# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pococke, Edward

1904 Errata appended.
​POCOCKE, EDWARD (1604–1691), orientalist, was born in 1604 at Oxford, in a house near the Angel Inn (Hearne, Collections, ed. Doble, ii. 125 n.), in the parish of St. Peter-in-the-East, and there baptised on 8 Nov. 1604 (register of baptisms; Wood, Athenæ, ed. Bliss, iv. 318; Foster, Alumni Oxon. s.v.). His father, Edward Pocock, matriculated (as ‘pleb. fil.’ of Hampshire) at Magdalen College in 1585, was demy from 1585 to 1591, held a fellowship from 1591 to 1604, proceeded B.A. 1588, M.A. 1592, and B.D. 1602 (Bloxam, Register Magd. Coll. iv. 225; Clark, Register Univ. of Oxford, vol. ii. pt. iii. p. 147), and was appointed vicar of Chieveley, Berkshire, in 1604 (Twells, Life prefixed to the Theological Works of the Learned Dr. Pocock, 2 vols., London, 1740, i. 1). The son was educated at the free school at Thame, Oxfordshire, then under Richard Butcher, and matriculated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, on 4 June 1619 (Clark, Register, vol. ii. pt. ii. p. 375). In the following year he migrated to Corpus Christi College, where he was admitted ‘discipulus’ (i.e. scholar) on 11 Dec. 1620, and where his tutor was Gamaliel Chase. Pococke graduated B.A. on 28 Nov. 1622, and M.A. on 28 March 1626 (ib. vol. ii. pt. iii. p. 412), and was elected a probationer fellow of Corpus on 24 July 1628 (Register C. C. C.). He received priest's orders on 20 Dec. 1629 from Bishop Richard Corbet [q. v.], in accordance with the terms of his fellowship (Twells, l.c. i. 13). He had already begun to devote his attention to oriental studies, and had profited, first at Oxford, by the lectures of the German Arabist, Matthias Pasor [q. v.], and later, near London, by the in​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 (Macray, 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 (Pusey, Cat. MSS. Bodl. ii. præf. iv.). Besides acquiring a large number of Arabic, Hebrew, Ethiopic, and Armenian manuscripts, and a Samaritan pentateuch (Bernard, 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 (Twells, 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 (Twells, 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. (Clark, Reg. Univ. Oxford, ii. pt. iii. p. 412; cf. Wood, Annals, ed. Gutch, i. 342). The professorship was worth 40l. a year (Wood, 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 (Griffiths, 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 (Twells, i. 9, 10).
In 1637, at Laud's instance (Wood, 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’ (Po​cocke, Porta Mosis, not. misc., 90), and was assisted in his researches, among others, by Georgio Cerigo and by Nathaniel Canopius the protosyncellus, who afterwards resided in Balliol and Christ Church (Wood, Athenæ, ed. Bliss, ii. 657). He left Constantinople in August 1640, and after a pause at Paris after Christmas, where he met Gabriel Sionita and Hugo Grotius, he reached London in the spring of 1641. Laud was then in the Tower, where Pococke visited him (Twells, i. 19). He found that the archbishop had placed the endowment of the Arabic chair beyond the risk of attainder by settling (6 June 1640) certain lands in Bray, Berkshire, for its perpetual maintenance. In November 1641 Laud presented a further collection of manuscripts to the university, many of which were doubtless the fruits of Pococke's and Greaves's travels.
After a brief residence at Oxford, which was now disturbed by the civil war, Pococke was presented by his college in 1642 to the rectory of Childrey in Berkshire (Living-book of Corpus Christi College). He is represented as a devout and assiduous parish priest; but his connection with Laud and his royalist convictions, coupled with an over-modest manner and lack of ‘unction,’ did not recommend him to his parishioners. They cheated him of his tithes and harassed him by quartering soldiers at the rectory (Twells, i. 22, 23). The sequestrators of Laud's estates, moreover, illegally laid hands on the endowment of the Arabic lecture, but were compelled to restore it under pressure from Dr. Gerard Langbaine [q. v.], provost of Queen's, John Greaves, and John Selden [q. v.] Selden, as burgess of the university, also procured for Pococke a special protection under the hand of Fairfax dated 5 Dec. 1647, against the exactions of the parliamentary troops (ib. i. 24). The committee appointed (1 May 1647) for ‘the visitation and reformation of the university of Oxford and the several colleges and halls thereof’ brought fresh troubles. At first it seemed as if Pococke was to be taken into favour by the visitors; for they appointed him to the professorship of Hebrew, vacant by the death of Dr. John Morris on 21 March 1647–8 (Foster, Alumni Oxon. s.v.), together with the canonry of Dr. Payne, whom they had ejected. The king, then a prisoner at Carisbrooke, had already nominated Pococke for the professorship and canonry (Wood, Annals, ed. Gutch, ii. 555; Twells, l.c. 27, 28). Pococke was one of the twenty delegates appointed by the committee of visitation, on 19 May 1648, to answer ‘de omnibus quæ ad rem Academiæ publicam pertinent’ (Regist. Convoc. T., apud Burrows, Register of the Visitors to Oxford, p. 102, Camden Soc.), but, apparently under the advice of John Greaves, he omitted to appear before the visitors, or to reply to their summons (Twells, i. 28). When he also failed to take the ‘engagement’ of 1649 he was dismissed from his canonry (24 Oct. 1650, Twells, i. 31; 1651 acc. to Wood, Annals, ed. Gutch, ii. 629); Peter French, Cromwell's brother-in-law, was appointed in his place. On 30 Nov. 1650 Pococke wrote to Horn of Gueldres: ‘I have learnt, and made it the unalterable principle of my soul, to keep peace, as far as in me lies, with all men; to pay due reverence and obedience to the higher powers, and to avoid all things that are foreign to my profession or studies; but to do anything that may ever so little molest the quiet of my conscience would be more grievous than the loss, not only of my fortunes, but even of my life’ (Twells, i. 32). Accordingly he was deprived of the two ‘lectures,’ probably in December 1650; for in that month a petition was addressed to the visiting committee on his behalf, signed not only by his friends, but by many of the new men appointed by the visitors (Burrows, Register of Visitors, p. lxxxiii n.), including the vice-chancellor, proctors, several heads of houses, and numerous fellows, masters of arts, and bachelors of law, who begged that the ‘late vote, as to the Arabic lecture, at least,’ should be suspended in view of Pococke's great learning and peaceable conduct. Strongly seconded by Selden, this remonstrance was successful, and Pococke continued to hold both lectures, without the canonry, and resided at Balliol when he came to Oxford in the vacations to deliver his courses (Wood, Athenæ, ed. Bliss, iv. 319). In 1655, at the instance of a few fanatical parishioners, he was cited before the commissioners at Abingdon under the new act for ejecting ‘ignorant, scandalous, insufficient, and negligent ministers.’ The leading Oxford scholars, headed by Dr. John Owen (1616–1683) [q. v.], warned the commission of the contempt they would draw upon themselves if they ejected for ‘ignorance and insufficiency’ a man whose learning was the admiration of Europe; and, after several months of examination and hearing witnesses on both sides, the charge was finally dismissed (see Twells, i. 35–42).
In spite of such interruptions Pococke continued his studies at Childrey. He had married about 1646 Mary, daughter of Thomas Burdet, esq., of West Worldham, Hampshire, by whom he had six sons and three daughters. At the end of 1649 (Twells, i. 33) he published at Oxford, and dedicated to Selden, his ​Specimen historiæ Arabum,’ in which an excerpt from the ‘Universal History’ (Mukh-tasar fi-d-duwal) of Abu-l-Faraj (Bar Hebræus) is used as a peg whereon are hung a series of elaborate essays on Arabian history, science, literature, and religion, based upon prolonged researches in over a hundred Arabic manuscripts, and forming an epoch in the development of eastern studies. All later orientalists, from Reland and Ockley to S. de Sacy, have borne their testimony to the immense erudition and sound scholarship of this remarkable work, of which a second edition was edited by Joseph White [q. v.] in 1806. The ‘Specimen’ is interesting also for the history of printing, for Twells asserts (i. 44), it is believed correctly, that Pococke's ‘Specimen’ and John Greaves's ‘Bainbrigii Canicularia,’ 1648, were the first two books in Arabic type which issued from the Oxford University press. (The first title-page of the ‘Specimen’ bears the imprint ‘Oxoniæ excudebat H. Hall impensis Humph. Robinson in Cemeterio Paulino, ad insigne trium Columbarum, 1650;’ but the ‘notæ’ appended to it have a distinct title, ‘Oxoniæ excudebat Hen. Hall, 1648,’ which is doubtless the date at which the whole work was first set up). Similarly the ‘Porta Mosis,’ or edition (Arabic in Hebrew characters) of the six prefatory discourses of Maimonides on the Mishna, with Latin translation and notes (especially on Septuagint readings), on which Pococke had been engaged since 1650, but which was not published till 1655, is believed to be the first Hebrew text printed at Oxford from type specially founded by the university at Dr. Langbaine's instance for Pococke's use (Twells, ib. The title-page of the ‘Porta Mosis’ has the imprint of H. Hall Academiæ Typographus, 1655, but the title-page of the Appendix is dated 1654). In 1658 (Migne, Patrol. Curs. iii. 888) another work of Pococke's appeared, the ‘Contextio Gemmarum,’ or Latin translation of the ‘Annals’ of Eutychius, which he had begun, somewhat reluctantly, in 1652 at the urgent request of Selden (who did not, as has been imagined, take any share in the labour; Twells, i. 42, &c.). The great event for oriental learning in 1657 was the publication by Dr. Brian Walton [q. v.] of his ‘Biblia Sacra Polyglotta,’ in which Pococke had taken a constant interest for five years, advising, criticising, lending manuscripts from his own collection, collating the Arabic version of the Pentateuch, and contributing a critical appendix to vol. vi. (‘De ratione variantium in Pent. Arab. lectionum’). He translated and published in 1659 a treatise ‘on the nature of the drink Kauhi or coffee … described by an Arabian physician.’ This was his last work completed at Childrey. The Restoration brought him into permanent residence at Christ Church; and, though he retained his rectory till his death, he appointed a curate to perform its duties. His memory is still preserved by a magnificent cedar in the rectory garden, said to have been imported and planted by him (information from the Rev. T. Fowler, president of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and the Rev. C. J. Cornish, rector of Childrey). Two cedars at Highclere, in Hampshire, are also believed to have been raised from cones brought from Syria by Pococke (Loudon, Arboretum, p. 2426).
In June 1660 Pococke attended the vice-chancellor of Oxford when he waited upon Charles II with felicitations on his happy restoration; and on the 20th of the same month his Hebrew professorship, together with the canonry and lodgings at Christ Church properly assigned thereto, was formally granted him by letters patent. He was installed on 27 July, and received the degree of D.D. by royal letters on 20 Sept. (Clark, Life and Times of A. Wood, i. 333). Henceforward he lived in studious ease at Christ Church in the lodgings of the Hebrew professor, in the garden of which is still seen the fig-tree, the famous ‘Arbor Pocockiana,’ imported by the professor from Syria, ‘prima sui generis,’ according to Dr. White's engraving preserved at Christ Church, and certainly the only ancient fig-tree on record still existing in England (Baxter in Trans. Hortic. Soc. iii. 433; Loudon, Arbor. p. 1367). In 1660 he published (at the cost of the Hon. Robert Boyle) an Arabic translation (with emendations and a new preface) of Grotius's tract, ‘De veritate religionis Christianæ,’ undertaken in the hope of converting Muslims (Wood, Athenæ, ed. Bliss, iv. 321). In 1661 appeared the text and translation of the Arabic poem, ‘Lamiato 'l Ajam, Carmen … Tograi,’ with grammatical and explanatory notes, produced at the Oxford press under the superintendence of Samuel Clarke [q. v.], architypographus to the university, who appended a treatise of his own on Arabic prosody (separate pagination and title 1661); and in 1663 Pococke brought out the Arabic text and Latin translation of the ‘Historia compendiosa dynastiarum’ of Abu-l-Faraj (Bar Hebræus), of which an excerpt had formed the text of the ‘Specimen’ thirteen years before. Though dedicated to the king, this memorable work attracted little notice at the time. A severe illness in 1663 left him permanently lame, but did not long arrest his energy. He lent Castell Ethiopic manuscripts for his great ‘Lexicon Heptaglotton,’ pub​lished in 1669, and translated the catechism (1671) and the principal parts of the liturgy of the church of England into Arabic (‘Partes præcipuæ liturgiæ Eccl. Angl. ling. Arab.’ 1674; later editions 1826, 1837); but his chief work in these later years was his elaborate and comprehensive commentary on the minor prophets, which issued at intervals from the university press: Micah and Malachi in 1677, Hosea in 1685, and Joel in 1691.
Pococke shared in the cathedral and college work at Christ Church. He was censor theologiæ in 1662, treasurer in 1665, and several times held proxies to act for the dean or other authority. He was present at chapters as late as July 1688. When James II visited Oxford in 1687, Pococke was the senior doctor present (Clark, Life and Times of Wood, iii. 231, 234), and he was long a delegate of the university press. John Locke (1632–1704) [q. v.], who was long intimate with him at Christ Church, wrote of him to Humphrey Smith (23 July 1703): ‘The Christian world is a witness of his great learning, that the works he published would not suffer to be concealed, nor could his devotion and piety be hid, and be unobserved in a college, where his constant and regular assisting at the cathedral service, never interrupted by sharpness of weather, and scarce restrained by downright want of health, shewed the temper and disposition of his mind; but his other virtues and excellent qualities had so strong and close a covering of modesty and unaffected humility’ that they were apt to be overlooked by the unobservant. Though ‘the readiest to communicate to any one that consulted him,’ ‘he had often the silence of a learner where he had the knowledge of a master. … Though a man of the greatest temperance in himself, and the farthest from ostentation and vanity in his way of living, yet he was of a liberal mind, and given to hospitality. … His name, which was in great esteem beyond sea, and that deservedly, drew on him visits from all foreigners of learning who came to Oxford. … He was always unaffectedly cheerful. … His life appeared to me one constant calm’ (Wood, ed. Bliss, iv. 322).
Pococke died on 10 Sept. 1691, at one o'clock in the morning (Clark, Life and Times of Wood, iii. 371); ‘his only distemper was great old age’ (Twells, i. 81). He was buried in the north aisle of the cathedral, near his son Richard (who had died in 1666), but his monument, a bust erected by his widow, which was originally on the east of the middle window in the north aisle of the nave, was removed during the restorations about thirty years ago to the south aisle of the nave. Two portraits are preserved in the Bodleian Library: one, in the gallery, represents a man in the prime of life, with light hair, moustache, and tuft on chin, dark eyes, and mild expression; the other, on the staircase, belongs to his old age, and shows white hair and pointed beard (Hearne, ed. Doble, ii. 56, says ‘the Master of University College has the picture of Dr. Pococke’). An engraving, after a portrait by W. Green, is prefixed to the 1740 edition of his works (Bromley). 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). His own annotated copy of the ‘Specimen’ is among these. Three letters from Pococke are printed in the correspondence of Gerard J. Vossius (Ep. cel. virorum nempe G. J. Voss. Nos. cvii, ccxxxix, and cccxxxvi, dated 1630, 1636, 1642, all from Oxford), in the second of which he refers to his collection of Arabic proverbs and to his project of editing Abu-l-Faraj (whom he does not name, but clearly indicates), while in the third he refers to Grotius's ‘De Veritate’ and to his own intention of translating the church catechism into Arabic for the instruction of his Syrian friends—a project not realised till nearly thirty years later. The same collection contains two letters from Vossius to Pococke in 1630 and 1641 (pp. 159, 383). There are also letters of Pococke in the British Museum (Harl. 376, fol. 143, Addit. 4276, 22905, the last two to Samuel Clarke, dated 1657).
Of his six sons, the eldest, Edward Pococke (1648–1727), baptised on 13 Oct. 1648, matriculated at Christ Church in 1661, was elected student, became chaplain to the Earl of Pembroke (Clark, Life and Times of Wood, iii. 373), canon of Salisbury, 1675, and rector of Minall (Mildenhall), Wiltshire, 1692 (Foster, Alumni Oxon.). He followed his father in oriental studies, and published in 1671 (with a preface by his father) a Latin translation of Ibn al Tufail, which Ockley afterwards turned into English (1708). He also began an edition of the Arabic text, with Latin translation, of ‘Abdollatiphi Historiæ Ægypti Compendium,’ in collaboration with his father, who had discovered the manuscript in Syria. According to Hearne (ed. Doble, i. 224), Pococke the father began this edition and translation of the celebrated twelfth-century traveller and physician; but when the work had been partly printed the Latin type was ​wanted by Bishop Fell, who at this time was omnipotent at the University press, and the translation had to be stopped, ‘which so vexed the good old man, Dr. Pocock, y$^t$ he could never be prevail'd to go on any farther.’ This part is doubtless the printed copy which stops at p. 96, and has no title or date; but it has generally been ascribed to Pococke the son, who appears to have completed a rough draft of the translation of the whole work (mentioned by Hunt in his ‘Proposals,’ dated 1746. See White's edition, reprinting Pococke's to p. 99; and S. de Sacy, Relation de l'Egypte, par Abd-allatif, xii). He was expected to succeed to his father's Arabic professorship (Clark, Life and Times of Wood, iii. 373). ‘'Tis said he understands Arabick and other oriental Tongues very well, but wanted Friends to get him ye Professorships of Hebrew and Arabick at Oxford’ (Hearne, ed. Doble, ii. 63), and Dr. Thomas Hyde (1636–1703) [q. v.], Bodley's librarian, was appointed. Pococke apparently abandoned further oriental researches, and died in 1727. Thomas Pococke, another son, baptised on 21 April 1652, matriculated at Christ Church in 1667, became rector of Morwenstow, and afterwards of Peter Tavy, Devonshire, and published a translation of Manasseh ben Israel's ‘De Termino Vitæ,’ London, 1700. Henry was born on 9 May 1654. Richard, baptised on 4 Jan. 1655–6, died on 7 Nov. 1666, and is buried in Christ Church Cathedral. Robert, baptised on 8 March 1657–8, was a Westminster scholar at Christ Church. Charles (baptised on 22 Jan. 1660–1), was also at Christ Church, and became rector of Cheriton Bishop, Devonshire, in 1690 (Foster, Alumni Oxon.; Childrey baptismal register).
S. L-P.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.225 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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