GOLIUS, JAMES, a professor of Arabic and mathematics at Leyden, was descended from a considerable family of the same name, and born at the Hague in the year 1596. He was early sent to the university of Leyden, where he studied under Erpenius; and having made himself master of the learned languages, applied himself to the study of mathematics, physic, and divinity. He afterwards travelled into Africa and Asia; and was greatly esteemed both by the king of Morocco and the sultan of Turkey. He at length returned to Leyden loaded with manuscripts; and in 1624 succeeded Erpenius in the Arabic chair. As
he had been an eye-witness of the wretched state of Christianity in the Mahommedan countries, he was filled with the compassion of a fellow Christian; and none ever solicited for a place of honour and profit with greater eagerness than he did for procuring a new edition of the New Testament, in the original language, with a translation into the modern Greek by an archimandrite; and as there are some of these Christians who use the Arabic tongue in divine service, he also caused to be dispersed amongst them an Arabic translation of the confession of the Protestants, together with the Catechism and Liturgy. In 526 he was chosen professor of mathematics, and discharged the functions of both professorships with the greatest applause during forty years. He was likewise appointed interpreter in ordinary to the states for the Arabic, Turkish, Persian, and other eastern languages, and had an annual pension conferred upon him, together with a present of a gold chain and a beautiful medal, which he wore as a badge of his office. Although entitled to be considered as an universal scholar, Golius excelled chiefly in philology and languages, in the acquisition of which he evinced equal ability and application. At the age of fifty-four he made himself master of Persian, in which he wrote a dictionary, afterwards printed in Castell's Lexicon Heptaglotton; he was intimately acquainted with the Turkish; and he had made such progress in the Chinese that, though he applied late in life to the study of it, he was able to read and understand books written in that language. Besides the works which he had printed and published, he left several unfinished manuscripts, which, if he had lived to complete them, would have done credit to his talents and learning. His published works are, 1. Chadraz-aladab mulxalam alarab, hoc est, Proverbia quædam Alis Imperatoris Muslemici, et Carmen Tograi poëte doctissimi, necnon Dissertatio quædam Aben-Synæ, Leyden, 1629, in 8o; 2. Lexicon Arabico-Latinum, contextum ex probatibus Orientis lexicographis: accedit index copiosissimus, qui Lexici Latino-Arabici vicem explere possit, Leyden, 1653, in folio; 3. Muhamedis filii Ketiri Ferganensis, qui vulgo Alfraganus dicitur, elementa Astronomie Arabice et Latine, cum notis ad res exoticas sive Orientales, quæ in iis occurrunt, Amsterdam, 1669, in 4to; 4. Ahmedis Arabiæ vite, et rerum gestarum Timuri, qui vulgo Tamerlanus dicitur, Historia, Leyden, 1682, in 4to; 5. An edition of the Arabian Grammar of Erpnius, to which Golius added, Adagiorum Arab. centuriæ iii. Poetarum sententiæ lix. Consensus i. Haririi, Carm. Abu-Oie, et Patriarchæ Antioch. Elize iii. qui floruit circa annum Christi 1180, homilia de nativ. Christi; 6. Lexiconarium Persico-Latinum, left in manuscript at his death, and published, as already mentioned, in Castell's Lexicon Heptaglotton. Golius died on the 28th of September 1667.