Jacob Golius born Jacob van Gool (1596 – September 28, 1667) was an Orientalist and mathematician based at the

University of Leiden Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, as a reward to the city of Le ...

in Netherlands. He is primarily remembered as an Orientalist. He published Arabic texts in Arabic at Leiden, and did Arabic-to-Latin translations. His best-known work is an Arabic-to-Latin dictionary, ''Lexicon Arabico-Latinum'' (1653), which he sourced for the most part from the ''Sihah'' dictionary of Al-Jauhari and the ''Qamous'' dictionary of

Fairuzabadi Firuzabadi ( fa, فیروزآبادی) also spelled as al-Fayrūzabādī ( ar, الفيروزآبادي (1329–1414) was a lexicographer and was the compiler of ''al-Qamous'' (), a comprehensive and, for nearly five centuries, one of the most wi ...

Life

Golius was born in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

. He went to the

in 1612 to study mathematics. In 1618 he registered again to study

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

and other Eastern languages at Leiden, where he was the most distinguished pupil of

Erpenius Thomas van Erpe, also known as Thomas Erpenius (September 11, 1584November 13, 1624), Dutch Orientalist, was born at Gorinchem, in Holland. He was the first European to publish an accurate book of Arabic grammar. After completing his early educa ...

. In 1622 he accompanied the Dutch embassy to

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria t ...

, and on his return he was chosen to succeed Erpenius as professor of Arabic at Leiden (1625). In the following year he set out on a tour of the Eastern Mediterranean lands, from which he did not return until 1629. A key purpose of the tour was to collect Arabic texts and bring them back to the Leiden University library. The remainder of his life was spent at

Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wi ...

where he held the chair of mathematics as well as that of Arabic. Golius taught mathematics to the French philosopher

René Descartes René Descartes ( or ; ; Latinized: Renatus Cartesius; 31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650) was a French philosopher, scientist, and mathematician, widely considered a seminal figure in the emergence of modern philosophy and science. Ma ...

, and later corresponded with him. It is therefore highly probable that he was able to read to him parts of the mathematical Arabic texts he had started to collect, among others on the Conics.

Publications

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 Edmund Castell (1606–1686) was an English orientalist. He was born at Tadlow, in Cambridgeshire. At the age of fifteen he entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge, gaining his BA in 1624-5 and his MA in 1628. Appointed Professor of Arabic in 1666, ...

in his ''Lexicon heptaglotton'' (1669). Golius also edited, translated and annotated the

astronomical Astronomy () is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, galaxi ...

treatise of the 9th century Arabic astronomer

Al-Farghani Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Kathīr al-Farghānī ( ar, أبو العبّاس أحمد بن محمد بن كثير الفرغاني 798/800/805–870), also known as Alfraganus in the West, was an astronomer in the Abbasid court ...

.Alfraganus: ''Elementa astronomica''
in Arabic and Latin, year 1669, translation by Golius. Alfraganus is a medieval Latin spelling of Al-Farghani. Golius's ''Lexicon Arabico-Latinum'', about 1500 pages, published at Leiden in 1653, was a big improvement on the Arabic-to-Latin dictionary of

Franciscus Raphelengius Frans van Ravelingen Latinized Franciscus Raphelengius (February 27, 1539 – July 20, 1597), was a Flemish-born scholar, printer and publisher, working in Antwerp and later in Leiden. During the last decade of his life he was professor of He ...

, which was published at Leiden in 1613. Golius possessed mainstream medieval Arabic dictionaries written solely in Arabic, and was able to translate their contents into Latin. Raphelengius did not have the benefit of seeing these Arabic dictionaries. Golius's dictionary was later improved and expanded by

Georg Freytag Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Freytag (19 September 1788 – 16 November 1861) was a German philologist. Background Freytag was born in Lüneburg. He studied philology and theology at the University of Göttingen, where from 1811 to 1813 he worke ...

's Arabic-to-Latin dictionary in 1837.

References

Biography of Jacobus Golius at the Baheyeldin Dynasty site''Lexicon Arabico-Latinum'', by Jacobus Golius
year 1653, about 1500 pages * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Golius, Jacobus 1596 births 1667 deaths 17th-century Dutch mathematicians Dutch orientalists Dutch Arabists Scientists from The Hague Leiden University faculty