(Dr Edward), one of the most learned men in the oriental tongues in Europe, was the eldest son of the Rev. Mr Edward Pocock; and was born at Oxford in 1604, where he was also bred. In 1628, he was admitted probationer fellow of his college, and about the same time had prepared an edition of the Second Epistle of St Peter, the Second and Third of St John, and that of St Jude, in Syriac and Greek, with a Latin Translation and Notes. In 1629, he was ordained priest, and appointed chaplain to the English merchants at Aleppo, where he continued five or six years; in which time he distinguished himself by his fortitude and zeal while the plague raged there. At length returning to England, he was, in 1636, appointed reader of the Arabic lectures founded by archbishop Laud. Three years after, he went to Constantinople, where he prosecuted his studies of the Eastern tongues, and procured many valuable manuscripts. After near four years stay in that city, he embarked in 1640; and taking Paris in his way, visited Gabriel Sionita the famous Maronite, and Hugo Grotius. In 1643, he was presented to the rectory of Childrey in Berks; and, about three years after, married the daughter of Thomas Burdett, Esq. About the middle of 1647, he obtained the restitution of the salary of his Arabic lecture, which had been detained from him about three years. In 1648, king Charles I. who was then prisoner in the isle of Wight, nominated Mr Pocock to the professorship of Hebrew, and the canonry of Christ-church annexed to it; but, in 1650, he was ejected from his canonry for refusing to take the engagement, and soon after a vote passed for depriving him of his Hebrew and Arabic lectures; but several governors of houses, &c. presenting a petition in his favour, he was suffered to enjoy both those places. He had some years before published his Specimen Historiae Arabicae; and now appeared his Porta Mosis; and soon after, the English Polyglot edition of the Bible, to which he had largely contributed, and also Eutychius's Annals, with a Latin version. At the Restoration, he was restored to the canonry of Christ-church, and also received the degree of doctor of divinity. He then published his Arabic Version of Grotius's Treatise of the Truth of the Christian Religion; and an Arabic Poem, intitled Lamiato'l Ajam, with a Latin Translation and Notes. Soon after, he published Gregory Abul Pharajus's Historia Dynastiarum. In 1674, he published an Arabic Version of the chief parts of the Liturgy of the church of England; and a few years after his Commentary on the Prophecies of Micah, Malachi, Hosea, and Joel. This great man died in 1691, after having been for many years confessedly the first person in Europe for eastern learning; and was no less worthy of admiration for his uncommon modesty and humility, and all the virtues that can adorn a Christian. His theological works were republished at London in 1740, in two volumes in folio.

PODOLIA, a province of Poland, bounded on the east by Volhynia and the river Ukran; on the north and north-east, by Budjace Tartary; on the south-east, by the river Nister, which separates it from Bessarabia and Moldavia in European Turkey on the south-west; and by the province of Red Russia, on the north-west. It is usually divided into the Upper and Lower: in the Upper, which is the western part, the chief town is Kamieck, the capital of Podolia, and of a palatinate. In the Lower, or eastern part of Podolia, the chief town is Brackow, the capital of a palatinate.