Edward Pococke
Edward Pococke (1604-1691) was an English Orientalist and biblical scholar.
Early life
He was the son of clergyman from Chieveley in Berkshire, and was educated at Lord Williams's School of Thame in Oxfordshire and at Corpus Christi College, University of Oxford (scholar in 1620, fellow in 1628). He gained his BA in1622, his MA in 1626, his BD in 1636 and his DD in 1660. He was ordained a priest of the Church of England December 20, 1629.[1] His interest in Oriental languages was encouraged by Matthias Pasor, a refugee from Germany who now taught Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac and Arabic at Oxford. Pococke attended his classes from 1626-7, learning "the rudiments of Arabic."[2] He continued to study under William Bedwell, who had worked on the King James Bible. In 1630, the Governors of the Levant Company, which traded within the Ottoman Empire where it had outposts (capitulations), decided to appoint a chaplain. Having heard good reports about Mr Pococke, they offered him the post after hearing him preach. He was to be based at the consulate and factory at Aleppo. He arrived there in October 1630 and it was there that he would gain his "excellent knowledge of Arabic." Irwin describes his time there as "a studentship in Arabic and Islamic Studies."[3] In addition to studying Arabic, first with a Jewish teacher, then with an Arab teacher he also acquired Arabic texts. Holt says that he collected "six thousand Arabic proverbs."[4] While serving at the consulate in Aleppo, Pococke communicated with William Laude, then Chancellor of Oxford and later Archbishop of Canterbury. Laud asked him to take Arabic manuscripts back with him for the Bodleian Library. Laud was also contemplating founding a Chair in Arabic. When he did return to Oxford, the new Laudian Chair in Arabic was waiting for him. On his way back to England, he met Hugo Grotius in Paris.[5]
-Laudian Professor
Pococke formally took up his chair on August 10, 1636. The first result of his studies was an edition from a Bodleian Library manuscript of the four New Testament epistles (2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, Jude) which were not in the old Syriac canon, and were not contained in European editions of the Peshito. However, in the summer of 1637, he decided to return to the East to collect more mss, this time mainly from Istanbul. While he was away, he left Thomas Greaves as his deputy at Oxford.
Return to England
When he returned to England Laud was in the Tower 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 although he is usually described as a royalist. His rare scholarship and personal qualities brought him influential friends, foremost among these being John Selden and John Owen. Through their offices he obtained, in 1648, the chair of Hebrew. In 1655 he lost both chairs as the Commonwealth started to appoint Presbyterians to the University "but the Arabic Chair was soon restored to him since nobody could be found to take his place."[6] He lost the stipends from these posts, though, and did not recover them until the Restoration in 1660. However, from 1643 he was incumbent of the parish of Childrey, a post he exercised with diligence, performing both his liturgical and pastoral duties and doing so without "flouting his learning"[7] In 1660, he was confirmed as Regius Professor of History and appointed a canon of Christ Church Cathedral. He continued to serve his parishioners at Childrey.
Despite these events, Pococke continued with his research and writing. In 1649 he published the Specimen historiae arabum, a short account of the origin and manners of the Arabs, taken from Bar-Hebraeus (Abulfaragius), with notes from a vast number of manuscript sources which are still valuable. Irwin describes these notes as "copious" and as "based on Pococke's much more general knowledge of Middle Eastern history and culture."[8]This was followed in 1655 by the Porta Mosis, extracts from the Arabic commentary of Maimonides on the Mishnah, with translation and very learned notes; and in 1656 by the annals of Eutychius in Arabic and Latin. He also gave active assistance to Brian Walton's polyglot bible, and the preface to the various readings of the Arabic Pentateuch is from his hand.
Post-Restoration
After the Restoration, Pococke's political and financial troubles ended, but the reception of his magnum opus - a complete edition of the Arabic history of Bar-Hebraeus (Greg. Abulfaragii historia compendiosa dynastiarum), which he dedicated to the king in 1663, showed that the new order of things was not very favorable to his scholarship. The polygot bible itself received a mixed reception with "one critic" denouncing it as "affording a foundation for Mohammedanism; as a chief and principal prop of Popery; as the root of much hidden atheism in the world."[9] After this his most important works were a Lexicon heptaglotton (1669) and English commentaries on Micah (1677), Malachi (1677), Hosea (1685) and Joel (1691), which are still worth reading. An Arabic translation of Grotius's De ventate, which appeared in 1660, may also be mentioned as a proof of Pococke's interest in the propagation of Christianity in the East. This was an old plan, which he had talked over with Grotius at Paris on his way back from Constantinople.
The theological works of Pococke were collected, in two volumes, in 1740, with a curious account of his life and writings by L Twells. His best known work was "a translation of Ibn Tufayl's Hayy ibn Yaqdhan" published in 1671. Despite teaching at Oxford for over fifty years, he had few students although nominally medical students were required to gain some proficiency in Arabic.[10] He spent many years working on a nine volume Arabic dictionary, which was not published until after his death.[11] Quinn says that he also wrote poetry in Arabic. Irwin says that he was one of the first Englishmen to drink coffee, about which he wrote a short treatise. Apparently, drinking coffee was regarded as a dubious activity because it was associated with Islam.[12]
Family
Pococke married in 1646. One of his sons, Edward (1648-1727), published several contributions from Arabic literature.[13]
Legacy
Netton comments that Pococke's long life, "spanning as it did most of the seventeenth century, was thus a contemporary witness of, and indeed ardent participant in, the first major flowering of Arabic studies in England."[14] The texts from which he worked "formed the core of what was still being studied by Arabists right up to the early nineteenth century."[15] He was sympathetic towards his subject matter and his 'Specimen historiae arabum marked a move away from polemic towards a serious engagement with Islamic history or Islamic sources.[16] He argues for the importance of Arabic studies "not only for access to works on medicine but so that Christians could "dispose of common fables and errors." Instead of trying to refute false errors that had been "fathered onto the followers of the prophet" they could "refute genuine Muslim errors." Pococke thought it better to "study the Quran and its commentaries critically than waste time fabricating" silly stories about Muhammad.[17] He also argued that Islamic philosophy merited study much more than the "barbarous translations made in the Middle Ages" suggested.[18] Quinn comments that while he was in the east he enjoyed friendships with Muslim but also says that he treated Islam as if it "ancient history"[19] Nettom characterizes his interest in Islam as one that focused on the "exotic" or "esoteric"[20] Holt concludes that on the one hand Pococke's work was "limited in scope" because it was mainly translation and did not include some of the main Islamic sources. On the other hand, he made "an outstanding contribution to historical knowledge."[21]
External links
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
- Holt, P. M. 1973. Studies in the history of the Near East. London: Cass. ISBN 9780714629841.
- Irwin, Robert. 2006. Dangerous knowledge: orientalism and its discontents. Woodstock, NY: Overlook Press. ISBN 9781585678358.
- Netton, Ian Richard. 1996. Seek knowledge: thought and travel in the house of Islam. Richmond, Surrey [England]: Curzon Press. ISBN 9780700703395.
- Pococke, E. 1856. 2007. India in Greece, or, Truth in mythology: Containing the sources of the Hellenic race, the colonisation of Egypt and Palestine, the wars of the Grand Lama, and the Bud'histic propaganda in Greece. London: R. Griffin. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger. ISBN 978-0548174425.
- Pococke, Edward, and Ravi Prakash Arya. 2003. Indian origin of Greece and ancient world: E. Pococke's thesis re-edited and revised. Rohatak, Haryana, India: Indian Foundation for Vedic Science. ISBN 9788187710165.
- Quinn, Frederick. 2008. The sum of all heresies: the image of Islam in Western thought. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195325638.
- Toomer, G. J. 1996. Eastern wisedome and learning: the study of Arabic in seventeenth-century England. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 9780198202912.
- Tyacke, Nicholas. 1997. Seventeenth-century Oxford. Oxford [Oxfordshire]: Clarendon Press. ISBN 9780199510146.
Credits
New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:
The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:
Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.
- ↑ Netton, page 6.
- ↑ Holte, page 4.
- ↑ Irwin, page 93.
- ↑ Holt, page 5.
- ↑ Holt, page 8.
- ↑ Holt, page 11.
- ↑ Netton, page 6
- ↑ Irwin, page 95.
- ↑ Irwin, page 96.
- ↑ Quinn, page 65.
- ↑ Quinn, page 65.
- ↑ Iriwn, page 97.
- ↑ Irwin, page 97.
- ↑ Netton, page 5.
- ↑ Iriwin, page 97.
- ↑ Holt, page 11.
- ↑ Iriwn, page 94.
- ↑ Holt, page 11.
- ↑ Quinn, page 68.
- ↑ Netton, page 8.
- ↑ Holt, page 50.
