Edward Pococke | |
|---|---|
.jpg) | |
| Born | 8 November 1604  |
| Died | 10 September 1691 (aged 86) |
| Occupation | Orientalist,writer, biblical scholar,theologian |
| Children | Edward Pococke |
Edward Pococke (baptised 8 November 1604 – 10 September 1691) was an English Orientalist and biblical scholar.[1]
The son of Edward Pococke (died 1636),[2] vicar ofChieveley in Berkshire, he was brought up at Chieveley and educated from a young age atLord Williams's School,Thame, Oxfordshire. He matriculated atMagdalen Hall, Oxford in 1619, and later was admitted toCorpus Christi College, Oxford (scholar in 1620, fellow in 1628).[1] He was ordained a priest of theChurch of England on 20 December 1629.
The first result of his studies was an edition from aBodleian Library manuscript of the fourNew Testamentepistles (2 Peter,2 and3 John,Jude) which were not in the oldSyriac canon, and were not contained in European editions of thePeshito. This was published atLeiden at the instigation ofGerard Vossius in 1630, and in the same year Pococke sailed forAleppo, Syria as chaplain to the Englishfactor.[1] At Aleppo he studied theArabic language and collected manuscripts. He also studied and translated Arabic Islamic works. HisPhilosophus Autodidacticus, a translation ofIbn Tufayl'sLife of Hayy Ibn Yaqzan, may have influenced the political philosopherJohn Locke.[3]
At this timeWilliam Laud was bothBishop of London and chancellor of theUniversity of Oxford, and Pococke was recognised as one who could help his schemes for enriching the university. Laud founded aChair of Arabic at Oxford, and invited Pococke to fill it.[1] He entered the post on 10 August 1636; but the next summer he sailed back toConstantinople in the company ofJohn Greaves, laterSavilian Professor of Astronomy at Oxford, to prosecute further studies and collect more books; he remained there for about three years.[1][4]
When he returned to England, Laud was in theTower of London, but had taken the precaution to make the Arabic chair permanent. Pococke does not seem to have been an extreme churchman or to have been active in politics. His rare scholarship and personal qualities brought him influential friends, foremost among these beingJohn Selden andJohn Owen. Through their offices he obtained, in 1648, the chair ofHebrew at theUniversity of Oxford on the death ofJohn Morris, though he lost the emoluments of the post soon after, and did not recover them until theRestoration.[1]
These events hampered Pococke in his studies, or so he complained in the preface to hisEutychius; he resented the attempts to remove him from his parish ofChildrey, a college living nearWantage in North Berkshire (now Oxfordshire) which he had accepted in 1643. In 1649, he published theSpecimen historiae arabum, a short account of the origin and manners of the Arabs, taken fromBar-Hebraeus (Abulfaragius), with notes from a vast number of manuscript sources which are still valuable. This was followed in 1655 by thePorta Mosis, extracts from the Arabic commentary ofMaimonides on theMishnah, with translation and very learned notes; and in 1656 by the annals of Eutychius in Arabic andLatin. He also gave active assistance toBrian Walton's polyglot bible, and the preface to the various readings of theArabicPentateuch is from his hand.[1]
After the Restoration, Pococke's political and financial troubles ended, but the reception of hismagnum opus—a complete edition of the Arabic history ofBar-Hebraeus (Greg. Abulfaragii historia compendiosa dynastiarum), which he dedicated to the king in 1663—showed that the new order of things was not very favourable to scholarship. After this, his most important works were aLexicon heptaglotton (1669) and English commentaries onMicah (1677),Malachi (1677),Hosea (1685) andJoel (1691). An Arabic translation ofGrotius'sDe veritate, which appeared in 1660, may also be mentioned as a proof of Pococke's interest in the propagation ofChristianity in the East,[1] as is his later Arabic translation of theBook of Common Prayer in 1674.[5] Pococke had a long-standing interest in the subject, which he had talked over with Grotius at Paris on his way back from Constantinople.[1]
Pococke married Mary Burdet in about 1646, and they had six sons and three daughters.[2] One son, Edward (1648–1727),[2] published several contributions fromArabic literature: a fragment ofAbd al-Latif al-Baghdadi'sAccount of Egypt and thePhilosophus Autodidactus ofIbn Tufayl (Abubacer).[1][4]
Edward Pococke died on 10 September 1691 and was buried in the north aisle ofChrist Church Cathedral, Oxford. His monument, a bust erected by his widow, is now elsewhere in the cathedral.
His valuable collection of 420 oriental manuscripts was bought by the university in 1693 for 600l., and is in the Bodleian (catalogued in Bernard, Cat. Libr. MSS. pp. 274–278, and in later special catalogues), and some of his printed books were acquired by the Bodleian in 1822, by bequest from the Rev. C. Francis of Brasenose (Macray, Annals of the Bodl. Libr. p. 161).
BothEdward Gibbon[6] andThomas Carlyle exposed some "pious" lies in the missionary work by Grotius translated by Pococke, which were omitted from the Arabic text.
The theological works of Pococke were collected, in two volumes, in 1740, with a curious account of his life and writings byLeonard Twells.[1][7]
The Pococke Garden ofChrist Church, Oxford is named after him, and contains the Pococke Tree, anOriental Plane planted by him, possibly from seed he collected around 1636. This tree, with its circa nine metre girth, may be the inspiration for the Tumtum tree of Lewis Carol's poemJabberwocky.[8][9]
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Pococke, Edward".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 21 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 873.Chair established byWilliam Laud | |
| |
