Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 3.djvu/644

 study, in the development of which he did yeoman service.

West's lasting renown rests upon his Iranian labours. Almost as soon as he reached India, occasional conversations with the Parsi manager of the cotton presses drew his attention to the Zoroastrian religion. But Martin Haug's ‘Essays on the Sacred Language, Writings, and Religion of the Parsis’ (Bombay, 1862) chiefly stimulated his interest, which was confirmed by a personal acquaintance with the author which he made at Poona in 1866. West began work on a copy of the Avesta, or the scriptures of Zoroaster, with a Gujarātī translation of the Avesta and Dhanjibhai Framji's ‘Pahlavi Grammar’ (1855). The rest of his life was devoted in co-operation with Haug to the study of Pahlavi, the difficult language and literature of Sasanian Persia. Both he and Haug returned to Europe in 1866, when Haug was appointed in 1867 to the professorship of Sanskrit and comparative philology at the University of Munich. West went to Munich for six years (1867–73) spending his time on the publication with translation of the Pahlavi texts of Zoroastrianism. On 17 June 1871 the University of Munich bestowed upon him the honorary degree of doctor of philosophy. After a year in England (1873–4) West revisited India (1874–6) in order to procure manuscripts of the important Pahlavi books ‘Dēnkart’ and ‘Dātistan-i Dēnīk’; he paid a last visit to the Kanheri caves on 6 Feb. 1875.

In 1876 he resumed residence in Munich, but soon settled finally in England, first at Maidenhead and afterwards at Watford. His main occupation was a translation of a series of Pahlavi texts for Max Müller's ‘Sacred Books of the East.’ His services to Oriental scholarship, especially in Pahlavi, were widely recognised. The Bavarian Academy of Sciences made him in 1887 a corresponding member. From 1884 to 1901 he was a member of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland; and on 6 July 1901 he was presented with the society's gold medal, personally handed to him with an address by the Prince of Wales (afterwards King Edward VII). The American Oriental Society also conferred upon him honorary membership (16 April 1899). West was ready in personal aid to scholars who corresponded with him. With characteristic modesty he acknowledged, shortly before his death, that ‘although his studies and researches had always been undertaken for the sake of amusement and curiosity, they could hardly be considered as mere waste of time.’

He died in his eighty-first year at Watford, on 4 Feb. 1905. He was survived by his wife Sarah Margaret Barclay, and by an only son, Max, an artist.

West's principal publications relating to Pahlavi are: 1. ‘Book of the Mainyō-i Khard, Pāzand, Sanskrit, and English, with a Glossary,’ Stuttgart and London, 1871. 2. ‘Book of Ardā-Vīrāf, Pahlavi and English’ (edited and translated in collaboration with Hoshangji and Haug), Bombay and London, 1872. 3. ‘Glossary and Index to the same’ (with Haug), Bombay and London, 1872. 4. ‘Shikand-gūmānīk Vijār’ (with Hoshangji), Bombay, 1887. 5. Five volumes of translations from Pahlavi texts, in Max Müller's ‘Sacred Books of the East,’ v. xviii. xxiv. xxxvii. xlvii., Oxford, 1880–1897. 6. A valuable monograph, ‘Pahlavi Literature,’ in Geiger and Kuhn's ‘Grundriss der iranischen Philologie,’ Strassburg, 1897. Besides the papers already cited West read a technical paper on ‘Ten-ton Cranes’ before the Bombay Mechanics' Institute in March 1857, and contributed numerous articles, reviews, and communications on Oriental subjects to the ‘Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland’ (1869–1900); to the ‘Academy’ (1874–1900); to the ‘Indian Antiquary’ (1880–2); to ‘Le Muséon’ (1882–7); to ‘Sitzungsberichte d. Akad. Wiss. zu München’ (1888, p. 399 seq.); and to ‘Epigraphia Indica’ (iv. no. 21, p. 174 seq.).

 WEST, LIONEL SACKVILLE-, second  (1827-1908), diplomatist. [See .]

WESTALL, WILLIAM [BURY] (1834–1903), novelist and journalist, born on 7 Feb. 1834 at White Ash, near Blackburn, in Lancashire, was eldest son of John Westall, a cotton spinner of White Ash, by his wife Ann, daughter of James Bury Entwistle. Richard Westall the painter [q. v.] belonged to the same stock. After being educated at the Liverpool high school, Westall engaged in his father's cotton-spinning business. But about 1870 he retired, lived much abroad, and devoted himself