Narrative of a Journey to the Site of Babylon in 1811

Narrative of a Journey to the Site of Babylon in 1811 Synopsis

Well versed in oriental languages and antiquities, Claudius James Rich (1786/7–1821), the East India Company's resident at Baghdad, visited and described many historic locations in present-day Iraq and Iran. Following his early death from cholera in Shiraz, Rich's widow prepared his writings for publication. His two-volume Narrative of a Residence in Koordistan, and on the Site of Ancient Nineveh (1836) is also reissued in this series. The present work, which appeared in 1839, contains Rich's 1811 journal of his first visit to the site of the ancient city of Babylon, followed by the archaeological memoir he published in 1815. 'Remarks on the Topography of Ancient Babylon', an 1815 paper by the geographer James Rennell (1742–1830), who queried Rich's conclusions, is included, and Rich's 1818 memoir of his second visit then responds to Rennell. A narrative of Rich's Persian travels in 1821, featuring 'hitherto unpublished cuneiform inscriptions copied at Persepolis', completes the work.