William Nassau Lees

William Nassau Lees, born in County Dublin in 1825, became a major-general and orientalist who taught law and logic at the Calcutta Madrasa while translating difficult Arabic and Persian texts for the government. He moved between military rank and scholarly work, earning degrees from Dublin and Berlin before dying in London in 1889. His life suggests a man who treated language as a battlefield and taught others to fight its uncertainties.