RICH, CLAUDIUS JAMES, a distinguished traveller and scholar, was born in 1787 near Dijon in Burgundy, and having been removed to England, was brought up at Bristol. His youth was characterised by an extraordinary aptitude for languages. When a mere child he picked up a knowledge of several modern tongues. At the age of nine he sat down to decipher some Arabic manuscripts, with no other aid than a grammar and dictionary. Not long afterwards he was reading Hebrew, Syriac, Persian, and Turkish. The boy, in fact, became such a remarkable orientalist that in 1804 the East India Directors despatched him to a writership in Bombay, and at the same time gave him permission to make any delays on the road for the purpose of increasing his knowledge. Rich took care to avail himself of this privilege to the utmost. As he sailed along the Mediterranean he formed the resolution of imbuing himself thoroughly with eastern manners and attainments. Placing himself in a school at Smyrna, he soon became metamorphosed into a young Turk. Then repairing to Alexandria, he began to acquire the language and martial accomplishments of a wild Arab. At the end of a year or two he had become so complete an orientalist that he set out in the disguise of a Mameluke to travel over land to the Persian Gulf. Nor was this difficult impersonation unsuccessful. He wandered over a great part of Palestine and Syria, entered the grand mosque at Damascus along with the Mohammedan pilgrims, and arrived at Busora without ever having been challenged for a Christian. Rich's good fortune attended him to Bombay. On his arrival there in 1807, Sir James Mackintosh welcomed him to his house. A few months afterwards the eldest daughter of that philosopher bestowed upon him her hand. His abilities continued to attract interest, until in 1808 he was appointed resident at Bagdad. A wide field of investigation was now opened up to the ever-active and all-observant mind of Rich. He set himself, with characteristic enthusiasm, to make a sweeping survey of the district. Every research that could increase human knowledge was undertaken. The geography, history, manners, and statistics of the country were studied. Oriental manuscripts were collected from all quarters. Ancient medals, coins, and gems were picked up from among the remains of Nineveh and Ctesiphon. The ruins of Babylon were repeatedly explored, and his discoveries published in the form of two memoirs. Even astronomical observations were taken with all the enthusiasm and success of a professed mathematician. He had in fact amassed a most wonderful amount of multifarious knowledge, when he was cut off by the cholera at Shiraz on the 5th of October 1821. Rich's Narrative of a Residence in Koordistan, accompanied by a short memoir, was published by his widow, in 2 vols., London, 1836. His valuable collection of oriental MSS., coins, and antiquities, is now in the British Museum.