Poverty and debt imprisoned and killed an early English Arabist

Evidence

The second volume of the History of the Saracens was completed in prison in Cambridge Castle, as he was arrested for debt in 1717. At least his jail turned out to be a more peaceful place to do research in than his miserable vicarage. He died in prison, leaving a wife and six children in extreme poverty. — Robert Irwin, For Lust of Knowing, 211

Categorization

• SEED: The story of a scholar who found prison more peaceful for research than his own vicarage is a vivid human angle for an essay on the material conditions of early Oriental scholarship.