Faraj ben Sālim (Moses Ferrauto) (, ), also known as Ferrauto of Girgenti, Moses Farachi of Dirgent, Ferragius, Farragus, or Franchinus, was a Sicilian-Jewish physician and translator who flourished in the second half of the thirteenth century.

Work

He was engaged by

Charles I of Anjou Charles I (early 1226/12277 January 1285), commonly called Charles of Anjou or Charles d'Anjou, was King of Sicily from 1266 to 1285. He was a member of the royal Capetian dynasty and the founder of the House of Anjou-Sicily. Between 1246 a ...

as translator of medical works from Arabic into

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

. In this capacity he rendered a great service to medicine by making in 1279 a Latin translation of

Abu Bakr al-Razi Abū Bakr al-Rāzī, also known as Rhazes (full name: ), , was a Persian physician, philosopher and alchemist who lived during the Islamic Golden Age. He is widely regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of medicine, and al ...

's medical encyclopedia, ''

Al-Hawi ''Kitab al-Hawi'' or ''Al-Hawi'' or ''Kitāb al-Ḥāwī fī al-ṭibb'' translated as ''The Comprehensive Book on Medicine'' is an extensive medical encyclopedia authored by the Persian polymath Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi (865–92 ...

'' (later printed in 1486, under the title ''Continens'', with a glossary by the translator). The translation is followed, between the same covers, by ''De expositionibus vocabulorum seu synonimorum simplicis medicinæ'', which

Moritz Steinschneider Moritz Steinschneider (; 30 March 1816 – 24 January 1907) was a Moravian bibliographer and Orientalist, and an important figure in Jewish studies and Jewish history. He is credited as having invented the term ''antisemitism.'' Education Mo ...

supposes to form a part of the ''Continens''. As a token of his esteem for the translator, Charles of Anjou ordered that on the original copy of the manuscript of the ''Continens'' (MS. ''

Bibliothèque nationale de France The (; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites, ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including bo ...

'', Paris, No. 6912) the portrait of Faraj should be drawn beside his own by friar Giovanni of Monte Cassino, the greatest illuminator of his time. Faraj also translated '' De medicinis expertis'', attributed to

Galen Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus (; September 129 – AD), often Anglicization, anglicized as Galen () or Galen of Pergamon, was a Ancient Rome, Roman and Greeks, Greek physician, surgeon, and Philosophy, philosopher. Considered to be one o ...

and included in the printings of his works by the Giuntas (Venice, 1565: x. 103–109) and René Chartier (Paris, 1679: x. 561–570); and ''

Tacuini Ægritudinum The Tacuini are a tribe of cicadas, originally erected by William Lucas Distant in 1904. Most genera were placed previously in the tribe Cryptotympanini, with proposed synonomisation by Marshall et al. (2018); it was later confirmed that Tacuini ...

'' (''Tables of Disease'', Arabic: ''Taqwim al-Abdan'') by

ibn Jazla Abu Ali Yahya ibn Isa ibn Jazla al-Baghdadi or Ibn Jazlah (), Latinized as Buhahylyha Bingezla, was an 11th-century Arab physician of Baghdad and author of an influential treatise on regimen that was translated into Latin in 1280 AD by the Sicili ...

, published at

Strasbourg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...

in 1532. Steinschneider believes that to Faraj should also be ascribed the Latin translation of Masarjawaih's treatise on surgery (MS. ''Bibliothèque Nationale'', Paris, No. 7131), said to have been made by a certain Ferrarius.

Translations

The first ''folio of'' the work translated by Faraj ben Sālim, ''Havi seu contenants'' (known as ''Continens)'' by Zakariya Razi, now preserved at the

in Paris. To the translation in 1279 of Avicenna's "

Medical encyclopedia A medical encyclopaedia is a comprehensive written compendium that holds information about diseases, medical conditions, tests, symptoms, injuries, and surgeries. It may contain an extensive gallery of medicine-related photographs and illustration ...

" (Arabic for "al-Hawi fī l-ṭibb"), in 25 volumes, which include medical methodologies of Greece, Syria and Arabia. * ''De Ex-positionibus Vocabulorum seu Synonimorum Simplicis Medicinae'', which Steinschneider supposes to form a part of ''continens''. * Faraj b. Sālim also translated the ''De medicinis Expertis,''attributed to Galen and included in his works. * Another work was ''the Tacuini Aegritudinum'', (Arabic: ''Taqwīm al-abdān)''by Ali ibn Jazla, published in Strasbourg in 1532. * Translated into Sicilian by Faraj was the ''Tacuinis sanitatis'' ''(Tables of Diseases,''Arabic ''Taqwīm al-ṣiḥḥa)'' whose author was Ibn Buṭlān, a work illustrated with representations of plants in their

natural environment The natural environment or natural world encompasses all life, biotic and abiotic component, abiotic things occurring nature, naturally, meaning in this case not artificiality, artificial. The term is most often applied to Earth or some parts ...

, plants of scientific and non-scientific interest within an agricultural calendar. * Steinschneider believes that Faraj should be credited with the Latin translation of ''Masawayh's''Treatise on, stating that it was prepared by a ''certain Ferrarius of Girgenti.'' * ''Perì agmon,'' treatise on Hippocrates, also known in Arabic ''as Kitab al-jabr (i.e.'' ''On the Cutting of Bones).'' * ''Edemus of Rodhes, Theophrates, Presocratics and'' other authors, described by Rushed in 1997 in the lost commentary attributed to Alexander the Great, found as ''simple quotations.''

Notes

External links

Jewish Encyclopedia
13th-century Italian physicians Arabic–Latin translators Medieval Jewish physicians Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown 13th-century Italian Jews 13th-century translators 13th-century Sicilian people {{Judaism-bio-stub