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Joseph Justus Scaliger
Image: Paulus Merula (1597), Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Joseph Justus Scaliger

جوزيف جوستوس سكاليجر

Notable figure 1540–1609 · Source: Najib al-Aqiqi, al-Mustashriqun, 3rd ed. (Cairo: Dar al-Maʿarif, 1964), vol. 2, p. 652; Yahya Murad, Muʿjam asmaʾ al-mustashriqin, p. 680 · Second source: Bibliothèque nationale de France, authority record: Scaliger, Joseph-Juste (1540-1609)

From France; worked in the Netherlands

Field: Philology and Semitics

Affiliation

A founder of Arabic studies at Leiden

Biography

Born in Agen in France, he studied in Paris, learned oriental languages from Guillaume Postel and pursued Arabic on his travels. Leiden University called him in 1593 and he stayed until his death, leaving his oriental manuscripts to its library. He compared Arabic with Hebrew and compiled an Arabic-Latin dictionary that remained in manuscript; he translated 176 Arabic proverbs, which Erpenius completed to two hundred and published after his death with both men's notes (Leiden, 1614).