PALMER, EDWARD HENRY (184o-1882), English Orientalist, the son of a private schoolmaster, was born at Cam bridge, on Aug. 7, 1840. He was educated at the Perse school, and, after a short period as a clerk in London, he returned to Cam bridge. He entered St. John's college in 1863, and in 1867 was elected a fellow on account of his attainments as an orien talist, especially in Persian and Hindustani. During his residence at St. John's he catalogued the Persian, Arabic and Turkish manu scripts in the university library, and in the libraries of King's and Trinity. In 1867 he published a treatise on Oriental Mysticism, based on the of Aziz ibn Mohammed Nafasi. He was engaged in 1869 to join the survey of Sinai, undertaken by the Palestine Exploration Fund, and followed up this work in the next year by exploring the desert of El-Tih in company with Charles Drake (1846-74). They completed this journey on foot and without escort, making friends among the Bedouin, to whom Palmer was known as "Abdallah Effendi." After a visit to the Lebanon and to Damascus, where he made the acquaintance of Sir Richard Burton, then consul there, he returned to England in 1870 by way of Constantinople and Vienna. At Vienna he met Arminius Vambery. In the close of the year 1871 he became Lord Almoner's professor of Arabic at Cambridge.
In 1881 Palmer left Cambridge, and joined the staff of the Standard newspaper to write on non-political subjects. He was called to the English bar in 1874, and early in 1882 he was asked by the Government to assist the Egyptian expedition by his in fluence over the Arabs of the desert El-Tih. He was instructed, apparently, to prevent the Arab sheikhs from joining the Egyptian rebels and to secure their non-interference with the Suez Canal. He went to Gaza, without an escort made his way safely through the desert to Suez—an exploit of singular boldness—and was highly successful in his negotiations with the Bedouin. He was
appointed interpreter-in-chief to the force in Egypt, and from Suez he was again sent into the desert with Captain William John Gill and Flag-Lieutenant Harold Charrington to procure camels and gain the allegiance of the sheikhs by considerable presents of money. On this journey he and his companions were led into an ambush and murdered (Aug. 1882). Their remains, recovered after the war by the efforts of Sir Charles (then Colonel) Warren, now lie in St. Paul's Cathedral.
Palmer's highest qualities appeared in his travels, especially in the heroic adventures of his last journeys. His brilliant scholar ship is displayed rather in the works he wrote in Persian and other Eastern languages than in his English books, which were generally written under pressure. His scholarship was wholly Eastern in character, and lacked the critical qualities of the modern school of Oriental learning in Europe. All his works show a great lin guistic range and very versatile talent ; but he left no permanent literary monument worthy of his powers.