SI'A (
), LEON JUDAH ARYEH (NASR AL DIN):
Physician in Constantinople, and a friend of Jewish science; lived before 1633. He translated Judah ha-Levi's "Cuzari" and Baḥya's "Ḥobot ha-Lebabot" from Arabic into Latin, which his friend Jacob Roman intended to print together with the Hebrew translation and the Arabic text. He was on friendly terms with Anton Leger, chaplain of the Dutch embassy in Constantinople, through whom he recommended his friend Roman (in a letter written in Latin and dated Dec., 1633) to Johannes Buxtorf, Junior, of Basel. He had corresponded with Buxtorf at an earlier date. When Rakoczy I., Prince of Transylvania, in 1639 appointed Si'a to be his court physician, the latter left Constantinople, discarding Judaism at the same time, as Buxtorf wrote to Professor Hottinger at Zurich (Aug. 11, 1641).
- Buxtorf, Bibliotheca Rabbinica, p. 174;
- Wolf, Bibl. Hebr. iii. 1355f (where the name is wrongly given as
); - Carmoly, Histoire des Médecins Juifs, p. 189 (who says that Si'a did not come from Flanders to Constantinople);
- R. E. J. viii. 85 et seq.
