Editing Simon Ockley

{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2020}}
{{Use British English|date=July 2012}}
'''Simon Ockley''' (1678{{snd}}9 August 1720) was a [[Kingdom of Great Britain|British]] [[oriental studies|Orientalist]].

==Biography==
Ockley was born at [[Exeter, England|Exeter]]. He was educated at [[Queens' College, Cambridge]], and graduated B.A. in 1697, MA. in 1701, and B.D. in 1710.<ref>{{acad|id=OKLY693S|name=Ockley, Simon}}</ref> He became a 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.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=1|wstitle=Ockley, Simon |volume=19|page=990}}</ref>

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 ''[[Introductio ad linguas orientales]]'' (1706), he urges the importance of the study.<ref name="EB1911"/>

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 Library|Bodleian]] of [[Al-Waqidi]]'s ''Futúh al-Shám'', which is a historical romance rather than history.[http://www.bartleby.com/220/1202.html]
* A translation of [[Leon Modena]]'s ''History of the Present Jews throughout the World'' (1707).
*''[[Hayy ibn Yaqdhan|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. [https://archive.org/details/b30518702]
* ''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.<ref name="EB1911"/>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite DNB|wstitle=Ockley, Simon}}

==External links==
*{{OL author|2535661A}}
* {{Librivox author |id=17675}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ockley, Simon}}
[[Category:1678 births]]
[[Category:1720 deaths]]
[[Category:18th-century English historians]]
[[Category:18th-century English translators]]
[[Category:Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Fellows of Jesus College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Historians of the Middle East]]
[[Category:Translators from Arabic]]
[[Category:British Arabists]]
[[Category:Sir Thomas Adams's Professors of Arabic]]
[[Category:Writers from Exeter]]
[[Category:People from South Cambridgeshire District]]
[[Category:People imprisoned for debt]]