(JOSEPH DACRE), a distinguished orientalist, and general scholar, was the son of a Physician at Carlisle, and was born there in the year 1759. He received his early education, in the learned languages, at the grammar-school of that city. In 1775 he proceeded to Cambridge, obtained his bachelor's degree in 1779, and was elected a fellow of Queen's College in that University. He left College in 1783, after taking his master's degree, and returned to his native city, where he obtained some church preferment. In 1793, upon the resignation of Dr Paley, he succeeded to the Chancellorship of the Diocese of Carlisle. (Gentleman's Magazine, 1804.)

Mr Carlyle had early devoted much of his attention to an accurate study of the Arabic language, in which pursuit he had been assisted by a native of Bagdad, who resided sometime with him at the University. Having thus attained to great proficiency in the language and literature of the Arabians, he in 1792 appeared before the Public as the Translator of an inedited historical work in that language, known under the name of the Maureed Allatafet. The author of this work was Jemaleddin, a person of the rank of Emir, and distinguished among the Eastern writers by the title of Historiographer of Egypt, on account of his great attention to the improvement of its history. The Maureed Allatafet is an Epitome, made by Jemaleddin himself, of a larger work, which comprised a complete history of that country, from the first establishment of the Arabian Government, to the eight hundred and fifty seventh year of the Hegira. In reviewing the Epitome with a view to its publication, Mr Carlyle thought proper to retrench that part of it which relates to the Caliphs of Bagdad, their history being, as he conceived, sufficiently illustrated in other writings; so that his publication commences with the first of the Fatimite Caliphs who reigned in Egypt; and it ends, where the original Epitome also terminates, with the reign of Almalec Alashrof, the twelfth of the Circassian race of Sultans, thus comprising a period of nearly five hundred years. However creditable to Mr Carlyle's attainments in Eastern learning, this treatise is not thought to have added much to the stock of historical knowledge, or to suggest any high ideas of the merit of that larger work from which it was abridged, and which procured Jemaleddin so much renown in the East. The title of Mr Carlyle's publication is as follows: Maureed Allatafet Jemaleddini, filii Togri Bardii, seu rerum Egyptianarum Annales, ab anno Christi 971, usque ad annum 1453. E Codice MS. Bibliothecae Academiae Cambriensis. Arab. et Lat. 4to.

In 1794, Mr Carlyle was elected Professor of Arabic in the University of Cambridge; and, in 1796, he gave to the world another, and more pleasing proof of his zealous endeavours to illustrate the literature of the East, in a work entitled, Specimens of Arabian Poetry, from the earliest time to the extinction of the Caliphat, with some Account of the Authors. Arab. and Eng. 8vo. His object was, by arranging the pieces in chronological order, and accompanying each with some account of the author, and of the occasion of the composition, to exhibit a sort of history of Arabian poetry, during the most splendid period of the Mohammedan empire. Many of these pieces possess considerable beauty; but as Mr Carlyle had it in view to exemplify the different species of poetic composition, he has accordingly translated some specimens, in which he was himself sensible there was nothing to be prized, either in the thought or the execution. Like most of those who have become eminent in Eastern learning, Professor Carlyle is thought to have formed too high an estimate of its merits; but all must admit that his Specimens, with their prefaces, form an elegant and interesting work; one which, to use his own words, cannot but prove acceptable to "those who wish, to gain an insight into the history of manners, and who love to trace the operations of the human mind in distant countries and various situations." A second edition of this work was published in 1810.

When the Earl of Elgin was appointed Ambassador to the Porte, in 1799, Professor Carlyle was invited to accompany him as an accredited agent of the British government, for the purpose of literary research; and in that capacity he accordingly proceeded to the East. After remaining some time in Constantinople, he left that capital in January 1800, and proceeded through Asia Minor and Cyprus to Palestine; in which tour he was employed till the following July, when he returned to Constantinople. He again quitted this city in March 1801, and visited the Troad, the convents of Mount Athos, and several parts of Greece. He appears to have spent three weeks amongst these celebrated convents, where, being furnished with recommendations from the Government, and the Patriarch of Constantinople, he was received with marked kindness, and enjoyed every opportunity for literary research. From Athens, where he spent some time, assisted in his inquiries by the artists employed by Lord Elgin, he proceeded in a Ragusan vessel to Malta, and afterwards to Naples, where he arrived in July 1801. He soon thereafter set out for England, and reached his native city early in the month of October. (Addenda to the Remains of John Tweddall. 1816. 4to.)

Soon after his return, he was presented by the Bishop of Carlisle to the living of Newcastle-upon-Tyne; but which he did not long enjoy; for he fell into bad health, and died in the prime of life, in April 1804 (Gent. Mag. 1804). His premature death cut short some useful literary undertakings, and deprived the world of the full fruits of his observations on many interesting scenes, which he had surveyed with the eye of a scholar and the feeling of a poet; for all that the public has derived from his travels, is a posthumous volume of poems, with remarks suggested by these scenes, and which, though bearing testimony to his learning and taste, is but a poor substitute for such a work as, with his knowledge and means of information, he could not have failed to produce. The title of this posthumous volume is as follows: Poems, suggested chiefly by scenes in Asia Minor, Syria, and Greece, with Prefaces extracted from the Author's Journal. It was published in 4to, in 1805, and is embellished with some fine engravings.