FARAJ (Moses) BEN SOLOMON DA AGRIGENTO (Girgenti), also known as Ferragut and Faraj ben Salim (13th century), physician, translator, and author. Faraj was personal physician and official translator to Charles I of Anjou, king of Sicily, for whom he translated several medical treatises from Arabic into Latin. Among these are Liber Continens (Ar. Al-Ḥāwī), a medical encyclopedia in 20 parts by Rhazes (al-Rāzī), which he finished translating in 1279 and which was printed five times between 1486 and 1542; Tacuini Aegritudinum ac Morborum Corporis …, a translation made in 1280 of the Taqwīm al-Abdān by Abū ʿAlī ibn Jazla; and De Medicis Expertis by Pseudo-Galen. Faraj's authorship of other books cannot definitely be authenticated. However, if, as seems likely, Faraj is the same person as Moses b. Solomon of Salerno, he is also the author of a commentary on the Guide by *Maimonides. A picture of Faraj receiving the Al-Ḥāwī for translation from Charles I appears in a 13th-century illuminated manuscript.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Roth, Italy, 93–94.
Sources: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2007 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.
