Rev Joseph Dacre Carlyle FRSE (4 June 1758 – 12 April 1804) was an English orientalist. He gained church preferment and travelled widely. Carlyle worked with Sarah Hodgson to create a version of the Old Testament printed in Arabic.
Life
editJoseph Dacre Carlyle was born in Carlisle, Cumberland, where his father George Carlyle served as a physician.[1] He was educated at Carlisle grammar school, then Kirkby Lonsdale School, before being accepted by Christ's College, Cambridge.[2] He moved shortly to Queens' College. He proceeded B.A. in 1779,[3] and was elected a fellow of Queens', took his M.A, degree in 1783, and B.D. in 1793. During his residence at Cambridge he studied with David Zamio (Europeanised name) from Baghdad. He was appointed Sir Thomas Adams's Professor of Arabic when William Craven resigned in 1796.[4]
Meanwhile he had obtained some church preferment at Carlisle, becoming chancellor of the diocese in 1793. In 1792 he published Rerum Ægyptiacarum Annales, translated from the Arabic of Ibn Taghribirdi, and in 1796 Specimens of Arabian Poetry, translations with some details of the authors selected.[4]
In 1799, Carlyle was appointed chaplain to Lord Elgin's mission to Constantinople, with the special scholarly duties of learned referee. He made a tour through Asia Minor, Palestine, Greece, and Italy, collecting Greek and Syriac manuscripts for a proposed new version of the New Testament.[4]
Returning to England in September 1801, Carlyle was presented the living of Newcastle-on-Tyne.[5] Carlisle worked with Sarah Hodgson to create a printed version of the Old Testament in Arabic.[6] Carlyle's health was poor, and he died after an illness on 13 April 1804.[5]
Works
editCarlyle's Poems suggested chiefly by Scenes in Asia Minor, Syria and Greece, together with some translations from the Arabic, were published after his death, 1805, with extracts from his journal and a preface after them. Meanwhile he had almost completed an account of his tour through the Troad, which was never published. His complete Arabic Bible, revised from Walton's text, was published by Sarah Hodgson at Newcastle, edited by Henry Ford, professor of Arabic at Oxford, in 1811.[4][6]
Some manuscripts from Carlyle's collection
editReferences
edit- ^ John Sykes (1833). Local Records or Historical Register of Remarkable Events. Printed for and sold by J.Sykes. p. 20.
- ^ Biographical index royalsoced.org.uk Archived 24 January 2013 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Carlyle, Joseph Dacre (CRLL775JD)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- ^ a b c d Lane-Poole 1887.
- ^ a b Chisholm 1911.
- ^ a b Isaac, Peter (23 September 2004). "Hodgson, Solomon (bap. 1760, d. 1800), printer and newspaper proprietor". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 1 (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/63760. ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- Attribution
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lane-Poole, Stanley (1887). "Carlyle, Joseph Dacre". In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 9. London: Smith, Elder & Co.- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 5 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
