Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 46.djvu/14

 struction of the learned vicar of Tottenham High Cross, William Bedwell [q. v.], the father of Arabic studies in England. The first result of these preparations was an edition of those parts of the Syriac version of the New Testament which were not included in the previous editions of 1555 and 1627. Pococke discovered the four missing catholic epistles (Pet. ii., John ii., iii., and Jude) in a manuscript at the Bodleian Library, and transcribed them in Syriac and Hebrew characters, adding the corresponding Greek text, a Latin translation, and notes. Gerard John Vossius, professor at Leyden, canon of Canterbury, and ‘dictator in the commonwealth of learning,’ after seeing Pococke's manuscript, on a visit to Oxford (, Ann. Bodl. p. 74), warmly encouraged him to publish it, and, by the influence of Vossius and under the supervision of Ludovicus de Dieu, the work appeared at Leyden in 1630, with the title of ‘Versio et notæ ad quatuor epistolas Syriace.’

In the same year the chaplaincy to the English ‘Turkey Merchants’ at Aleppo became vacant by the retirement of Charles Robson [q. v.] of Queen's College. Pococke was appointed to the vacancy in 1629, and in October 1630 arrived at Aleppo, where he resided for over five years. During this time he made himself master of Arabic, which he not only read but spoke fluently, studied Hebrew, Samaritan, Syriac, and Ethiopic, and associated on friendly terms with learned Muslims and Jews, who helped him in collecting manuscripts, which was one of the chief ends he had in view when accepting the post, and in which he was extraordinarily successful. Pusey remarked that of all the numerous collectors of manuscripts whose treasures have enriched the Bodleian Library, Pococke alone escaped being deceived and cheated in his purchases (, Cat. MSS. Bodl. ii. præf. iv.). Besides acquiring a large number of Arabic, Hebrew, Ethiopic, and Armenian manuscripts, and a Samaritan pentateuch (, Cat. Libr. MSS. pp. 274–8), he brought back a copy of Meydani's collection of 6,013 Arabic proverbs, which he translated in 1635 (Bodl. MS. Poc. 392), but never published, though a specimen was printed by Schultens in 1773 and another part in 1775. For travel and exploration he confessed he had no taste (, i. 4), but his observation of eastern manners and natural history served him in good stead as a commentator on the Old Testament (cf. his famous correction of ‘wailing like the dragons’ in Micah i. 8, into ‘howling like the jackals’). As a pastor he was devoted and indefatigable (, i. 4); and when the plague raged at Aleppo in 1634, and many of the merchants fled to the mountains, Pococke remained at his post. Though personally a stranger to him, he had attracted the notice of Laud, then bishop of London, who wrote to him several times with commissions for the purchase of ancient Greek coins and oriental manuscripts (ib. i. 6); and, after becoming archbishop of Canterbury and chancellor of the university, Laud offered to appoint him the first professor of the Arabic ‘lecture’ which he was about to found at Oxford. Accordingly, Pococke returned to England, probably early in 1636, and on 8 July of that year he was admitted, after the necessary exercises, to the degree of B.D. (, Reg. Univ. Oxford, ii. pt. iii. p. 412; cf., Annals, ed. Gutch, i. 342). The professorship was worth 40l. a year (, Athenæ, ed. Bliss, iv. 318), and Pococke was to lecture on Arabic literature and grammar for one hour at eight A.M. every Wednesday in Lent and during the vacations (i.e. when the arts course did not fully occupy the time of the students, who in those days commonly resided during vacation as well as in term time), under penalty of a fine, and all bachelors were required to attend the lecture (, Laud's Statutes of 1636, pp. 317, 318, ed. 1888). On 10 Aug. the new professor ‘opened his lecture’ with a Latin dissertation on the nature and importance of the Arabic language and literature (a small part of which was published as an appendix to his Lamiato 'l Ajam, 1661), and then began a course of lectures on the sayings of the caliph ‘Ali (, i. 9, 10).

In 1637, at Laud's instance (, Athenæ, ed. Bliss, iv. 318), Pococke again set sail for the east, for the purpose of further study under native teachers, and to collect more manuscripts. This time he travelled with his ‘dear friend’ John Greaves [q. v.] Pococke, besides his fellowship, now possessed private means by the recent death of his father, and probably received some further assistance from Laud, or, through Greaves, from Lord Arundel. Thomas Greaves [q. v.], ‘lector humanitatis’ (Latin reader) at Corpus, was appointed his deputy in the Arabic lecture during his absence. From December 1637 to August 1640 Pococke resided at Constantinople, chiefly at the British embassy, where he acted as temporary chaplain to Sir Peter Wyche and Sir Sackville Crow. He enjoyed the friendship, and doubtless used the fine library, of the learned patriarch, Cyril Lucaris, until his assassination in 1638; he studied with Jacob Romano ‘Judæorum, quos mihi nosse contigit, neminvel doctrinâ vel ingenuitate secundus’ (-