Abstract
Chapter 2 details the career of the chaplain Edward Pococke during the six years he spent in Aleppo in the 1630s. It asks how Pococke built a library of Arabic, Hebrew, and Syriac manuscripts in the face of fierce competition from rival European collectors. The chapter explores Pococke’s personal links with local scholars and booksellers: the Sufi Aḥmad al-Gulshanī, the Christian scribe Thalja Karma, and unnamed Aleppine Jews. It illustrates throughout how these friendships and transactions were intertwined with the English commercial presence in the city. The final part of the chapter assesses the value of Pococke’s collection, pointing both to his achievements in assembling a library of books which he would put to use during a lifetime devoted to scholarship, and to the tasks he had left undone.
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