ALI, Mrs. Meer Hassan.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Observations on the Mussulmauns of India: First edition. Ali "was remarkable for being the first educated British woman known to have lived in India as the wife of an Indian and to describe, in her Observations on the Mussulmauns of India (1832), the social and religious customs of Muslims, about which there was little firsthand knowledge in Europe, particularly those relating to women" (ODNB). Born Biddy Timms around 1795, Ali married a translator for the East India Company who had been appointed assistant to John Shakespear, Professor of Hindustani at the Military College at Addiscombe. Due to his ill health, they travelled back to India that year and settled in his home city of Lucknow. "Toleration on both sides marked Mrs Meer Hassan Ali's life in Lucknow. While she continued to wear European clothes and follow her own faith, she spoke fluent Hindustani, observed the intricacies of local etiquette, and was invited to play an intimate role in society" (ODNB). She was a keen observer of India's natural world and the everyday lives of those around her, and her book provides significant insight into the lives of secluded women in the zenana, including with respect to marriage, childbirth, religious practices, and social lives."The uniqueness of the information contained in her work was widely recognized at the time, and it became a standard reference book on India: her readers included Emma Roberts and W. E. Gladstone" (ODNB).

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.