|
See also: English Orientalist, was See also: born at Billingsley, near See also: Bridgnorth, in See also: Shropshire, on the 29th of See also: June 1636
.
He inherited his taste for linguistic studies, and received his first lessons in some of the Eastern tongues, from his See also: father, who was rector of the parish
.
In his sixteenth See also: year See also: Hyde entered See also: King's
See also: College, Carnbridge, where, under Wheelock, professor of Arabic, he made rapid progress in See also: Oriental See also: languages, so that, after only one year of residence, he was invited to See also: London to assist See also: Brian Walton in his edition of the Polyglott See also: Bible
.
Besides correcting the Arabic, Persic and See also: Syriac texts for that See also: work, Hyde transcribed into Persic characters the Persian See also: translation of the See also: Pentateuch, which had been printed in See also: Hebrew letters at Constantinople in 1546
.
To this work, which See also: Arch-See also: bishop Ussher had thought well-nigh impossible even for a native of See also: Persia, Hyde appended the Latin version which accompanies it in the Polyglott
.
In 1658 he was chosen Hebrew reader at See also: Queen's College, See also: Oxford, and in 1659, in consideration of his erudition in Oriental tongues, he was admitted to the degree of M.A
.
In the same year he was appointed under-keeper of the Bodleian Library, and in 1665 librarian-in-chief
.
Next year he was collated to a prebend at See also: Salisbury, and in 1673 to the arch-deaconry of See also: Gloucester, receiving the degree of D.D. shortly afterwards
.
In 1691 the See also: death of See also: Edward See also: Pococke opened up to Hyde the Laudian professorship of Arabic; and in 1697, on the deprivation of See also: Roger Altham, he succeeded to 'the regius chair of Hebrew and a canonry of Christ See also: Church
.
Under
See also: Charles II.,
See also: James II. and
See also: William III
.
Hyde discharged the duties of Eastern interpreter to the
See also: court
.
Worn out by his unremitting labours, he resigned his librarianship in 1701, and died at Oxford on the 18th of See also: February 1703
.
Hyde, who was one of the first to See also: direct See also: attention to the vast treasures of Oriental antiquity, was an excellent classical See also: scholar, and there was hardly an Eastern See also: tongue accessible to foreigners with which he was not See also: familiar
.
He had even acquired See also: Chinese, while his writings are the best testimony to his mastery of See also: Turkish, Arabic, Syriac, Persian, Hebrew and See also: Malay
.
In his chief work, Historia religionis veterum Persarum (1700), he made the first attempt to correct from Oriental See also: sources the errors of the See also: Greek and See also: Roman historians who had described the See also: religion of the See also: ancient Persians
.
His other writings and See also: translations comprise Tabulae longitudinum et latitudinum stellarum fixarum ex observatione principis Ulugh Beighi (1665), to which his notes have given additional value; Quatuor evangelia et acta apostolorum lingua Malaica, caracteribus Europaeis (1677); Epistola de mensuris et ponderibus serum sive sinensium (1688), appended to See also: Bernard's De mensuris et ponderibus antiquis; Abraham Peritsol itinera mundi (1691); and De ludis orientalibus libri II
.
(1694)
.
With the exception of the Historia religionis, which was republished by See also: Hunt and Costard in 176o, the writings of Hyde, including some unpublished See also: MSS., were collected and printed by Dr See also: Gregory See also: Sharpe in 1767 under the title Syntagma-dissertalionum quas olim
..
. See also: Thomas Hyde separatim edidit
.
There is a
See also: life of the author pre-fixed
.
Hyde also published a See also: catalogue of the Bodleian Library in 1674
.
|
|
|
[back] HYDE PARK |
[next] HYDER ALI, or HAIDAR |
There are no comments yet for this article.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.
Links to articles and home page are encouraged.