Solomon Caesar Malan (22 April 1812 – 25 November 1894) D.D., Vicar of Broadwindsor, Prebendary of Sarum, was a Geneva-born Anglican divine, a polyglot and orientalist. He published around 50 works related to biblical studies and translations. Malan's Original Notes on the Book of Proverbs (1889–1893) is now considered significant for his critical insights. Near the end of his life he gave to notable institutions, including a set of Tibetan sutras to the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and most of his personal library to the Indian Institute in Oxford. It became the Malan Library, and after its dispersal in the 1960s, was recognized as foundational for the Oriental Division in the Bodleian Libraries.
Early life in Geneva
By birth a Genevan descended from an exiled French family, Malan was born as César Jean Salomon Malan in Geneva. He was the first of a dozen children born to his gifted father, Dr. Henri Abraham César Malan (1787–1864) and his Swiss wife, Salomé Georgette Jeanne Schönberger (1790-unknown). She is rarely mentioned in any of the published writings related to Solomon Caesar Malan's life. His father was a counter-cultural theological teacher in the final years of Genevan city-state history and became a controversial Swiss religious leader, whose evangelical version of Protestant faith challenged the rationalized Enlightenment Calvinism that had become dominant in the first years of 19th century Geneva. Ultimately rejected by the Genevan Calvinist hierarchy as a minister in their community in 1818, the father Malan set up his own church community on his own property, offering a vital Christian alternative in worship to what was offered in the state church. Writing hymns in French that became famous for their theological vitality, and publishing numerous short stories and some larger works as a Swiss evangelical intellectual, the father Malan became known as an evangelical international missionary in various European countries, as well as in Great Britain, particularly within Scotland. His honorary doctorate was given by the University of Glasgow, indicating the level of respect he had attained outside of Switzerland. This situation of social alienation and counter-cultural religious assertiveness profoundly shaped the early years and educational training of the first son, César Jean Salomon. The education his first son received was essentially a home education, in which César Jean Salomon thrived. Under his father's guidance, he initially learned Latin (his "father tongue" and first language), French, German and Italian. According to his son's biography, at the age of 18 César Jean Salomon Malan had already made progress in Sanskrit, Arabic and Hebrew. In addition, however, he also was trained by his father in a wide variety of fine and technical arts. His lessons in sketching and watercolours were taught by a private tutor and bore extensive fruitfulness in much-appreciated sketches and paintings in his later years. During these formative years, César Jean Salomon also was taught botany, and because of his father's gift of a rather sophisticated workshop for his bright son, he learned skills in carpentry, bookbinding, and printing. As revealed later in his life, his bookbinding skills were aesthetically impressive. Also, the mature son Malan knew enough music theory and how to play some musical instruments to employ them in his ministry. Probably during this early period of his life, he had also begun to study calligraphy, an art in which he later excelled in numerous styles and languages. Because of his father's growing international reputation as an evangelical theologian, there were a number of international guests who visited their Swiss Genevan home, and in that context, the eldest son met the first love of his life, the daughter of an English evangelical Anglican, Mary Marsh Mortlock (1813-1840). Though his father had hoped that the first son would follow him in his distinctive ministry in Geneva as what could be seen as a Free Church or Dissenter Christian community, César Jean Salomon chose another route that led him to leave Switzerland and his father's work.
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