Faraj ben Salim
Encyclopedia
Faraj ben Sālim also known as Farragut of Girgenti, Moses Farachi of Dirgent, Ferrarius, or Franchinus, was a Sicilian
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

-Jewish physician
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...

 and translator
Translation
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. Whereas interpreting undoubtedly antedates writing, translation began only after the appearance of written literature; there exist partial translations of the Sumerian Epic of...

 who flourished in the second half of the thirteenth century. He was engaged by Charles I of Naples as translator of medical works from Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...

 into Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

. In this capacity he rendered a great service to medicine by making in 1279 a Latin translation of al-Razi
Al-Razi
Muhammad ibn Zakariyā Rāzī , known as Rhazes or Rasis after medieval Latinists, was a Persian polymath,a prominent figure in Islamic Golden Age, physician, alchemist and chemist, philosopher, and scholar....

's medical encyclopedia, Al-Hawi (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 Steinschneider 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, 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
Galen
Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus , better known as Galen of Pergamon , was a prominent Roman physician, surgeon and philosopher...

 and included in the printings of his works by the Giunta
Giunta
Giunta may refer to :*Blas Giunta , an Argentine former football player, currently working as a manager in Argentine's 2nd division with Club Almirante Brown*Francesco Giunta , an Italian Fascist politician...

s (Venice, 1565: x. 103-109) and René Chartier (Paris, 1679: x. 561-570); and Tacuini Ægritudinum (Tables of Disease, Arabic: Taqwim al-Abdan) by Ibn Jazla
Ibn Jazla
Abu ali Yahya ibn Isa Ibn Jazla Al Baghdadi or Ibn Jazlah , Latinized as Buhahylyha Bingezla, was an 11th-century physician of Baghdad and author of an influential treatise on regimen that was translated into Latin in 1280 AD by the Sicilian Jewish physician Faraj ben Salem.-Biography:Ibn Jazla...

, published at Strasburg
Strasbourg
Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...

 in 1532. Steinschneider believes that to Faraj should also be ascribed the Latin translation of Masarjawaih
Masarjawaih
Māsarjawaih was one of the earliest Arabic Jewish physicians, and the earliest translator from the Syriac; he lived in Basra about 683 . His name, distorted, has been transmitted in European sources; it has not yet been satisfactorily explained. Neuda Māsarjawaih was one of the earliest Arabic...

's treatise on surgery (MS. Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, No. 7131), said to have been made by a certain Ferrarius.

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