GOLIUS, JAMES, an eminent Dutch orientalist, was born at the Hague in 1596. He studied at Leyden, and made such progress in his studies that at the age of twenty-one he was chosen professor of Greek at Rochelle. After a short time, however, he resigned that appointment and returned to Leyden to apply himself to the eastern tongues under Erpenius. To perfect his knowledge of Arabic, he went with the Dutch embassy to the emperor of Morocco, and was able while there to present to that potentate a petition written in Arabic. On returning home, he was chosen to succeed Erpenius in the chair of Arabic at Leyden in 1624. In the following year he set out on a tour through the east, visiting Arabia and Mesopotamia, and returning to Holland via Constantinople in 1626. The remainder of his life was spent at Leyden, where he died in 1667. He wrote many works, of which by far the greatest is his Lexicon Arabico-Latinum, fol., Leyd. 1653. It is based on the Al-Sihah of Djehéri, and was reckoned a wonderful monument of learning for that age. Indeed it has only recently been superseded by Freitag's Lexicon. Of Golius' other works may be mentioned his Chadrataladab min kelon Alarah, i.e., Proverbium quadam Alis imperatoris Muslemici, et Carmen Tograi poeta, Leyd. 1629; Almedis Arabiada vita et rerum gestarum Timuri historia, Leyd. 1636. After his death, a Persian dictionary was found among his MSS., which was published, with additions by Castell, in his Lexicon Heptagloton. (See Schnurrer's Bibliotheca Arabica; Biog. Univers., &c.)