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''Lex Mahumet pseudoprophete'' ( en, Law of Muhammad the pseudo-prophet/false prophet) is the translation of the
Qur'an 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.: , si ...
into
Medieval Latin Medieval Latin was the form of Literary Latin used in Roman Catholic Western Europe during the Middle Ages. In this region it served as the primary written language, though local languages were also written to varying degrees. Latin functioned ...
by
Robert of Ketton Robert of Ketton, known in Latin as Rodbertus Ketenensis ( 1141–1157), was an English astronomer, translator, priest and diplomat active in Spain. He translated several works of Arabic into Latin, including the first translation of the Quran int ...
( 1110 – 1160 AD). It is the earliest translation of the Qur'an into a Western language.Steven W. Holloway, ed., ''Orientalism, Assyriology and the Bible'', Hebrew Bible Monographs, 10; Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2006; ; p. 3. "Scholarly Orientalism can be traced to the twelfth century, a complex product of medieval Western Christendom's growing engagement with Islam, widely misunderstood to be a Christian heresy, and an appetite for the treasures of the Islamic philosophical and mathematical tradition whetted by exposure to primary texts. Peter the Venerable, abbot of Cluny monastery in France, commissioned the first Latin translation of the Qur'ān, which was finished in 1143 by the Englishman Robert of Ketton." In 1142
Peter the Venerable Peter the Venerable ( – 25 December 1156), also known as Peter of Montboissier, was the abbot of the Benedictine abbey of Cluny. He has been honored as a saint, though he was never canonized in the Middle Ages. Since in 1862 Pope Pius IX c ...
persuaded Robert to join a team he was creating to translate
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 ...
works into Latin in hopes of aiding the
religious conversion Religious conversion is the adoption of a set of beliefs identified with one particular religious denomination to the exclusion of others. Thus "religious conversion" would describe the abandoning of adherence to one denomination and affiliatin ...
of
Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
s to
Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global popula ...
. The translation of the Qur'an was the principal work of this collection, the ''
Corpus Cluniacense The ''Corpus Cluniacense'' or ''Corpus Islamolatinum'', sometimes erroneously the ''Corpus Toledanum'', is a collection of Latin writings about Islam compiled in 1142–1143. At its centre are translations from Arabic of five Islamic works, inc ...
''. The undertaking was huge, taking over a year and filling over 100
folios The term "folio" (), has three interconnected but distinct meanings in the world of books and printing: first, it is a term for a common method of arranging sheets of paper into book form, folding the sheet only once, and a term for a book ma ...
(180 pages in modern print). This translation of the Qur'an became popular, with over 25 manuscripts still existing, together with two 16th-century prints. It was the standard translation for
Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
ans from its release until the 18th century.


Criticism

Despite its success and early influence, much scholarly consensus deems the text unreliable. Thomas E. Burman states, "from the 15th century to the present, scholarly opinion has condemned it as a loose, misleading paraphrase".
Juan de Segovia John of Segovia, or in Spanish Juan de Segovia (c. 1395 – 24 May 1458), was a Castilian prelate and theologian. He played a prominent role in the Council of Basle and was in touch with the leading humanists of his day, such as Nicholas of Cusa. H ...
, a 15th-century translator of the Qur'an, criticised the translation for the liberties
Robert of Ketton Robert of Ketton, known in Latin as Rodbertus Ketenensis ( 1141–1157), was an English astronomer, translator, priest and diplomat active in Spain. He translated several works of Arabic into Latin, including the first translation of the Quran int ...
took with it. The traditional 114
sura A ''surah'' (; ar, سورة, sūrah, , ), is the equivalent of "chapter" in the Qur'an. There are 114 ''surahs'' in the Quran, each divided into '' ayats'' (verses). The chapters or ''surahs'' are of unequal length; the shortest surah ('' Al-K ...
s had been expanded into more, and Juan de Segovia claimed that the explicit from the Arabic was often left out while the implicit was included, not to mention numerous order changes.
Ludovico Marracci 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 i ...
, Hadrian Reland, and
George Sale George Sale (1697–1736) was a British Orientalist scholar and practising solicitor, best known for his 1734 translation of the Quran into English. In 1748, after having read Sale's translation, Voltaire wrote his own essay "De l'Alcoran ...
all criticized the translation with Sale even stating that it "deserve not the name of a translation".Burman., 706 Nevertheless, the text was widely used as the first comprehensive translation of the Qur'an into Latin.


Muslim–Christian relations

Peter the Venerable's explicit purpose for commissioning the translation was the conversion of Muslims.
Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
s (see also the translation by Mark of Toledo) were translating the works of an opposing or competing religion.


Sample texts

The translation's opening and the
Sura A ''surah'' (; ar, سورة, sūrah, , ), is the equivalent of "chapter" in the Qur'an. There are 114 ''surahs'' in the Quran, each divided into '' ayats'' (verses). The chapters or ''surahs'' are of unequal length; the shortest surah ('' Al-K ...
Al Fatiha: Sura
Al-Baqara Al-Baqara, alternatively transliterated Al-Baqarah ( ar, الْبَقَرَة, ; "The Heifer" or "The Cow"), is the second and longest chapter ('' surah'') of the Quran. It consists of 286 verses ('' āyāt'') which begin with the "mysterio ...
ayah 28 in comparative translation: This example shows the tendency of Robert of Ketton's translation to rework the original structure of the Qur'an compared to the very literal interpretation of his contemporary Mark of Toledo. Both of these can be compared to the widely accepted modern translation in order to show the differences between modern and medieval translation practices. With Burman's translation of a translation, some meaning of the original text may be lost.


See also

* List of translations of the Qur'an *
Manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced i ...
s


Notes


References

* Thomas E. Burman. ''Tafsir and Translation: Traditional Arabic Quran Exegesis and the Latin Qurans of Robert of Ketton and Mark of Toledo''. Speculum, Vol. 73, No. 3. (Jul., 1998), pp. 703–732.
Stable URL


Further reading

* Bosworth, C. E. "The Study of Islam in British Scholarship" in ''Mapping Islamic Studies: Genealogy, Continuity and Change'', ed. Azim Nanji; Religion and Reason, 38; Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 1997, pp. 45–67; cited in Holloway (2006).


External links


The latin Qu'ran, as edited by Bibliander
1550 revised edition, complete text online)
The first rendering of the Koran into a western language
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lex Mahumet Pseudoprophete Quran translations 12th-century Latin books Translations into Latin