Ockley as a polyglot

Ockley
Home > Mezzofanti > Eminent linguists > British and Irish linguists > Ockley

The mention of Arabian literature suggests the distinguished names of Simon Ockley, the earliest English historian of Ma-hometanism, and of George Sale, the first English translator of its sacred book. Both were in their time Orientalists of high character; but both of them appear to have applied chiefly to Arabic, Persian, and Turkish, rather than to the Biblical languages Both, too, may be cited among the examples of unsuccessful scholarship. It was in a debtor's prison at Cambridge that Ockley found leisure for the completion of his great History of the Saracens; and it is told of the learned translator of the Koran, that too often, when he quitted his studies, he wanted a change of linen, and frequently Wandered in the streets in search of some compassionate friend who might supply him with the meal of the day If Another scholar of high repute at the same period, is Samuel Clarke.