The Nature of the Drink Kauhi, or Coffe, and the Berry of which it is made, Described by an Arabian Phisitian [Antaki, Dawud ibn ‘Umar], trans. by Edward Pococke (Oxford, Henry Hall, 1659), 8pp. BL: E.1867[2]. ESTCR5691.

A brief account of the physiological properties of coffee translated from an Arabic manuscript by Edward Pococke, from a text by Dâ’ûd ibn ‘Umar al-Antâkî (d. 1599), also known as David Antiochenus. Pococke (1604–91) was a scholar of oriental languages and learning: he was ‘skilled in the Hebrew, Arabick and Syriack Tongues’ and was ‘well acquainted with the Persick, Samaritan, Aethiopick, Coptick, and Turkish; besides which he understood Italian, and something of Spanish. In Greek and Latin his friends say he was critically conversant’ (Leonard Twells, ‘Life of Pococke’, in Edward Pococke, The Theological Works, 2 vols (London, for the editor, 1740), vol. I, p. 81). Encouraged by Laud and Vossius, Pococke paid two visits to the Ottoman Empire. His first was to Aleppo between 1630 and 1636, where he was Chaplain to the Levant Company Factory. Archbishop Laud instructed him that ‘I hope you will, before your return, make yourself able to teach the Arabic language’ (Twells, ‘Life of Pococke’, p. 7). He also studied Hebrew, Syriac and Ethiopic, and collected numerous manuscripts. When he returned, Pococke was appointed professor of Arabic at the University of Oxford, the first of its kind in Britain. In his second visit (December 1637–August 1640) he lived in the residence of the English ambassador at Galata in Constantinople, first Sir Peter Wyche and later Sir Sackville Crow. There he made efforts to establish a network of learned men amongst Turkish and Jewish acquaintances, and collected further manuscripts and coins, both for himself and the Bodleian. Pococke also acquired a taste for coffee drinking whilst in the Levant, continuing the habit in Oxford on his return, and for the rest of his life. See ODNB and Emine Gürsoy-Naskali, ‘Pococke’s Turkish Exercise’, Bodleian Library Record, 13:2 (1989), pp. 156–60.