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Edward Pococke
Image: Wilhelm Sonmans, Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Edward Pococke

إدوارد بوكوك

Notable figure 1604–1691 · Source: Najib al-Aqiqi, al-Mustashriqun, 3rd ed. (Cairo: Dar al-Maʿarif, 1964), vol. 2, p. 471; Yahya Murad, Muʿjam asmaʾ al-mustashriqin, p. 302 · Second source: Bibliothèque nationale de France, authority record: Pococke, Edward (1604-1691)

From the United Kingdom; worked in Syria

Field: Text editing

Affiliation

First Laudian professor of Arabic, Oxford; Lamiyyat al-ʿAjam

Biography

He learned Arabic at Oxford from William Bedwell, then spent five years in Aleppo (1630–1636), mastering the language and collecting manuscripts, among them al-Maydani's Majmaʿ al-amthal. On his return he took the Arabic chair founded at Oxford in 1636 and lectured on its literature and grammar. He published the Specimen historiae Arabum, an extract of Bar Hebraeus with Latin translation and notes (Oxford 1650), al-Tughrai's Lamiyyat al-ʿAjam with a Latin translation (1661), and with his son edited and translated Ibn Tufayl's Hayy ibn Yaqzan (1671).