The New Testament of Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ de (BIBLE; Urdu.) MARTYN, Henry (trans) - 1817

Calcutta: printed by P. Pereira, at the Hindoostanee Press,, 1817. Translated into the Hindostanee Language from the Original Greek, and now printed in the Nagree Character. By the Rev. H. Martyn... and afterwards carefully revised with the assistance of Mirza Fitrut, and other Learned Natives. For the British and Foreign Bible Society. Octavo (200 × 135 mm). Contemporary native polished tree-calf, numbered "23" in gilt at foot of spine. 2 title pages, one English, one Urdu, text in Urdu. Bookplate of the Theological Institute of Andover. Joints and corners very lightly rubbed, small tears to front free endpaper, English title page very slightly loose, otherwise internally fresh and overall in excellent condition. First complete and accessible edition of the New Testament in Urdu, a form of Hindustani used as the vernacular language by the native inhabitants of the Upper Provinces of India. Before Henry Martyn, there had been two previous translations into Urdu: one poor translation (into the unprevalent Dakhini form of Urdu) of the New Testament by Benjamin Shultze of the Danish Mission in 1745; and a partial translation, of only the Four Gospels, into the Nagree script by William Hunter of the College of Fort William in 1805. "The real story of Urdu translation begins with the arrival in India of Henry Martyn" (Bible Society of India); his painstakingly accurate Urdu translation of the entire New Testament was the best and most complete to that date, but its first publication, in Serampore in 1814, was in a Persian character unfamiliar with the natives. This second edition, for the first time printed in the familiar Nagree character, is therefore the first complete translation of the New Testament in an accessible script, and marks a significant typographical achievement by the Indian missionary press, widening the diffusion of Christianity by making the Urdu text accessible to the Urdu speaking native population. Shortly before the publication of this 1817 Nagree edition, the British and Foreign Bible Society reported: "The circulation of the Scriptures in the vernacular dialects of India, though a primary object of ... this Society, has not yet been extended to any of the languages spoken by the native inhabitants of the provinces connected with the Presidency ... An excellent translation of the New Testament in the Persian character ... has not been published in the Negree character. A specimen of the Deva Nagree character [was] obtained from the Hindoostanee Press ... The time necessarily occupied in preparing the manuscript in the Negree character, has prevented any progress being yet made in this edition ... it is hoped that the Gospel may still be diffused in the colloquial tongue and familiar character of the Hindoostan, before the expiration of the present year." (Thirteenth Report of the British and Foreign Bible Society, p. 5-7, 1817. Darlow & Moule 5273). Of the 2000 copies printed only five are located by OCLC in US institutions: Yale, Amherst, Harvard, Bowdoin, and Dartmouth; and fewer in the UK, OCLC and COPAC together locating only Oxford, Kings Colllege London, and Cambridge.