Laudian Professor of Arabic
Name Professor Education College as Professor Notes
Edward Pococke 1636-91 Magdalen Hall and Corpus Christi College Corpus Christi College Pococke started studying Arabic with William Bedwell in 1625 , and became chaplain to the Levant Company in Aleppo ( in modern-day Syria ) in 1630 to improve his knowledge further . He returned in 1636 at the request of William Laud , who had decided to make Pococke the first appointment to the chair . Thomas Greaves was Pococke 's deputy between 1637 and 1641 when Pococke travelled to Constantinople for research and to collect manuscripts . Pococke was appointed Regius Professor of Hebrew in 1648 , but his refusal to promise loyalty to the Commonwealth of England led to the parliamentary committee supervising the university to order his removal from both professorships . However , the committee was persuaded to stay the order until a replacement could be found , and it was never implemented . Pococke has been described as the finest European Arabist of his time ... and among the greatest of all time
Thomas Hyde 1691-1703 University of Cambridge ( King 's College ) and The Queen 's College , Oxford Christ Church Hyde was Bodley 's Librarian from 1665 to 1701 ( when he resigned because of the toil and drudgery of daily attendance in all times and weathers ) and was also Regius Professor of Hebrew from 1697 . His interest in oriental languages came from his father , a rector in Shropshire . He is described in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography as a mediocre orientalist , who carried out little teaching despite having significant linguistic skills . He had a strong intellectual interest in oriental languages and peoples , although his inability to finish work meant that he published little . Although he carried out his work at Oxford in a lethargic manner , a Dutch scholar described him as stupor mundi ( the wonder of the world ) when told of his death
John Wallis 1703-38 Wadham College and Magdalen College Magdalen College Wallis was an absentee professor , holding parish posts at various times in Essex , Hampshire and Wiltshire . John Gagnier , who became Lord Almoner 's Professor of Arabic in 1724 , was appointed as deputy to Wallis in 1718 . One history of the university says of Wallis that not only did [ he ] give no lectures for most of his long tenure , but he did nothing to advance knowledge either
Thomas Hunt 1738-74 Christ Church Hart Hall Hunt was also Lord Almoner 's Professor of Arabic from 1740 to 1747 and Regius Professor of Hebrew in 1747 until his death in 1774 . He published extensively on Arabic and Hebrew matters , and was a well-regarded scholar who encouraged others
Joseph White 1774-1814 Wadham College Wadham College White was prompted by his benefactor , John Moore ( later Archbishop of Canterbury ) , to study Syriac , Arabic and Persian , leading to his unanimous election to the chair in 1774 . His Bampton Lecture in 1784 , a comparison of Christianity and Islam , was widely praised . He resigned his fellowship at Wadham in 1787 after being appointed rector of Melton , Suffolk , but retained his professorship , also becoming Regius Professor of Hebrew in 1804 . His scholarship has led to him being described as one of the major Hebraists of the century
Thomas Winstanley 1814-23 Brasenose College St Alban Hall Winstanley succeeded Thomas Warton as Camden Professor of Ancient History in 1790 and was elected principal of St Alban Hall in 1797 . He held the Laudian chair in addition to the Camden chair . His version of Theodore Goulston 's 1623 edition of Aristotelous peri poiētikēs : Aristotelis de poetica liber ( 1780 ) , with a Latin version of the text and accompanying notes , was used at Oxford until sometime in the 19th century
Wyndham Knatchbull 1823-40 Christ Church All Souls College Knatchbull , a son of Sir Edward Knatchbull , 8th Baronet , was a clergyman of various Kent parishes from 1811 until his death in 1868 . He was considered to be a possible successor to Alexander Nicoll , Regius Professor of Hebrew , who died in 1828 ; Edward Bouverie Pusey was appointed instead
Stephen Reay 1840-61 St Alban Hall - Reay , a Scottish clergyman , published little : the only work that he is known to have authored was a pamphlet , Observations on the defence of the Church Missionary Society against the objections of the Archdeacon of Bath ( 1818 ) , although he also edited a couple of Hebrew texts . Reay was appointed Under-Librarian at the Bodleian Library in 1828 by Bulkeley Bandinel , Bodley 's Librarian . Reay held this post and his professorship until his death
Robert Gandell 1861-87 St John 's College and The Queen 's College Magdalen Hall / Hertford College and Corpus Christi College Gandell was also a prebendary of Wells Cathedral from 1874 , and a canon of the cathedral from 1880 . His publications included a four-volume edition of John Lightfoot 's Horae Hebraicae ( 1859 ) , and commentaries on some books of the Old Testament
David Margoliouth 1889-1937 New College New College Margoliouth had a superlative academic career as a student , winning many prizes and scholarships , including awards in Hebrew , Syriac and Sanskrit . When he applied for the chair , his referees gave no indication that he knew any Arabic , but within five years of his appointment he published two important works on Arabic . Lacking regular assistance from a tutor to instruct students in elementary Arabic , Margoliouth had a heavy workload , but effectively left students to acquire the rudiments of the language themselves . He also taught Syriac and Ethiopic when needed
Sir Hamilton Gibb 1937-55 University of Edinburgh and the School of Oriental Studies , London St John 's College Gibb was previously a professor at the School of Oriental Studies , and was highly regarded as a teacher and scholar with a wide range of knowledge . Arabic expanded as an academic subject at Oxford after the Second World War , as students returned from the war with experience of the Middle East , with international students attracted by Gibb 's reputation . He left in 1955 to become James Richard Jewett Professor of Arabic at Harvard University and director of Harvard 's Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Alfred Beeston 1955-78 Christ Church St John 's College Beeston developed an interest in languages at school , teaching himself Arabic . After initially studying classics at Oxford , he switched to Arabic and Persian , under Margoliouth . He finished his doctorate while working in the oriental books department of the Bodleian Library , becoming Keeper of the department and sub-librarian in 1946 after his return from war service in Palestine . As professor , he expanded the Arabic syllabus ( which previously stopped in 1400 ) to ensure that students studied all periods from pre-Islamic verse to the 20th century . He has been described as one of the foremost Arabists of the twentieth century
Wilferd Madelung 1978-98 Georgetown University , University of Cairo , and University of Hamburg St John 's College Madelung was a cultural attaché at the West German embassy in Baghdad between 1958 and 1960 . He was a professor at the University of Chicago before moving to Oxford , holding a Guggenheim Fellowship from 1972 to 1973 . Since retiring from Oxford , he has been a senior research fellow at the Institute of Ismaili Studies and a fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Geert Jan van Gelder 1998-2012 University of Amsterdam and University of Leiden St John 's College Van Gelder was a lecturer in Arabic at the University of Groningen from 1975 to 1998 . He was appointed as a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1997 and a Fellow of the British Academy in 2005 . His interests cover a wide range of topics in classical Arabic prose and poetry
Julia Bray 2012 onwards St Hilda 's and St Cross St John 's College Bray , who studied Arabic and Persian at Oxford , studies the relationship between Arabic literary and social history . Before taking up the Laudian professorship , she was professor of Medieval Arabic Literature at Paris 8 University
List of professors
The position of Laudian Professor of Arabic at the University of Oxford was established in 1636 by William Laud, who at the time was Chancellor of the University of Oxford and Archbishop of Canterbury. The first professor was Edward Pococke, who was working as a chaplain in Aleppo in what is now Syria when Laud asked him to return to Oxford to take up the position. Laud's regulations for the professorship required lectures on Arabic grammar and literature to be delivered weekly during university vacations and Lent. He also provided that the professor's lectures were to be attended by all medical students and Bachelors of Arts at the university, although this seems not to have happened since Pococke had few students, despite the provision for non-attenders to be fined. In 1881, a university statute repealed Laud's regulations and provided that the professor was to lecture in the Arabic, Syriac, and Chaldee Languages, and attached the professorship to a fellowship at St John's College. The standard of the professors has varied. The second professor, Thomas Hyde, is described by the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography as a mediocre orientalist, and one history of the university says of the third professor, John Wallis, that not only did [he] give no lectures for most of his long tenure, but he did nothing to advance knowledge either. Pococke, Joseph White, Sir Hamilton Gibb, and Alfred Beeston have received high praise for their scholarship. David Margoliouth (professor 1889-1937) taught the syllabus for the final examinations in lectures over two years, forcing some students to tackle the more difficult texts in their first year of study. Successive professors had few students until after the Second World War, when numbers increased because of the reputation of the then professor, Gibb, and because some British students became interested in Arabic culture while serving in the Middle East during the war. Julia Bray, the Laudian Professor as of 2015[update], was appointed in 2012 and is the first woman to hold the position. She is a member of Oxford's Faculty of Oriental Studies, based at the Oriental Institute.