed in the ancient literature of India. He collaborated with his close friend [[Sir Richard Burton]] in the translations of two [[Sanskrit]] erotic texts, the ''[[Kama Sutra]] of Vatsayana'' (1883) and ''The [[Ananga Ranga]]'' (1885), both privately printed by the [[Kama Shastra Society]] (a fictitious organisation consisting of himself and Burton, a legal device to avoid obscenity laws).<ref>Ben Grant, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/3993841 "Translating/'The' “Kama Sutra”"], ''Third World Quarterly'', Vol. 26, No. 3, Connecting Cultures (2005), 509-516</ref>  He also wrote the books ''Arabic Authors'', ''The Mysteries of Chronology'', ''Early Ideas'' (1881, under the pseudonym Anaryan) and ''Sex Mythology, Including an Account of the Masculine Cross '' (1898, privately printed), which attempts to trace the [[phallic]] origins of religious symbols. He edited the ''[[Rauza-tus-Safa|Rawżat aṣ-ṣafāʾ]]'' (روضة الصفا, ‘garden of purity’) by [[Mīr-Khvānd]], translated by the Orientalist [[Edward Rehatsek]] from 1891 to 1894.

It is largely due to his work that several of the masterpieces of Arabic, Persian and Indian literature first became available in English translation.

==Publications==
===Written===
* {{Cite book|display-authors=0 |last=Arbuthnot |first=Forster Fitzgerald |author-link=Forster Fitzgerald Arbuthnot |title=Early Ideas : A Group of Hindoo Stories |publisher=W. H. Allen and Co. | location=London |year=1881 |url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924023157393 |oclc=1080679008}}
* {{Cite book|display-authors=0 |last=Arbuthnot |first=Forster Fitzgerald |author-link=Forster Fitzgerald Arbuthnot |title=Free Trade in Land |publisher=Cassell & Company |location=London |year=1885 |url=https://archive.org/details/freetradeinland00arbu |oclc=1051491107}}
* {{Cite book|display-authors=0 |last=Arbuthnot |first=Forster Fitzgerald |author-link=Forster Fitzgerald Arbuthnot |title=Persian Portraits. A Sketch of Persian History, Literature and Politics |publisher=Bernard Quaritch |location=London |year=1887 |url=https://archive.org/details/persianportrait00arbugoog |oclc=634978922}}
* {{Cite book|display-authors=0 |last=Arbuthnot |first=Forster Fitzgerald |author-link=Forster Fitzgerald Arbuthnot |title=Arabic Authors; a Manual of Arabian History and Literature |publisher=William Heinemann |location=London |year=1890 |url=https://archive.org/details/arabicauthorsman00arbuuoft |oclc=1051484584}}
* {{Cite book|display-authors=0 |last=Arbuthnot |first=Forster Fitzgerald |author-link=Forster Fitzgerald Arbuthnot |title=The Mysteries of Chronology, with Proposal for a New English Era, to be called the Victorian |publisher=William Heinemann |location=London |year=1900 |url=https://archive.org/details/mysteriesofchron00arbuiala |oclc=1013417308}}

===Translated===
* {{Cite book <!-- Citation bot bypass to retain quotes around the fictitious location "Cosmopoli" --> |author=Vatsyayana |author-link=Vatsyayana |translator1-last=Arbuthnot |translator1-first=Forster Fitzgerald |translator1-link=Forster Fitzgerald Arbuthnot |translator2-last=Burton |translator2-first=Richard Francis |translator2-link=Richard Francis Burton  |title=The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana |publisher=[[Kama Shastra Society]] |location="Cosmopoli" |year=1883 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-ElAAQAAIAAJ}}
* {{Cite book <!-- Citation bot bypass to retain quotes around the fictitious location "Cosmopoli" --> |author=Kalyāṇamalla |author-link=Kalyanamalla |translator1-last=Arbuthnot |translator1-first=Forster Fitzgerald |translator1-link=Forster Fitzgerald Arbuthnot |translator2-last=Burton |translator2-first=Richard Francis |translator2-link=Richard Francis Burton |title=Ananga-ranga (stage of the bodiless one) or, The Hindu Art of Love |publisher=[[Kama Shastra Society]] |location="Cosmopoli" |year=1885 |url=https://archive.org/details/0327725.nlm.nih.gov}}

===Edited===
* {{Cite book |author=Muhammad ibn Khvandshah ibn Mahmud |author-link=Mirkhvand |translator-first=Edward |translator-last=Rehatsek |translator-link=Edward Rehatsek |editor-last=Arbuthnot |editor-first=Forster Fitzgerald |editor-link=Forster Fitzgerald Arbuthnot |title=The Rauzat-us-safa; or, Garden of Purity |publisher=Royal Asiatic Society |location=London |year=1891–94 |oclc=473658564}} {{Internet Archive|at=no|rauzatussafaorg00unkngoog|Part 1 Vol 1}}, {{Internet Archive|at=no|dli.ernet.237960|Part 1 Vol 2}}, {{Internet Archive|at=no|dli.ernet.237962|Part 2 Vol 1}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=_FM9AAAAYAAJ Part 2 Vol 2], {{Internet Archive|at=no|dli.ministry.05585|Part 2 Vol 3}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}
* Mrs P S-M Arbuthnot ''Memories of the Arbuthnots'' (1920). George Allen & Unwin Ltd.

==External links==
* {{Gutenberg author |id=8964}}
** Arbuthnot, F.F. [http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/a#a8964 ''Arabic Authors: A Manual of Arabian History and Literature''] (Full text)
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Forster Fitzgerald Arbuthnot}}
*{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20060615021813/http://www.kittybrewster.com/members/k_1.htm Arbuthnot Family tree]}}

{{Arbuthnot family}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arbuthnot, Forster Fitzgerald}}
[[Category:1833 births]]
[[Category:1901 deaths]]
[[Category:Arabic–English translators]]
[[Category:Persian–English translators]]
[[Category:Sanskrit–English translators]]
[[Category:English translators]]
[[Category:English non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:Arbuthnot family|Foster Fitzgerald Arbuthnot]]
[[Category:English orientalists]]
[[Category:Indian Civil Service (British India) officers]]
[[Category:English male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:19th-century British translators]]
[[Category:19th-century English male writers]]
[[Category:Younger sons of baronets]]


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