Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 3.djvu/551

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Tyabji
541
Tyler

movement. A warm supporter of the Syed in establishing the Mahomedan and Anglo-Oriental College at Aligarh, Tyabji took a keen interest in the annual Mahomedan educational conferences, presiding over the session held in Bombay in 1903. He was an ardent advocate of higher education for Indian women, and gave three of his daughters advanced training — one in England and two in Bombay. A fellow of the Bombay University, he took a prominent part in debates of the senate. He was a founder of the most progressive Moslem institution of Western India, the Anjaman-i-Islam (Islamic Society), serving first as hon. secretary and from 1890 till death as president.

In June 1895 Tyabji was made a judge of the Bombay high court, being the first Indian Moslem and the third Indian of any race to reach this dignity. He sat chiefly on the 'original' (as distinct from the appellate) side. His courtesy was notable, but he proved a strong judge, who was more of a practical than a scientific lawyer (Times of India Weekly, 1 Sept. 1906). In 1903 he acted for some months as chief justice. Unlike many educated Indians, he did not Anglicise his attire. He reprobated the extreme nationalism in Indian politics of his closing years. He died suddenly in London of heart failure on 19 Aug. 1906, and was buried in the Sulimani Bhora cemetery at Bombay on 10 Oct. 1906. Memorial meetings were held in London and Bombay. In January 1907 the governor of Bombay, Lord Lamington, presided at a large public meeting at the town hall to promote a permanent memorial, the form of which has not been decided. A painting of Tyabji, by Mr. Haite, subscribed for by the Bombay bar, hangs in the Bombay high court.

Tyabji married in 1865 Rabat Unnafs, daughter of Sharafali Shujatali of Cambay. She took a prominent part in the ladies' branch of the National Indian Association, Bombay, and similar movements for the advancement of Indian women and for the relaxation of the purdah restrictions. There were five sons, of whom one, the eldest, joined the Indian Civil Service, and two the legal profession, and seven daughters.

[Times, 21 August 1906; Foster's Men at the Bar, p. 476; Eminent Indians, Bombay, 1892; Indian Nat. Congress, Madras, 1909 booklet biog. published by Natesan, Madras Indian Mag. and Review, September 1906 Bombay Law Reporter, September 1906, Times of India, weekly edit. 25 Aug. and 1 Sept. 1906; information kindly supplied by Mr. C. Abdul Latif; personal knowledge.]

F. H. B.


TYLER, THOMAS (1826–1902), Shakespearean scholar, was born in London in 1826. An evening student (1857-8) at King's College, London, he there distinguished himself in scripture and classics. Matriculating at London University in 1857, he graduated B.A. in classics in 1859 and M.A. in 1871, obtaining prizes for Hebrew and for New Testament Greek. He soon engaged in biblical research. An article contributor to the 'Journal of Sacred Literature' in January 1854 was expanded in 1861 into a volume called 'Jehovah the Redeemer God : the Scriptural Interpretation of the Divine name "Jehovah."' The New Testament interpretation of the name was discussed in a second volume, 'Christ the Lord, the Revealer of God, and the Fulfilment of the Prophetic Name "Jehovah."' In 1872 he joined the newly formed Society of Biblical Archaeology, and in a small pamphlet, 'Some New Evidence as to the Date of Ecclesiastes' (1872), he first indicated exclusively from the literary point of view (as Zirkel had urged in 1792 on philological grounds) the influence of Greek, especially Stoic, philosophy on the teaching of the author, and assigned the composition of the work to the second century B.C. Tyler developed his view in his exhaustive 'Ecclesiastes, a Contribution to its Interpretation; with Introduction, Exegesis, and Translations with Notes' (1874; 2nd edit. 1879; new revised edit. 1899) Professor Ewald praised the work, but questioned Tyler's conclusions as to the date (Göttingische gelehrte Anzeiger, 23 Oct. 1872). Tyler was also a student of Hittite antiquities, on which he lectured at the British Museum, and his lectures and writings helped to stimulate in England the study of the Hittite language.

Tyler made many suggestive contributions to Shakespearean study. He published in 1874 'The Philosophy of "Hamlet,"' and took part in the proceedings of the New Shakspere Society from its foundation in 1874. In the introduction to the facsimile edition of 'Shakespeare's Sonnets, the first quarto, 1609,' which Tyler edited in 1886, he with the assistance of the Rev. W. A. Harrison, vicar of St. Anne's, Lambeth, first propounded the theory that Mary Fitton [q. v.] was the 'dark lady' of the sonnets. He elaborated his argument in his interesting edition of 'Shakespeare's Sonnets' (1890). By way of