Voice of Arabic Network
Search

Simon Ockley

سيمون أوكلي

Notable figure 1678–1720 · Source: Najib al-Aqiqi, al-Mustashriqun, 3rd ed. (Cairo: Dar al-Maʿarif, 1964), vol. 2, p. 469; Yahya Murad, Muʿjam asmaʾ al-mustashriqin, p. 173 · Second source: Bibliothèque nationale de France, authority record: Ockley, Simon (1678-1720)

Field: Teaching Arabic

Affiliation

Cambridge professor of Arabic; translated Hayy ibn Yaqzan

Biography

Born in Exeter, he studied Arabic at Cambridge, spent long periods with the Arabic manuscripts of the Bodleian Library in Oxford, and in 1711 became Sir Thomas Adams's Professor of Arabic at Cambridge. He wrote a Latin introduction to the Oriental languages (1706), translated Ibn Tufayl's Hayy ibn Yaqzan into English from the Arabic (1708), and translated a selection of the sayings of ʿAli.