Family Name: Ockley
First Name: Simon
Birth Date: Thu, Feb 16, 1679
Birth Place: Topsham
Death Date: Thu, Aug 08, 1720
Death Place: Swavesey
Main places of activity:
Place From To
Cambridge 1709 1717
Personal info:
Education

He studied at Queen's College, Cambridge, where he took his B.A. in 1698.
Career

He spent his life as a professor at Cambridge and as vicar of Swavesey, in Cambridgeshire, where he was appointed curate in 1701, then vicar in 1705. He became lecturer in Hebrew at Cambridge in 1710 and in 1711 took up the Sir Thomas Adams chair of Arabic. He was helped by the patronage of Harley, whose chaplain he was, and who employed him to translate diplomatic correspondence from Arabic. After Harley's fall from power, Ockley no longer had a patron.
Financial Situation

Ockley's financial situation was always precarious and he depended on his living at Swavesey (worth £80 per year) and his salary at Cambridge. He was imprisoned for a debt of £200 in 1718 and released thanks to the money provided by his friends. When he died he was penniless.
Translations Other Works

translations activities

Ockley translated mainly works from Arabic, including some Arabic manuscripts from the collection at the Bodleian Library in Oxford. He appended the translation of two lettres from the  ruler of Morocco, Mawlay Isma'il, to his Account of South-West Barbary. He was also employed by the government in 1714 to translate correspondence from Mawlay Isma'il.

secondary bibliography references

A. Kararah, ‘Simon Ockley: his contribution to Arabic studies and influence on Western thought’, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Cambridge, 1955

P.M.Holt, 'Ockley, Simon', ODNB.

Translations

  • Historia de gli riti hebraici, dove si ha breve, e total relazione di tutta la vita, costumi, riti e osservanze, de gl' Hebrei di questi tempi

  • Translation Title: History of the Present Jews Throughout the World. Being a complete tho' Succinct Account of their Customs, Ceremonies, and Manner of Living, at this time
  • Original Author: Leon Modena
  • Original title: Historia de gli riti hebraici, dove si ha breve, e total relazione di tutta la vita, costumi, riti e osservanze, de gl' Hebrei di questi tempi
  • Publ. Year From: 1736 to:
  • lang: Italian
  • Title: Cérémonies et coustumes qui s'observent aujourd'hui parmi les Juijs. Traduites de l'italien de Leon de Modene, Rabin de Venise, Avec un Supplément touchant les Sectes des Caraïtes et des Samaritains de nostre tempss
  • Publisher: Louis Billaine
  • Pub. Place: Paris
  • Pub. Year: 1673
  • Lang: French
  • Note:

    Ockley indicates that he consulted this translation as well as the Italian original, and he included a translation of Richard Simon's Supplements and explanatory notes. This work went through several editions before 1707 and it is not known which one Ockley used.

  • Translation: History of the Present Jews Throughout the World. Being a complete tho' Succinct Account of their Customs, Ceremonies, and Manner of Living, at this time
  • Publisher: Edm. Powell
  • Pub. Place: London
  • Pub. Date: 1706
  • Lang: English

  • Ḥayy ibn Yaqẓān

  • Translation Title: The Improvement of Humane Reason, Exhibited in the Life of Hai Ebn Yokdhan
  • Original Author: Abu Ja'far Abu Bakr Ibn Al-Ṫufail
  • Original title: Ḥayy ibn Yaqẓān
  • lang: Arabic
  • Note:

    The work probably dates from the 12th Century. It had been translated into Latin by Edward Pococke the younger but Ockley went back to the original Arabic manuscript.
  • Translation: The Improvement of Humane Reason, Exhibited in the Life of Hai Ebn Yokdhan
  • Publisher: I. Morphew
  • Pub. Place: London
  • Pub. Date: 1707
  • Lang: English
  • Note:

    Ockley added an Appendix, "In which the Notion of the Possibility of Man's attaining the True Knowledge of God, and Things Necessary to Salvation, without Instruction, is briefly consider'd"

  • Nahj al-Balāghah

  • Translation Title: Sentences of Ali, son-in-law of Mahomet, and his fourth successor. Translated from an authentick Arabic manuscript
  • Original Author: ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib
  • Original title: Nahj al-Balāghah
  • lang: Arabic
  • Note:

    The work, collected by al-Sharif al-Radi, dates from the 10th Century. It is not known
  • Translation: Sentences of Ali, son-in-law of Mahomet, and his fourth successor. Translated from an authentick Arabic manuscript
  • Publisher: Bernard Lintot
  • Pub. Place: London
  • Pub. Date: 1716
  • Lang: English
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By:

  • Ann Thomson