Henry Martyn was born in Cornwall in 1781. Following a brilliant academic career at Cambridge University, he was ordained in 1803 as curate to Charles Simeon. He was not accepted by the Church Missionary Society and more disappointment followed when a marriage proposal was rejected as well. In 1805 he sailed to Calcutta, India as chaplain to the East India Company. His outstanding linguistic gifts enabled him to translate the New Testament into Hindustani. In 1809, incipient tuberculosis almost caused his death. The following year he traveled to Shiraz in modern-day Iran where he completed the Arabic and Persian translations of the New Testament. On his way back to England in 1812, constant fever and the arduous journey caused his death. He was buried in Tokat, Armenia. His journals were brought home and remain among the classics of devotional literature.