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'''David Price''' (1762 – 16 December 1835) was a [[Wales|Welsh]] orientalist and officer in the [[East India Company]].<br />
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==Life==<br />
Price was born at [[Merthyr Cynog]], near [[Brecon]]. After the death of his father, a curate, Price was educated at [[Christ College, Brecon]], before matriculating on 5 November 1779 as a [[sizar]] of [[Jesus College, Cambridge]], but was nearly penniless by summer 1780 and had to leave the University.<ref>{{acad|id=PRY779D|name=Price, David}}</ref> He decided to join the [[East India Company]]'s army, becoming a cadet in it due to his father's friends' influence, sailing for India on the ''Essex'' in 1781 and reaching [[Madras]] in August that year before volunteering to serve in southern India and returning to the ''Essex'' to take him there. He participated in the [[Battle of Negapatam (1782)|siege of Negapatam]] and the capture of [[Trincomali]] in Ceylon during the passage to [[Bombay]], arriving on 22 April 1782 and being appointed the following November to command the 2nd Battalion of Bombay [[sepoy]]s. He then served in the wars on [[Tippu Sultan]] in 1782-84, 1790–92 and 1799, losing a leg at the siege of [[Dharwar]] in 1791 and thus being re-posted to the guard of Sir Charles Malet, political minister at [[Poona]], then in 1792 to a staff appointment at [[Surat]] by the Bombay governor Jonathan Duncan the elder.<br />
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During his time at Surat he had enough free time to become keenly interested in [[Persia]]n culture, collecting manuscripts and studying its historical classics, including the ''[[Akbarnama]]'' by [[Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak|Abu'l-Fazl]], though he also rose to become the Bombay Army's judge-advocate-general from 1795 to 1805. A [[brevet (military)|brevet]] captain by 1795, he was promoted to full captain two years later. He also served as military secretary and interpreter to Colonel [[Alexander Dow]] in [[Malabar (Northern Kerala)|Malabar]] (1797–8) and then as Persian translator to General [[James Stuart (British Army general)|James Stuart]], commander of the [[Bombay Army]] (1799), being present at [[Battle of Seringapatam|Seringapatam]]'s capture and acting as the army's prize agent (thus making his own fortune). Next he returned to Bombay to continue his studies of Persia, being promoted to major in March 1804 before finally returning to Britain in February 1805, though he only retired from the Company in October 1807, on his marriage to a relative.<br />
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He lived in retirement at Brecon, writing works on oriental history and serving as magistrate and [[Lord Lieutenant of Brecknockshire|deputy lieutenant]] of [[Brecknockshire]]. He was also a committee member of the [[Royal Asiatic Society#Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland|Oriental Translation Fund]], winning its gold medal in 1830, and of the [[Royal Asiatic Society]] (bequeathing the latter over 70 oriental manuscripts). He died at his home, Watton House, Brecon.<br />
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==Works==<br />
*''Chronological retrospect, or, Memoirs of the principal events of [[Muslim|Mahommedan]] history … from original Persian authorities'' (3 vols., 1811, 1812, 1821), which soon became a reference work, covering the period from [[Muhamed]]'s death of Muhammad to [[Akbar the Great|Akbar]]'s accession, with the earlier volumes mainly based on the Persian chronicles of [[Mirkhond]] and [[Muhammad Khwandamir|Khwandamir]], and the final volume mainly on [[Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak|Abu'l-Fazl]]<br />
*''Essay towards the History of [[Arabia]] antecedent to the Birth of Mahommed'' (1824, from the Persian text of [[Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari|Et-Tabari]])<br />
*translation of the ''Memoirs of the Emperor [[Jahangir|Jahangueir]]'' (1829; new edn, 1972)<br />
*''Account of the Siege and Reduction of [[Chaitur]] … from the [[Akbarnama|Akbar-namah]]'' (1831)<br />
*''The Last Days of [[Krishna]]'' (1831)<br />
*''Memoirs of the early life and service of a field officer'' (1839) - published anonymously<br />
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==References==<br />
*{{ODNBweb|id=22746|title=Price, David}}<br />
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==Notes==<br />
{{reflist}}<br />
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{{Authority control}}<br />
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Price}}<br />
[[Category:1762 births]]<br />
[[Category:1835 deaths]]<br />
[[Category:British East India Company Army officers]]<br />
[[Category:British orientalists]]<br />
[[Category:People from Brecon]]<br />
[[Category:Iranologists]]<br />
[[Category:Deputy Lieutenants of Brecknockshire]]</div>Bot