Editing Simon Ockley (section)

==Biography==
Ockley was born at [[Exeter, England|Exeter]]. He was educated at [[Queens' College, Cambridge]], and graduated B.A. in 1697, MA. in 1701, and B.D. in 1710.<ref>{{acad|id=OKLY693S|name=Ockley, Simon}}</ref> He became a fellow of Jesus College and vicar of [[Swavesey]], and in 1711, was chosen [[Adams Professor of Arabic]] in the university. He had a large family, and his latter days were embittered by pecuniary embarrassments, which form the subject of a chapter in [[Isaac D'Israeli]]'s ''Calamities of Authors''. The preface to the second volume of his ''[[History of the Saracens]]'' is dated from [[Cambridge Castle]], where he lay a prisoner for debt.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=1|wstitle=Ockley, Simon |volume=19|page=990}}</ref>

Ockley maintained that a knowledge of Oriental literature was essential to the proper study of theology, and in the preface to his first book, the ''[[Introductio ad linguas orientales]]'' (1706), he urges the importance of the study.<ref name="EB1911"/>

He died at Swavesey.