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 (nl), 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.