After completing his early education in
Leiden, he entered the
university of that city, and in 1608 took the degree of master of arts. On the advice of
Scaliger he studied
Oriental languages whilst taking his course of
theology. He afterwards travelled in
England,
France,
Italy and
Germany, forming connections with learned men, and availing himself of the information which they communicated. During his stay at Paris he contracted a friendship with
Casaubon, which lasted during his life, and also took lessons in
Arabic from an
Egyptian,
Joseph Barbatus, otherwise called Abu-dakni. However, given the limited knowledge Barbatus had in Arabic he later took lessons under the Moroccan diplomat of
Andalusian origin
Aḥmad ibn Qāsim Al-Ḥajarī who was in France on a mission. At
Venice he perfected his knowledge of the
Turkish,
Persic and
Ethiopic languages. After a long absence, Erpenius returned to his own country in 1612, and in February 1613 he was appointed professor of Arabic and other Oriental languages, Hebrew excepted, in the University of Leiden. Soon after his settlement at Leiden, animated by the example of
Savary de Brèves, who had established an Arabic press at Paris at his own charge, he caused new Arabic characters to be cut at a great expense, and erected a press in his own house. In 1619 the curators of the university of Leiden instituted a second chair of
Hebrew in his favour. In 1620 he was sent by the
States of Holland to induce
Pierre Dumoulin, or
André Rivet, to settle in that country; and after a second journey he was successful in inducing Rivet to comply with their request. Some time after the return of Erpenius, the states appointed him their interpreter; and in this capacity he had the duty imposed upon him of translating and replying to the different letters of the Moslem princes of Asia and Africa. His reputation had now spread throughout all Europe, and several princes, the kings of England and Spain, and the
archbishop of Seville made him the most flattering offers; but he constantly refused to leave his native country. He was preparing an edition of the
Qur'an with a
Latin translation and notes, and was projecting an Oriental library, when he died prematurely on the 13 November 1624 in Leiden. His library of oriental books, papers and manuscripts, including six undated
Malay manuscripts, was purchased by
George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham on behalf of
Cambridge University and eventually transferred to
Cambridge University Library in 1632 by the University Librarian
Abraham Wheelocke. Among his works may be mentioned his
Grammatica Arabica (1748), published originally in 1613 and often reprinted;
Rudimenta linguae Arabicae (1620);
Grammatica Ebraea generalis (1621);
Grammatica Chaldaea ac Syra (1628); and an edition of
George Elmacin's
Historia Saracenica, Arabice & Latine (History of the Saracens). ==References==