Negri, Salomon

Negri, Salomon (Arabic, Soleyman Alsadi), a Greek philosopher, was born at Damascus in the latter part of the 17th century. Instructed by the Jesuit missionaries in the Greek and Latin languages, he came to Paris, and continued his studies at the Sorbonne. He afterwards went to London, and in 1701 to Halle, where he remained four years, giving lessons in Arabic, among others to the celebrated Michaelis. The climate of Germany being injurious to his health, he went to Italy, and afterwards established himself at Constantinople, where he was ordained priest of the Greek Church. The war brought him again to Italy. He sought, but without success, to found at Venice, and later at Rome, a school where he would have taught Arabic, Syriac, and Turkish. He then returned to Halle, where he again passed sixteen months; and finally settled in London, and there obtained employment as interpreter of the Oriental languages. He died there in 1729. Negri has given Arabic translations of the Psalms and the New Testament, published under the auspices of the British and Foreign Bible Society. The Psalms appeared in 1725 (8vo); the New Testament in 1727 (4to). These two versions have been severely criticised by Reiske (see Baumgarten, Nachrichten von merkwiirdigen Biichern, 3:283). We have likewise a Latin translation of the Vie de Gabriel Bachtishusia (in the Opera of Freind). Lastly, he has published in the Freiwilliges Hebeopfer a Conversation which he had in Constantinopie with a Turkish mollah. See Memoria Negriana (Halle, 1764, 4to); Rotermund, Supplement to Jocher, Gelehrten-Lexikon, s.v.; Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, 37:616.