Simon Ockley

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Simon Ockley (1678 – 9 August 1720) was a British Orientalist.

Biography[]

Ockley was born at Exeter. He was educated at Queens' College, Cambridge, and graduated B.A. in 1697, MA. in 1701, and B.D. in 1710.[1] He became fellow of Jesus College and vicar of Swavesey, and in 1711 was chosen Adams Professor of Arabic in the university. He had a large family, and his latter days were embittered by pecuniary embarrassments, which form the subject of a chapter in Isaac D'Israeli's Calamities of Authors. The preface to the second volume of his History of the Saracens is dated from Cambridge Castle, where he lay a prisoner for debt.[2]

Ockley maintained that a knowledge of Oriental literature was essential to the proper study of theology, and in the preface to his first book, the (1706), he urges the importance of the study.[2]

He died at Swavesey.

Works[]

  • The History of the Saracens, is his main work. It was published in two volumes, 1708–1718, and long enjoyed a great reputation; unfortunately Ockley took as his main authority a manuscript in the Bodleian of Al-Waqidi's Futúh al-Shám, which is rather historical romance than history.[1]
  • A translation of Leon Modena's History of the Present Jews throughout the World (1707).
  • The Improvement of Human Reason, exhibited in the Life of Hai Ebn Yokdhan (1708), an English translation of Hayy ibn Yaqdhan, a 12th-century philosophical novel by Ibn Tufayl.
  • Translated from Arabic the Second Book of Esdras
  • An Aᴄᴄᴏᴜɴᴛ of Sᴏᴜᴛʜ-Wᴇsᴛ Bᴀʀʙᴀʀʏ: ᴄᴏɴᴛᴀɪɴɪɴɢ What is most Remarkable in the Territories of the Kɪɴɢ of Fᴇᴢ and Mᴏʀᴏᴄᴄᴏ. Written by a Person who had been a Slave there a considerable Time; and Published from his Authentick Manuscript. To which are Added, Two ʟᴇᴛᴛᴇʀs: One from the Present King of Mᴏʀᴏᴄᴄᴏ to Colonel Kirk; The Other to Sir Cloudesly Shovell: With Sir Cloudesly's Answer, &c. London: Printed for J. Bowyer and H. Clements, 1713. [2]
  • Sentences of Ali son-in-law of Mahomet, and his fourth successor. Translated from an Arabic manuscript in the Bodleian library at Oxford. London, B. Lintot, 1717.[2]

References[]

  1. ^ "Ockley, Simon (OKLY693S)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Ockley, Simon". Encyclopædia Britannica. 19 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 990.

Further reading[]

External links[]

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