Biography

OCKLEY, SIMON (1678-1720). —Orientalist, b. at Exeter, and ed. at Camb., became the greatest Orientalist of his day, and was made in 1711 Prof. of Arabic in his Univ. His chief work is the Conquest of Syria, Persia, and Egypt by the Saracens (3 vols., 1708-57), which was largely used by Gibbon. The original documents upon which it is founded are now regarded as of doubtful authority. O. was a clergyman of the Church of England.