HYDE

HYDE, Dr Thomas, professor of Arabic at Oxford, and one of the most learned writers of the 17th century, was born in 1636; and studied first at Cambridge, and afterwards at Oxford. Before he was 18 years of age, he was sent from Cambridge to London to assist Mr Brian Walton in the great work of the Polyglot Bible; and about that period undertook to transcribe the Persian Pentateuch out of the Hebrew characters, which Archbishop Usher, who well knew the difficulty of the undertaking, pronounced to be an impossible task to a native Persian. After he had happily succeeded in this, he assisted in correcting several parts of Mr Walton's work, for which he was perfectly qualified. He was made archdeacon of Gloucester, canon of Christ-church, head keeper of the Bodleian library, and professor both of Hebrew and Arabic in the university of Oxford. He was interpreter and secretary of the Oriental languages, during the reigns of Charles II. James II. and William III.; and was perfectly qualified to fill this post, as he could converse in the languages which he understood. There never was an Englishman in his situation of life who made so great a progress; but his mind was so engrossed by his beloved studies, that he is said to have been but ill qualified to appear to any advantage in common conversation. Of all his learned works (the very catalogue of which, as observed by Anth. Wood, is a curiosity), his Religio Veterum Persarum is the most celebrated. Dr Gregory Sharpe, the late learned and ingenious master of the Temple, has collected several of his pieces formerly printed, and republished them with some additional dissertations, and his life prefixed, in two elegant volumes quarto. This great man died on the 18th of February 1702. Among his other works are, 1. A Latin translation of Ulug Beig's observations on the longitude and latitude of the fixed stars; and 2. A catalogue of the printed books in the Bodleian library.