Rich was born near
Dijon "of a good family", but passed his childhood at
Bristol. Early on, he developed a gift for languages, becoming familiar not only with
Latin and
Greek but also with
Hebrew,
Syriac,
Kurdish,
Persian,
Turkish and other Eastern tongues. In 1803, by the influence of friends, he was appointed a cadet in the
East India Company's service. The Company's directors were so much impressed by Rich's linguistic attainments that they presented him with a writership on the
Bombay Presidency, and thus changed his career from the military to the civil side. At the same time he was provisionally attached as secretary to
Charles Lock, who was proceeding to
Egypt as
consul-general, in order that he might improve his Arabic and Turkish under the consul's direction. Rich embarked early in 1804 in the
Hindostan, which was wrecked, and Rich escaped to the
Catalonian coast. Thence he made his way to
Malta, after some stay in
Italy, where he learnt to speak Italian, and devoted himself to music, of which he was passionately fond. Lock died before Rich could reach Egypt, and Rich, by permission of the directors, prosecuted his oriental studies at Constantinople and Smyrna, perfecting himself in Turkish. Proceeding to
Alexandria as assistant to
Edward Missett, the new British consul-general there, he devoted himself to
Arabic and its various dialects, and made himself master of Eastern manners and usages. On leaving
Egypt he travelled by land to the
Persian Gulf, disguised as a
Mamluk, visiting
Damascus, and entering the great mosque undetected. At
Bombay, which he reached in September 1807, he was the guest of
Sir James Mackintosh, whose eldest daughter Mary he married on 22 January 1808, proceeding soon after to
Baghdad as the British Resident, a post he held for six years. There he began his investigations into the geography, history and antiquities of the district. He explored the remains of
Babylon, and projected a geographical and statistical account of the pashalic of Bagdad. The results of his work at Babylon appeared first in the Vienna serial ''Mines de l'orient
, and in 1815 in London under the title Narrative of a Journey to the Site of Babylon in 1811''. In 1813 and 1814 Rich suffered some ill health, and he and his wife travelled to Constantinople, where they stayed with the ambassador
Sir Robert Liston, and spent some time in Europe. On his return to Bagdad he devoted himself to the study of the geography of
Asia Minor, and collected much information in Syriac and
Chaldean Christian convents concerning the
Yezidis. During this period he made a second excursion to Babylon, and in 1820 undertook an extensive tour of the
Assyrian villages in the north of present-day Iraq, alongside al-Munshi al Baghdady—from Bagdad north to
Sulaimaniya, eastward to Sinna, then west to
Nineveh, and thence down the Tigris to Bagdad. The narrative of this journey, which contained the first accurate knowledge (from scientific observation) regarding the topography and geography of the region, was published by his widow under the title,
Narrative of a Residence in Koordistan and on the site of Ancient Nineveh, etc. (London, 1836). During his time in Baghdad it is recorded that "Mr Rich was universally considered to be the most powerful man in Baghdad; and some even questioned whether the
Pasha himself would not shape his conduct according to Mr Rich's suggestions and advice rather than as his own council might wish." In 1820 Rich went to
Basra, whence he made an excursion to
Shiraz, visiting the ruins of
Persepolis and the other remains in the neighborhood. In the same year he went to
Mosul and the site of ancient
Nineveh, where he was told of a large
relief panel that had been found and soon broken up. When his account was published in 1836 it represented the first Western inkling of the
Assyrian palace reliefs that were to be discovered in the 1840s; he also brought back two small fragments. He was then appointed to an important office at Bombay by
Mountstuart Elphinstone, when he was attacked by
cholera, during a visit to
Shiraz, while exerting himself to help the sick and allay the panic among the inhabitants. He died on 5 October 1821 and was buried in the Jân Numâ, one of the royal gardens at Shiraz, in which he was living at the time of his death. In 1826 his remains were exhumed and reburied in the Armenian cathedral of Jolfa in Esfahan. His collections were purchased by the trustees of the
British Museum, and consisted of 'about nine hundred volumes of manuscripts in Arabic, Persian, and Turkish, and a great number in Chaldee and Syriac … highly rated by Mr. Colebrooke and Dr. Wilkins'; a large collection of coins, Greek and oriental; gems, and antiquities dug up at Babylon and Nineveh, including the first cuneiform inscriptions ever brought to Europe. Rich's portrait, presented to the British Museum by his widow
Mary Mackintosh Rich, now hangs in the Asian and African Studies Reading Room of the British Library. ==Sources==