'I burn with a desire of seeing Shiraz': A new letter from Sir William Jones to Harford Jones

This short article reproduces and contextualizes a newly discovered letter of Sir William Jones to Harford Jones. Of intrinsic interest for the light it sheds upon the exchange of manuscripts and information between Orientalists, and upon the cultural life of Shiraz at the end of the Zand dynasty, the letter reveals the strength of Jones's passionate desire to see Persia, its cultural treasures, living poets, and ancient monuments. This is viewed in the context of Jones's renewed fascination with Indo-Persian linguistic and ethnological affinities, and in terms of his enduring commitment to a syncretic East-West synthesis.