Sir Henry Rawlinson, 1st Baronet

Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson, 1st Baronet, GCB, FRS, FRGS, KLS (5 April 1810 – 5 March 1895) was a British Army officer posted to the East India Company, Member of Parliament, Orientalist, collector of antiquities, historian, and translator. He is sometimes called the "Father of Assyriology". He was president of the Royal Geographical Society from 1874 to 1875, president of the Royal Asiatic Society from 1869 to 1871 and again from 1878 to 1881, and a trustee of the British Museum from 1876 until his death.

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Quotes

The town of Zoháb has been usually considered the representative of the city of Holwán—but this is incorrect. The real site of Holwán, one of the eight primeval cities of the world, was at Sar-Púli-Zoháb, distant about 8 miles south of the modern town, and situated on the high road conducting from Baghdád to Kirmánsháh. This is the Calah of Asshur, ... and the Halah of the Israelitish captivity. ... It gave to the surrounding district the name of Chalonitis, which we meet with in most of the ancient geographers. ... Isidore of Charax particularises the city, under the name of Chala, ... and the Emperor Heraclius appears to allude to the same place as Kalchas. ...
- Notes on a March from Zoháb, at the Foot of Zagros, Along the Mountains to Khúzistán (Susiana), and from Thence Through the Province of Luristan to Kirmánsháh, in the Year 1836. London: John Murray. 1839. p. 35. (91 pages; reprinted from the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, 1839, vol. 9, pp. 26–116; Travel Writings of H. C. Rawlinson, 258 pages, at archive.org)

Whilst the seat of Semitic empire was still upon the Lower Tigris, and before the building, perhaps, either of Babylon or Nineveh, that remarkable expedition to Palestine must have taken place, which is described in Genesis, and in which are found the vassal kings of Shinar and Ellasar, ranged under the banners of Chedorlaomer, king of Elam.
- Outline of the History of Assyria, as collected from the inscriptions discovered by A. H. Layard in the ruins of Nineveh ... Printed from the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. London: John W. Parker & Son. 1852. p. 4. (text at archive.org)

The Persia of to-day is not, it is true, the Persia of Darius, nor even is it the Persia of Shah Abbas the Great; but it is a country, which for good or for ill, may powerfully affect the fortunes of Great Britain’s Empire in the East, and which requires, therefore, to be studied by our statesmen with care, with patience, and, above all, in a generous and indulgent spirit.
- "Preface to the First Edition". England and Russia in the East: A Series of Papers on the Political and Geographical Condition of Central Asia (2nd ed.). London: John Murray. 1875. pp. xi–xviii. (quote from p. xiii; text at archive.org)

The Memoir of Sir Henry Rawlinson affords a striking illustration of the powerful influence that early association with a master-mind may exercise on a man's career in life, and of what great things may be achieved if he takes full advantage of his opportunities, and sets out with a determination to make the most of his life and raise himself above his fellows. It may therefore be considered a piece of good fortune for a young cadet like Rawlinson, bound to India to seek his fortune, to find himself thrown as a fellow-passenger with Sir John Malcolm, Governor of Bombay, a distinguished soldier, an equally distinguished diplomatist, and an Oriental scholar of no mean reputation.
- Field Marshal Frederick Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts in: Rawlinson, George. "Introduction by Roberts". A Memoir of Major-General Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson. London: Longmans, Green & Company, 1898. pp. xiii–xxii. (quote from p. xiii, text at archive.org)