A. V. Williams Jackson

Left to right: Unknown, Maneckji Nusserwanji Dhalla, A. V. W. Jackson, Henry Clews, Djelal Munif Bey at Columbia University in 1914

Abraham Valentine Williams Jackson, L.H.D., Ph.D., LL.D. (February 9, 1862 – August 8, 1937) was an American specialist on Indo-Iranian languages.

Biography

He was born in New York City on February 9, 1862. He graduated from Columbia University in 1883. He was fellow in letters there 1883-86, instructor in Anglo-Saxon and the Iranian languages 1887-90, and, after study at Halle 1887-89, adjunct professor of English language and literature. In 1895, he was appointed public lecturer and also appointed to the newly-founded professorship of Indo-Iranian languages at Columbia University, where he remained until 1935.

He was well known as a lecturer on English literature and the Orient. In 1901, during a visit to India and Ceylon, he received special attention from the Parsees, who presented to Columbia a valuable collection of Zoroastrian manuscripts in recognition of the instruction there given by him in their ancient texts. In 1903 he made a second journey to the Orient, this time visiting Persia. He also visited Central Asia sometime before 1918.

Jackson's grammar of Avestan, the language used in the Zoroastrian scriptures, is still considered to be the seminal work on the topic. Jackson was one of the directors of the American Oriental Society.

He died on August 8, 1937.

Publications

• A Hymn of Zoroaster (1888)
• An Avesta Grammar in Comparison with Sanskrit (1892)
• An Avesta Reader (1893)
• Zoroaster, the Prophet of Ancient Iran (1898)
• Die iranische Religion (1900)
• Persia, Past and Present (1906)
• Descriptive Catalogue of the Persian MSS. in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’ (1913)
• From Constantinople to the Home of Omar Khayyam (1911)
• A Descriptive Catalogue of the Persian Manuscripts Presented to the Metropolitan Museum of Art by A. S. Cochran (1914), with A. Yohannan
• Early Persian Poetry (1920)

He made many contributions to the Journal of the American Oriental Society. He edited the Columbia University Indo-Iranian Series (5 vols., 1902), A History of India (9 vols., 1906-15), and a History of Persia.

Sources

• New General Catalog of Old Books and Authors
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Jackson, Abraham Valentine Williams". Encyclopedia Americana. 1920. 
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Jackson, Abraham Valentine Williams". New International Encyclopedia. 1905. 

External links

• Abraham Valentine Williams Jackson: biog and 4 source texts, on Vohuman.Org