Wazir Beg

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Wazir Beg (1827–1885) was a Semitic scholar, linguist, religious writer, Presbyterian minister, missionary and Orangeman. He was born in Pune, India, into a devout Muslim family and received a typical Muslim middle‑class education. In 1842 he secretly converted to Christianity to protect his family, and he later declined a headmaster post because of his faith. He finished his theological studies in 1853 and was licensed as a minister in 1854.

The next year he moved to Scotland to study medicine at the University of Edinburgh, though some records do not list him there. He became a Fellow of the Medical College, London in 1861, and is said to have earned medical qualifications in Erlangen, Germany.

Beg arrived in Melbourne in 1864 as a ship’s surgeon and was ordained by a Presbyterian church at Port Albert. Since Victoria offered no Semitic scholarships, he took a post at Chalmers’ Free Presbyterian Church in Cleveland Paddock, Redfern, and moved to Sydney in 1865. When the University of Sydney created Oriental Languages and Literature, Arabic became the main language for its readership, and Beg was appointed to the post in December 1866.

He was married to Margaret Robertson, and they had five children. He died on 4 January 1885, aged about 58.