:Laudian Professor of Arabic

! width=10%|Name

! width=7%|Professor

! width=10%|EducationAt the University of Oxford, unless otherwise indicated

! width=10%|College as Professor

! class="unsortable"|Notes

|{{sortname|Edward|Pococke}}

|align="center"|1636–91

|{{hs|Oxford, Magdalen Hall}}Magdalen Hall and Corpus Christi College

|Corpus Christi College

|Pococke started studying Arabic with William Bedwell in 1625, and became chaplain to the Levant Company in Aleppo (in modern-day Syria) in 1630 to improve his knowledge further. He returned in 1636 at the request of William Laud, who had decided to make Pococke the first appointment to the chair. Thomas Greaves was Pococke's deputy between 1637 and 1641 when Pococke travelled to Constantinople for research and to collect manuscripts. Pococke was appointed Regius Professor of Hebrew in 1648, but his refusal to promise loyalty to the Commonwealth of England led to the parliamentary committee supervising the university to order his removal from both professorships. However, the committee was persuaded to stay the order until a replacement could be found, and it was never implemented. Pococke has been described as "the finest European Arabist of his time ... and among the greatest of all time."{{cite web|first=G. J.|last=Toomer|author-link=G. J. Toomer|title=Pococke, Edward (1604–1691)|work=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|publisher=Oxford University Press|date=May 2009|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/2430|access-date=6 January 2010|archive-date=2 February 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150202155411/http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/2430|url-status=live}} {{ODNBsub}}

|{{sortname|Thomas|Hyde}}

|align="center"|1691–1703

|{{hs|Cambridge}}University of Cambridge (King's College) and The Queen's College, Oxford

|Christ Church{{#tag:ref|Hyde was member of Queen's before his time as Laudian Professor, but was never appointed to a fellowship of the college. His appointment as Regius Professor of Hebrew carried with it a canonry at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford.{{alox1|title=Hyde, Thomas (8)}}|group="n"}}

|Hyde was Bodley's Librarian from 1665 to 1701 (when he resigned because of "the toil and drudgery of daily attendance in all times and weathers"){{cite book|url=https://archive.org/stream/annals00macruoft#page/122/mode/2up/search/drudgery|title=Annals of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, A.D. 1598 – A.D. 1867 : with a preliminary notice of the earlier library founded in the fourteenth century|last=Macray|first=William Dunn|author-link=William Dunn Macray|year=1868|publisher=Rivingtons|page=122|access-date=3 February 2010}} and was also Regius Professor of Hebrew from 1697. His interest in oriental languages came from his father, a rector in Shropshire. He is described in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography as "a mediocre orientalist", who carried out little teaching despite having significant linguistic skills. He had a strong intellectual interest in oriental languages and peoples, although his inability to finish work meant that he published little. Although he carried out his work at Oxford in a "lethargic manner", a Dutch scholar described him as "stupor mundi" ("the wonder of the world") when told of his death.{{cite web|first=P. J.|last=Marshall|title=Hyde, Thomas (1636–1703)|work=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2004|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/14336|access-date=6 January 2010|archive-date=25 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200525200624/https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-14336;jsessionid=43828C862BB2283F0366474EFF8805F1|url-status=live}}

|{{sortname|John|Wallis|John Wallis (professor)}}

|align="center"|1703–38

|{{hs|Oxford, Wadham}}Wadham College and Magdalen College

|Magdalen College

|Wallis was an absentee professor, holding parish posts at various times in Essex, Hampshire and Wiltshire. John Gagnier, who became Lord Almoner's Professor of Arabic in 1724, was appointed as deputy to Wallis in 1718.{{alox1|title=Wallis, John (4)}}{{cite web|first=Michael J. |last=Franklin|title=Gagnier, John (c.1670–1740)|work=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2004 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/10278|access-date=6 January 2010}} One history of the university says of Wallis that "not only did [he] give no lectures for most of his long tenure, but he did nothing to advance knowledge either."{{cite book|title=The history of the University of Oxford: Seventeenth-century Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press|editor1-last=Tyacke|editor1-first=Nicholas|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J06RQ3tXuuQC&pg=PA494|access-date=21 January 2010|page=497|year=1997|isbn=978-0-19-951014-6|last=Feingold|first=Mordechai}}

|{{sortname|Thomas|Hunt|Thomas Hunt (professor)}}

|align="center"|1738–74

|{{hs|Oxford, Christ Church}}Christ Church

|Hart Hall

|Hunt was also Lord Almoner's Professor of Arabic from 1740 to 1747 and Regius Professor of Hebrew in 1747 until his death in 1774. He published extensively on Arabic and Hebrew matters, and was a well-regarded scholar who encouraged others.{{cite web|first=Colin |last=Wakefield|title=Hunt, Thomas (1696–1774)|work=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|publisher=Oxford University Press|date= January 2008 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/14207|access-date=6 January 2010}}

|{{sortname|Joseph|White|Joseph White (professor)}}

|align="center"|1774–1814

|{{hs|Oxford, Wadham}}Wadham College

|Wadham College

|White was prompted by his benefactor, John Moore (later Archbishop of Canterbury), to study Syriac, Arabic and Persian, leading to his unanimous election to the chair in 1774. His Bampton Lecture in 1784, a comparison of Christianity and Islam, was widely praised. He resigned his fellowship at Wadham in 1787 after being appointed rector of Melton, Suffolk, but retained his professorship, also becoming Regius Professor of Hebrew in 1804. His scholarship has led to him being described as one of "the major Hebraists of the century".{{cite web|first=D. S. |last=Margoliouth|author-link=David Samuel Margoliouth|title=White, Joseph (bap. 1746, d. 1814)|author2=Mercer, M. J. |work=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2004 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/29259|access-date=6 January 2010}}

|{{sortname|Thomas|Winstanley}}

|align="center"|1814–23

|{{hs|Oxford, Brasenose}}Brasenose College

|St Alban Hall

|Winstanley succeeded Thomas Warton as Camden Professor of Ancient History in 1790 and was elected principal of St Alban Hall in 1797. He held the Laudian chair in addition to the Camden chair. His version of Theodore Goulston's 1623 edition of Aristotelous peri poiētikēs: Aristotelis de poetica liber (1780), with a Latin version of the text and accompanying notes, was used at Oxford until sometime in the 19th century.{{cite web|first=E. I. |last=Carlyle|title=Winstanley, Thomas (1749–1823)|author2=Carter, Philip |work=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|publisher=Oxford University Press|date=January 2008|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/29759|access-date=6 January 2010}}

|{{sortname|Wyndham|Knatchbull|Wyndham Knatchbull (professor)}}

|align="center"|1823–40

|{{hs|Oxford, Christ Church}}Christ Church

|All Souls College{{#tag:ref|Knatchbull's fellowship at All Souls ended in 1840, and he is not recorded as being a member of a college after that date.|group="n"}}

|Knatchbull, a son of Sir Edward Knatchbull, 8th Baronet, was a clergyman of various Kent parishes from 1811 until his death in 1868.{{alox2|title=Knatchbull, Wyndham (2)}} He was considered to be a possible successor to Alexander Nicoll, Regius Professor of Hebrew, who died in 1828; Edward Bouverie Pusey was appointed instead.{{cite book|title=Life of Edward Bouverie Pusey (Volume 1)|year=1894|last=Liddon|first=Henry Parry|author-link=Henry Liddon|url=https://archive.org/details/lifeofedwardbouv01lidduoft|access-date=6 January 2010|pages=[https://archive.org/details/lifeofedwardbouv01lidduoft/page/181 181]–186|publisher=Longman}}

|{{sortname|Stephen|Reay}}

|align="center"|1840–61

|{{hs|Oxford, St Alban Hall}}St Alban Hall

|align="center"|{{hs|ZZZ}}—{{#tag:ref|Reay had an office in the Bodleian Library and is not recorded as holding a college appointment.{{alox2|title=Reay, Stephen}}|group="n"}}

|Reay, a Scottish clergyman, published little: the only work that he is known to have authored was a pamphlet, "Observations on the defence of the Church Missionary Society against the objections of the Archdeacon of Bath" (1818), although he also edited a couple of Hebrew texts. Reay was appointed Under-Librarian at the Bodleian Library in 1828 by Bulkeley Bandinel, Bodley's Librarian. Reay held this post and his professorship until his death.{{cite web|first=D. S.|last=Margoliouth|title=Reay, Stephen (1782–1861)|author2=Baigent, Elizabeth|work=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2004|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/23239|access-date=6 January 2010|archive-date=5 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305174434/http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/23239|url-status=live}}

|{{sortname|Robert|Gandell}}

|align="center"|1861–87

|{{hs|Oxford, St Johns}}St John's College and The Queen's College

|Magdalen Hall / Hertford College and Corpus Christi College{{#tag:ref|Gandell was a tutor at Magdalen Hall (1848–72) and a fellow (1874–87) of its successor institution, Hertford College. He was also chaplain of Corpus Christi College (1852–77).{{alox2|title=Gandell, Robert}}|group="n"}}

|Gandell was also a prebendary of Wells Cathedral from 1874, and a canon of the cathedral from 1880. His publications included a four-volume edition of John Lightfoot's Horae Hebraicae (1859), and commentaries on some books of the Old Testament.{{cite web|first=D. S.|last=Margoliouth|title=Gandell, Robert (1818–1887)|author2=Baigent, Elizabeth|work=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2004|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/10330|access-date=6 January 2010|archive-date=5 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305050211/http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/10330|url-status=live}}

|{{sortname|David|Margoliouth|David Samuel Margoliouth}}

|align="center"|1889–1937

|{{hs|Oxford, New}}New College

|New College

|Margoliouth had a superlative academic career as a student, winning many prizes and scholarships, including awards in Hebrew, Syriac and Sanskrit. When he applied for the chair, his referees gave no indication that he knew any Arabic, but within five years of his appointment he published two important works on Arabic. Lacking regular assistance from a tutor to instruct students in elementary Arabic, Margoliouth had a heavy workload, but effectively left students to acquire the rudiments of the language themselves. He also taught Syriac and Ethiopic when needed.{{cite web|first=A. F. L. |last=Beeston|author-link=A. F. L. Beeston|title=Margoliouth, David Samuel (1858–1940)|work=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|publisher=Oxford University Press|date=October 2006 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/34874|access-date=6 January 2010}}

|{{sortname|Sir Hamilton|Gibb}}

|align="center"|1937–55

|{{hs|Edinburgh}}University of Edinburgh and the School of Oriental Studies, London

|St John's College

|Gibb was previously a professor at the School of Oriental Studies, and was highly regarded as a teacher and scholar with a wide range of knowledge. Arabic expanded as an academic subject at Oxford after the Second World War, as students returned from the war with experience of the Middle East, with international students attracted by Gibb's reputation. He left in 1955 to become James Richard Jewett Professor of Arabic at Harvard University and director of Harvard's Center for Middle Eastern Studies.{{cite web|first=Albert|last=Hourani|author-link=Albert Hourani|title=Gibb, Sir Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen (1895–1971)|work=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|publisher=Oxford University Press|year= 2004 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/31143|access-date=6 January 2010}}

|{{sortname|Alfred|Beeston|Alfred Felix Landon Beeston}}

|align="center"|1955–78

|{{hs|Oxford, Christ Church}}Christ Church

|St John's College

|Beeston developed an interest in languages at school, teaching himself Arabic. After initially studying classics at Oxford, he switched to Arabic and Persian, under Margoliouth. He finished his doctorate while working in the oriental books department of the Bodleian Library, becoming Keeper of the department and sub-librarian in 1946 after his return from war service in Palestine. As professor, he expanded the Arabic syllabus (which previously stopped in 1400) to ensure that students studied all periods from pre-Islamic verse to the 20th century. He has been described as "one of the foremost Arabists of the twentieth century".{{cite web|first=M. C. A. |last=Macdonald|title=Beeston, Alfred Felix Landon (1911–1995)|work=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2004 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/60459|access-date=6 January 2010}}

|{{sortname|Wilferd|Madelung}}

|align="center"|1978–98

|{{hs|Georgetown}}Georgetown University, University of Cairo, and University of Hamburg

|St John's College

|Madelung was a cultural attaché at the West German embassy in Baghdad between 1958 and 1960. He was a professor at the University of Chicago before moving to Oxford, holding a Guggenheim Fellowship from 1972 to 1973. Since retiring from Oxford, he has been a senior research fellow at the Institute of Ismaili Studies and a fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.{{cite web|title=Madelung, Prof. Wilferd Willy Ferdinand|work=Who's Who 2010|publisher=Oxford University Press|date=November 2009 |url=http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whoswho/U26276|access-date=6 January 2010}}

|{{sortname|Geert Jan|van Gelder}}

|align="center"|1998–2012

|{{hs|Amsterdam}}University of Amsterdam and University of Leiden

|St John's College

|Van Gelder was a lecturer in Arabic at the University of Groningen from 1975 to 1998. He was appointed as a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1997 and a Fellow of the British Academy in 2005.{{cite web|title=Van Gelder, Prof. Gerard Jan Henk|work=Who's Who 2010|publisher=Oxford University Press|date=November 2009|url=http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whoswho/U40975|access-date=6 January 2010}} His interests cover a wide range of topics in classical Arabic prose and poetry.{{cite web|url=http://www.orinst.ox.ac.uk/staff/iw/gvangelder.html|title=Professor Geert Jan van Gelder|publisher=Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford|date=27 November 2009|access-date=21 January 2009|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100427142218/http://www.orinst.ox.ac.uk/staff/iw/gvangelder.html|archive-date=27 April 2010}}

|{{sortname|Julia|Bray}}

|align="center"|2012–2023

|{{hs|Oxford, St Hildas}}St Hilda's College and St Cross College

|St John's College

|Bray, who studied Arabic and Persian at Oxford, studies the relationship between Arabic literary and social history. Before taking up the Laudian professorship, she was professor of Medieval Arabic Literature at Paris 8 University.{{cite web|url=http://www.ox.ac.uk/gazette/2011-2012/31may2012-no4991/notices/#73040|date=31 May 2012|access-date=8 May 2013|title=Appointments: Humanities|work=Oxford University Gazette|publisher=University of Oxford|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121203005246/http://www.ox.ac.uk/gazette/2011-2012/31may2012-no4991/notices/#73040|archive-date=3 December 2012}}{{cite web|url=http://www.libraryofarabicliterature.org/editors/|title=Editors|publisher=Library of Arabic Literature|date=2013|access-date=8 May 2013|archive-date=18 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210418145618/https://www.libraryofarabicliterature.org/editors/|url-status=live}} Bray was the first woman to take up the position.

|2023 onwards

|{{hs|Oxford, St Hildas}}Ain Shams University and Harvard University

|St John's College

|Qutbuddin was a professor of Arabic at the University of Chicago until 2023. She is the first non-European, and first Muslim, to take up the position. She was a Guggenheim Fellow in 2020 and won the Sheikh Zayed Book Award in 2021. She is best known for her works on Arabic oratory and the usage of Arabic in India, especially in the Dawoodi Bohra tradition. She teaches classical Arabic literature from the seventh to nineteenth centuries.{{Cite web |title=Professor Tahera Qutbuddin |url=https://www.sjc.ox.ac.uk/discover/people/professor-tahera-qutbuddin/ |access-date=2024-02-12 |website=St John's College |language=en |archive-date=12 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240212174050/https://www.sjc.ox.ac.uk/discover/people/professor-tahera-qutbuddin/ |url-status=live }}