Herman Bicknell

In 1862 he started from London in the assumed character of an English Muslim gentleman, and, devoid of European contact, proceeded to Cairo, where he lived for a considerable period in the native quarter of the city. By this time so intimately acquainted had he become with the habits and manners of Islám, that in the spring of the same year he boldly joined the annual Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca),^[5] and successfully accomplished a dangerous exploit which no other Englishman had achieved without disguise of person or of nationality.^[6] In 1868 he passed by Aleppo and the Euphrates to Shiráz, where he resided some months in 1869, employed in making himself thoroughly acquainted with the scenes and life of Persia, to carry out more efficiently the great work of his life, a metrical and literal translation of the chief poems of Háfiz,^[7] which, during fifteen years, had been under revision. But on 14 March 1875, before the manuscripts had received their final corrections, his life was abruptly terminated by disease, induced or hastened by the wear of constant change of climate, exposure in mountain exploration, and by an accident in an attempt to ascend the Matterhorn. He died in London, and was buried at Ramsgate. As a traveller he had great powers of endurance, he was a fair draughtsman, and as a linguist of unsurpassed ability; his varied accomplishments being also united with the happiest power of lucidly explaining the most abstruse theories of metaphysics and etymology, which his extensive reading had mastered. Besides a few pamphlets, he published the translation of Háfiz (posthumously issued), which include a variety of chronograms two centuries prior to their European introduction.^[8][9]

• "Bicknell, Herman" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
• Hillmann, Michael C. (1989). Bicknell, Herman. Encyclopedia Iranica online.

• Works by Herman Bicknell at Project Gutenberg
• Works by Herman Bicknell (WorldCat Identities).