Michael John Rowlandson was born in 1804, in Hungerford, Berkshire, his father being the Vicar of Warminster. He joined the Indian army as a cadet in 1820, becoming a lieutenant in 1821 and a major in 1824. He served at the College of Fort St. George as a Persian and Arabic translator and teacher and produced an Arabic textbook, "An analysis of Arabic quotations which occur in the Gulistan of Muslih-ud-Deen Sheikh Sadi, as collated with and according to the editions of Gentius and Gladwin, accompanied by a free translation: to which are added Persian illustrations of the same, and remarks on Arabic grammar, both in the English and Persian languages, the latter being extracts from the Muntiʼkhib alsurf of Moulevy Syed Ameer Hyder", for use at the College in 1828. He then went on to translate "Tohfut-ul-mujahideen", which was published by the Oriental Translation Society in 1833. He was also the author of some Christian tracts including "A Basket of Fragments and Crumbs for the Children of God" and "Specimens of Much Fine Gold". He died in Bournemouth in 1894.