Jacobus Golius
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Jacob Golius (or Gohl), (1596-1667), Dutch Orientalist, was born at the Hague in 1596, and studied at the University of Leiden, where in Arabic and other Eastern languages he was the most distinguished pupil of Erpenius. In 1622 he accompanied the Dutch embassy to Morocco, and on his return he was chosen to succeed Erpenius (1624). In the following year he set out on a Syrian and Arabian tour from which he did not return until 1629. The remainder of his life was spent at Leiden where he held the chair of mathematics as well as that of Arabic. He died on 28 September 1667.
His most important work is the Lexicon Arabico-Latinum, (Leiden, 1653), which, based on the Sihah of Al-Jauhari, was only superseded by the corresponding work of Freytag. Among his earlier publications may be mentioned editions of various Arabic texts (Proverbia quaedam Alis, imperatoris Muslemici, et Carmen Tograipoetae doctissimi, necnon dissertatio quaedam Aben Synae, 1629; and Ahmedis Arabsiadae vitae et rerum gestarum Timuri, gui vulgo Tamer, lanes dicitur, historia, 1636). In 1656 he published a new edition, with considerable additions, of the Grammatica Arabica of Erpenius. After his death, there was found among his papers a Dictionarium Persico-Latinum which was published, with additions, by Edmund Castell in his Lexicon heptaglotton (1669). Golius also edited, translated and annotated the astronomical treatise of Alfragan (Muhammedis, filii Ketiri Ferganensis, qui vulgo Alfraganus dicitur, elementa astronomica Arabice et Latine, 1669).
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- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain. . The article can be seen here.
