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GOLIUS

Volume 10 · 257 words · 1860 Edition

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 Djebéri, 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 Indeed it has only recently been superseded by Freitag's Lexicon.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 Chadzrataladab min kelon Alarati, i.e., Proverbia quaedam Alis imperatoris Muselmici, et Carmen Tograi poetæ, Leyd, 1629; Ahmedis Arabisalde vitae 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 Heptaglotton. (See Schmurrer's Bibliotheca Arabica; Biogr. Unicers., &c.)