Leopold Immanuel Jacob van Dort
Leopold Immanuel Jacob van Dort | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1712 |
| Died | 1761 (aged 48–49) |
| Alma mater | University of Leipzig |
| Occupation | Professor of Hebrew Language |
| Known for | Hebrew Quran of the Library of Congress, rabbinical Hebrew New Testament from Cochin |
Leopold Immanuel Jacob van Dort (1712–1761)[1] was a Dutch Hebrew professor, responsible for translating an Indian version of the Hebrew New Testament and a Hebrew Quran.
Leopold Immanuel Jacob van Dort was born Jewish in 1712 in The Hague, Netherlands.[1][2] He converted to Catholicism in December 1745 in Aachen.[1] He studied briefly philosophy at the University of Leipzig with professor Johann Friedrich May in 1753.[1] In 1754[1] he was enlisted by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) to work as a professor of Hebrew Language at the Seminary of Colombo, Ceylon.[1][3] In 1756 he traveled to Cochin,[1] India, where he was commissioned by Ezekiel Rahabi to finish the translation of the Hebrew New Testament (1741-1756),[4] which Claudius Buchanan took with him to England and currently resides in the Cambridge University Library. Ezekiel Rahabi also commissioned van Dort as the translator of the Hebrew Quran (1757-1761),[4][5] which resides in the Library of Congress in Washington.[6] He also arranged the printing of the prayer books of the Jews of Cochin, India, in Amsterdam in 1757, through the office of Tobias Boas, whom he knew from his childhood.[1][7] Van Dort is further known for his 1757 translations of the excerpts of the chronicles of the Jews of Cochin.[3][8]
Van Dort died in 1761, at the age of 48.[1]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i van Dort, Mascha (June 2025). Leopold Immanuel Jacob van Dort, a Jewish-Christian Professor of the Dutch East India Company. Mascha van Dort. ISBN 979-8884084872.
- ^ Campbell, Fiona Kumari (2007). "A Historical Appraisal of Jewish Presence in Sri Lanka". Griffith Law and the School of Human Services, Griffith University.
- ^ a b Fischel, Walter J. (July–September 1967). "Journal of the American Oriental Society". The Exploration of the Jewish Antiquities of Cochin on the Malabar Coast. 87 (3). American Oriental Society: 230–248. doi:10.2307/597717. JSTOR 597717.
- ^ a b van Dort, Mascha; Bar-Ilan, Meir (2021). "Commissioner, purpose, translators, copyist and age of the Hebrew New Testament of Cochin and the Quran of the Library of Congress".
- ^ Weinstein, Myron M. (1972). "Studies in Bibliography and Booklore". A Hebrew Quran Manuscript. 10 (1/2). Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion: 19–52. JSTOR 27943437.
- ^ "LC Hebr. Ms 183" (PDF). Library of Congress.
- ^ van Dort, Mascha (December 2024). "Studia Rosenthaliana". Leopold Immanuel Jacob van Dort’s Scholarly Visit to Cochin. 50 (2). Amsterdam University Press: 120–138. doi:10.5117/SR2024.2.002.DORT.
- ^ Eichorn, J. E. (1788). Allegemeine Biblothek der Biblischen Literatur. Vol. 1. Leipzig. p. 929.