George Sale (1697–1736) was a British Orientalist scholar and practising

solicitor A solicitor is a legal practitioner who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally-defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and ...

, best known for his 1734 translation of the

Quran The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , ...

into English. In 1748, after having read Sale's translation,

Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his '' nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his criticism of Christianity—e ...

wrote his own essay "De l'Alcoran et de Mahomet" ("On the Quran and on Mohammed"). Sale was also author of ''The General Dictionary'', in ten volumes, folio.

Biography

Born in

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the primate of t ...

, Kent, he was educated at the

King's School, Canterbury The King's School is a public school (English independent day and boarding school for 13 to 18 year old pupils) in Canterbury, Kent, England. It is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference and the Eton Group. It is Britain's ...

, and in 1720 became a student of the

Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional associations for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and ...

. It is known that he trained as a solicitor in his early years but took time off from his legal pursuits, returning at need to his profession. Sale was an early member of the

Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK) is a UK-based Christian charity. Founded in 1698 by Thomas Bray, it has worked for over 300 years to increase awareness of the Christian faith in the UK and across the world. The SPCK is t ...

. Sale became seriously ill with fever for eight days before his death. George Sale died at

Surrey Street Surrey Street in the City of Westminster, London, runs from Strand in the north to Temple Place in the south. It was built on land once occupied by Arundel House and its gardens. History Surrey Street was built on land once occupied by Arundel ...

, The Strand, London, on 13 November 1736. Sale was buried at

St Clement Danes St Clement Danes is an Anglican church in the City of Westminster, London. It is situated outside the Royal Courts of Justice on the Strand. Although the first church on the site was reputedly founded in the 9th century by the Danes, the current ...

in London. His family consisted of a wife and five children.

The Quran

Khalili Collection Hajj and Arts of Pilgrimage arc

In 1734, Sale published a translation of the Quran, ''Al Quran'', dedicated to John Carteret, 2nd Earl Granville. Relying heavily on O.M.D.

Louis Maracci Ludovico Marracci (6 October 1612 – 5 February 1700), also known by Luigi Marracci, was an Italian Oriental scholar and professor of Arabic in the College of Wisdom at Rome. He is chiefly known as the publisher and editor of Quran of Muhammad ...

's Latin translation,Arnoud Vrolijk
Sale, George
ODNB, 28 May 2015 Sale provided numerous notes and a Preliminary discourse. Sale had access to the Dutch Church, Austin Friars' 14th-century manuscript of al-Baydāwī's ''

Lights of Revelation and the Secrets of Interpretation ''Anwar al-Tanzil wa-Asrar al-Ta'wil'' ( ar, أنوار التنزيل وأسرار التأويل, lit=The Lights of Revelation and the Secrets of Interpretation), better known as ''Tafsir al-Baydawi'' ( ar, تفسير البيضاوي), is o ...

'', and this seems the source for his Arabic Quran rather than his own personal Quran, catalogued ''MS Sale 76'' in the

Bodleian Library The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford, and is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. It derives its name from its founder, Sir Thomas Bodley. With over 13 million printed items, it is the sec ...

.Alexander Bevilacqua
The Qur'an Translations of Marracci and Sale
Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes Sale's footnotes provide the literal translation where it differs from the idiom of the body text; he gives alternate variant readings; and supplementary historical and contextual information.

Sir Edward Denison Ross Sir Edward Denison Ross (6 June 1871 – 20 September 1940) was an orientalist and linguist, specializing in languages of the Middle East, Central and East Asia. He was the first director of the University of London's School of Oriental Studies ...

added the Introduction to the 1922 reprint of Sale's translation.

Preliminary discourse

Though he did not place

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the ...

at an equal level with Christianity, Sale seemed to view Mohammad as a conqueror who sought to destroy

idolatry Idolatry is the worship of a cult image or "idol" as though it were God. In Abrahamic religions (namely Judaism, Samaritanism, Christianity, the Baháʼí Faith, and Islam) idolatry connotes the worship of something or someone other than the ...

and a lawgiver who managed to change and supplant many practices in Arabia: Sale prefixed a Preliminary Discourse to his translation covering topics including Arabs "''before

hijrah The Hijrah or Hijra () was the journey of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and his followers from Mecca to Medina. The year in which the Hijrah took place is also identified as the epoch of the Lunar Hijri and Solar Hijri calendars; its date e ...

''"; the State of the Eastern Churches, and Judaism, at time of Mohammed; the Peculiarities of the Quran; positive and negative Doctrines and Instructions of the Quran; and

political Islam Political Islam is any interpretation of Islam as a source of political identity and action. It can refer to a wide range of individuals and/or groups who advocate the formation of state and society according to their understanding of Islamic pri ...

in the 1730s. Sale posits the decline of the Persian Empire on rivalry between the sects of

Manes In ancient Roman religion, the ''Manes'' (, , ) or ''Di Manes'' are chthonic deities sometimes thought to represent souls of deceased loved ones. They were associated with the '' Lares'', '' Lemures,'' '' Genii'', and ''Di Penates'' as deities ( ...

and

Mazdak Mazdak ( fa, مزدک, Middle Persian: 𐭬𐭦𐭣𐭪, also Mazdak the Younger; died c. 524 or 528) was a Zoroastrian ''mobad'' (priest), Iranian reformer, prophet and religious reformer who gained influence during the reign of the Sasanian empe ...

, and mass immigration into Arabia to escape persecution in the Grecian empire. In his eighth essay on False Prophecy, Sale notes Muslim Sects both Canonical ( Maleci, Hanefites,

Hanbali The Hanbali school ( ar, ٱلْمَذْهَب ٱلْحَنۢبَلِي, al-maḏhab al-ḥanbalī) is one of the four major traditional Sunni schools ('' madhahib'') of Islamic jurisprudence. It is named after the Arab scholar Ahmad ibn Hanba ...

and

Shafi‘i The Shafii ( ar, شَافِعِي, translit=Shāfiʿī, also spelled Shafei) school, also known as Madhhab al-Shāfiʿī, is one of the four major traditional schools of religious law (madhhab) in the Sunnī branch of Islam. It was founded by ...

) and "heretical" ( Shi'ism).

Other works

Sale was also a corrector of the

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

version of the

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chris ...

(1726) issued by the

. He acquired a library with valuable rare manuscripts of Persian,

Ottoman Turkish Ottoman Turkish ( ota, لِسانِ عُثمانى, Lisân-ı Osmânî, ; tr, Osmanlı Türkçesi) was the standardized register of the Turkish language used by the citizens of the Ottoman Empire (14th to 20th centuries CE). It borrowed extens ...

, and Arabic origins, which is now held in the Bodleian Library,

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

. He assisted in the writing of the ''

Universal History A universal history is a work aiming at the presentation of a history of all of mankind as a whole, coherent unit. A universal chronicle or world chronicle typically traces history from the beginning of written information about the past up to t ...

'' published in London from 1747 to 1768. When the plan of

universal history A universal history is a work aiming at the presentation of a history of all of mankind as a whole, coherent unit. A universal chronicle or world chronicle typically traces history from the beginning of written information about the past up to t ...

was arranged, Sale was one of those who were selected to carry it into execution. Sale wrote the chapter, "The Introduction, containing the Cosmogony, or Creation of the World". Critics of the time accused Sale of having a view which was hostile to tradition and the Scriptures. They attacked his account of

cosmogony Cosmogony is any model concerning the origin of the cosmos or the universe. Overview Scientific theories In astronomy, cosmogony refers to the study of the origin of particular astrophysical objects or systems, and is most commonly used ...

as having a view giving currency to heretical opinions. His books:
The Koran
First Edition, 1734. (ed. high resolution scans from the Posner Memorial Collection.) * George Sale (Translator) and Claude Etienne Savary (illustrator), "
The Koran
Commonly Called the Alcoran of Mohammed''". J.W. Moore, 1856. 670 pages * George Sale, et al., "
Sacred Books of the East: With Critical and Biographical Sketches
'". Colonial Press, 1900. 457 pages * Sale, George, Bower, Archibald and Psalmanazar, George
''An Universal History, from the Earliest Account of Time''
Millar, 1747. * George Sale, "
Selections from the Koran of Mohammed
'". Priv. print. by N.H. Dole, 1904. 211 pages. * George Sale, et al., "
Arabic Reading Lessons: Consisting of Easy Extracts from the Best Authors
'". Wm. H. Allen, 1864. 103 pages.

Legacy

In 1760 the Radcliffe Library, Oxford acquired his collection of mainly 13th-18th century Persian and Arabic manuscripts, mostly poetry and

belles-lettres is a category of writing, originally meaning beautiful or fine writing. In the modern narrow sense, it is a label for literary works that do not fall into the major categories such as fiction, poetry, or drama. The phrase is sometimes used pejora ...

. They were transferred to the Bodleian Library in 1872. Richard Alfred Davenport wrote his biography. Works included in Sales library include

Ibn Khallikān Aḥmad bin Muḥammad bin Ibrāhīm bin Abū Bakr ibn Khallikān) ( ar, أحمد بن محمد بن إبراهيم بن أبي بكر ابن خلكان; 1211 – 1282), better known as Ibn Khallikān, was a 13th century Shafi'i Islamic scholar w ...

’s ''Wafayāt al-ayān'' (MSS Sale 48–49); selection of hadith (MS Sale 70); collections of the stories of saints and martyrs (MS Sale 77–78); the sayings of Alī (MS Sale 82); biographies of Shi'ite, ''Majālis al-mu'minīn'' by Nūr Allāh b.'Abd Allāh Shushtarī (MS Sale 68); instructions on use of the Quran for divination (MS Sale 69), and a treatise on the merits of visiting the Prophet's grave (MS Sale 56). Sale's translation of the Qu'ran has been reprinted into modern times. In January 2007,

Keith Ellison Keith Maurice Ellison (born August 4, 1963) is an American politician and lawyer serving as the 30th attorney general of Minnesota. A member of the Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), Ellison was the U.S. representative for from 2007 to ...

, the first Muslim elected to the United States Congress, was sworn in using a 1764 edition of Sale's translation of the Quran, sold to the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The libra ...

in 1815 by

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...

. In January 2019 newly elected Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and

Ilhan Omar Ilhan Abdullahi Omar (born October 4, 1982) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for since 2019. She is a member of the Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party. Before her election to Congress, Omar served in the Minnesot ...

were sworn in using the same edition of Sales's translation of Qu'ran.

References

External links

The Koran, Commonly Called the Alcoran of Mohammed (first edition 1734)
London: ''Printed by C. Ackers in St. John's-Street, for J. Wilcoy at Vivgil's Head overagainst the New Church in the Strand.'', original Quran translated into English. * Bot
Online Quran Project
an
IslamAwakened
include the Quran translation of George Sale.

* The Nativity of Jesus, Blesséd be He, in the Koran

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sale, George 1697 births 1736 deaths Arabic–English translators English orientalists English solicitors English translators Members of the Inner Temple People educated at The King's School, Canterbury People from Canterbury Translators of the Bible into Arabic Translators of the Quran into English 18th-century British translators 18th-century English male writers