The Lord Almoner's Professorships of Arabic were two professorships, one at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

and one at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

. They were both founded before 1724, but records of the holders of the chairs only date from that year. The professors were appointed by

the Crown The Crown is a political concept used in Commonwealth realms. Depending on the context used, it generally refers to the entirety of the State (polity), state (or in federal realms, the relevant level of government in that state), the executive ...

and their salaries (£50 a year each) were paid by the Crown by a grant to the

Lord Almoner The Royal Almonry is a small office within the Royal Households of the United Kingdom, headed by the Lord High Almoner, an office dating from 1103. The almoner is responsible for distributing alms to the poor. The Lord High Almoner is usually a ...

. The Crown ceased to appoint the professors in 1903. Both universities had existing chairs in Arabic, the Laudian Professorship at Oxford and Sir Thomas Adams's Professorship at Cambridge.

Oxford

At Oxford the chair, although endowed for the teaching of Arabic, was sometimes used for teaching Hebrew, and sometimes held by the same person as the Laudian Professor. The chair was discontinued on the retirement of the incumbent in 1909.

Cambridge

At Cambridge the chair was initially founded as a readership. Before it was upgraded to a professorship before or in 1815 it was usually combined with the

Sir Thomas Adams's Professor of Arabic Sir Thomas Adams's Professor of Arabic is a title used at Cambridge University for the holder of a professorship of Arabic; Sir Thomas Adams, 1st Baronet (1586–1668), Lord Mayor of London in 1645, gave to Cambridge University the money needed to ...

chair and held by the same person. The chair, "which for two centuries" had "a distinguished record, but carried only a nominal stipend", was discontinued on the death of the incumbent, Professor Anthony Ashley Bevan, in 1933.''

The Manchester Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', 12 December 1933, p. 9.

Lord Almoner's Readers

* David Wilkins (1724) * Leonard Chappelow (1729) *

Samuel Hallifax Samuel Hallifax or Halifax (1733–1790) was an English churchman and academic, holder of several chairs at Cambridge and was successively Bishop of Gloucester (1781–1789) and Bishop of St Asaph (1789–1790). Life He was born at Mansfield o ...

(1768) * William Craven (1770)

Lord Almoner's Professors

George Cecil Renouard George Cecil Renouard (7 September 1780 – 15 February 1867) was an English classical and oriental scholar. Biography Renouard, born at Stamford, Lincolnshire, on 7 September 1780, was the youngest son of Peter Renouard of Stamford (d. 1801) ...

(1815–1821) * Thomas Musgrave (1821) * Thomas Robinson (1837–1854) * Theodore Preston (1855) *

Edward Henry Palmer Edward Henry Palmer (7 August 184010 August 1882), known as E. H. Palmer, was an England, English oriental studies, orientalist and explorer. Biography Youth and education Palmer was born in Green Street, Cambridge, the son of a private scho ...

(1871–1882) *

William Robertson Smith William Robertson Smith (8 November 184631 March 1894) was a Scottish orientalist, Old Testament scholar, professor of divinity, and minister of the Free Church of Scotland. He was an editor of the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' and contributor ...

(1883) * Ion Grant Neville Keith-Falconer (1886) * Robert Lubbock Bensly (1887) * Anthony Ashley Bevan (1893) - contributor to the ''

Encyclopaedia Biblica ''Encyclopaedia Biblica: A Critical Dictionary of the Literary, Political and Religion History, the Archeology, Geography and Natural History of the Bible'' (1899), edited by Thomas Kelly Cheyne and J. Sutherland Black, is a critical encycloped ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Professor of Arabic, Almoner's, Lord Arabic, Almoner's, Lord School of Arts and Humanities, University of Cambridge Arabic, Almoner's, Lord 1724 establishments in England 1933 disestablishments in England Arabic, Almoner's, Lord Arabists