William Wright (orientalist)

William Wright (17 January 1830 – 22 May 1889) was a famous English Orientalist, and Professor of Arabic in the University of Cambridge.

In 1870 he was appointed Sir Thomas Adams's Professor of Arabic at Cambridge University, and he held the chair there until his death in 1889.

Wright's catalogue included excerpts from unpublished texts, and is still a valuable reference even today.

His Short history of Syriac literature was written originally as an encyclopedia article, and so has no proper sub-divisions.

The material in it comes from various sources, but much of it from the Chronicum Ecclesiasticum of Bar Hebraeus, of which no English translation exists.