William Hook Morley (1815–1860) was an English

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...

and orientalist.

Life

The second son of George Morley of the

Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional associations for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wal ...

, he entered the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn an ...

on 12 January 1838. He was

called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

in 1840 and in 1846. Morley was a trustee of the

Royal Asiatic Society The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, commonly known as the Royal Asiatic Society (RAS), was established, according to its royal charter of 11 August 1824, to further "the investigation of subjects connected with and for the en ...

, and during the last year of his life also its librarian. He died at 35 Brompton Square, London, on 21 May 1860.

Works

Morley in 1838 discovered a missing manuscript of the ''

Jami' al-tawarikh The ''Jāmiʿ al-tawārīkh'' (Persian/Arabic: , ) is a work of literature and history, produced in the Mongol Ilkhanate. Written by Rashid al-Din Hamadani (1247–1318 AD) at the start of the 14th century, the breadth of coverage of the work h ...

'' of

Rashid-al-Din Hamadani Rashīd al-Dīn Ṭabīb ( fa, رشیدالدین طبیب;‎ 1247–1318; also known as Rashīd al-Dīn Faḍlullāh Hamadānī, fa, links=no, رشیدالدین فضل‌الله همدانی) was a statesman, historian and physician in Ilk ...

, making something of a reputation. He published: Atabeg coins

* a digest of cases decided in the Supreme Courts of India (London, 2 vols. 1849–50; new ser. vol. i. only, 1852); * ''Catalogue of the Historical Manuscripts in the Arabic and Persian Languages'' in the possession of the Royal Asiatic Society (London, 1854); * a description (1856) of a planispheric

astrolabe An astrolabe ( grc, ἀστρολάβος ; ar, ٱلأَسْطُرلاب ; persian, ستاره‌یاب ) is an ancient astronomical instrument that was a handheld model of the universe. Its various functions also make it an elaborate inclin ...

constructed for

Sultan Husayn Soltan Hoseyn ( fa, شاه سلطان حسین, Soltān-Hoseyn; 1668 – 9 September 1727) was the Safavid shah of Iran from 1694 to 1722. He was the son and successor of Shah Solayman (). Born and raised in the royal harem, Soltan Hoseyn ascen ...

. Morley also edited in 1848, for the Society for the Publication of Oriental Texts,

Mir Khwand Muhammad ibn Khvandshah ibn Mahmud, more commonly known as Mirkhvand ( fa, میرخواند, also transliterated as Mirkhwand; 1433/34 – 1498), was a Persian historian active during the reign of the Timurid ruler Sultan Husayn Bayqara (). He ...

's ''History of the Atábeks of Syria and Persia'', with a description of

Atabeg Atabeg, Atabek, or Atabey is a hereditary title of nobility of Turkic origin, indicating a governor of a nation or province who was subordinate to a monarch and charged with raising the crown prince. The first instance of the title's use was wit ...

coins by

William Sandys Vaux William Sandys Wright Vaux FRS (28 February 1818 – 21 June 1885), was a celebrated English antiquary and numismatist of the 19th century. Biography Vaux was born in 1818 in Oxford. He was the only son of William Vaux (d. 1844), prebendar ...

Notes

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Morley, William Hook 1815 births 1860 deaths English barristers English orientalists English librarians 19th-century English lawyers