{"title":"Translating the Muslim for Christian Europe: Re-assessing the Interpretation of aslama in the First Latin Translation of the Qur’an","authors":"M. Pollitt","doi":"10.1080/09596410.2021.2014692","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT\n Around 1141, Peter the Venerable, one of the most prominent Christian leaders in Europe, commissioned Robert of Ketton, an otherwise undistinguished astronomer from Rutland, to translate the Qur’an into Latin for the first time. His objective was to provide an accurate understanding of the Qur’an, so that Christian refutations of Islam and Muslim belief could be more effective. The resulting text would become the most popular version of the Qur’an in Europe for the next six hundred years. However, the verb aslama, from which the words ‘Islam’ and ‘Muslim’ derive, was so thoroughly paraphrased in this translation that historian Norman Daniel would be moved to condemn it in 1960 for attempting ‘to obscure passages which define the religion of Islam and thin the more specifically Islamic content of the Qur’ān’. Since then, despite a renewed appreciation for his methods in general, recent scholarship on Robert of Ketton’s translation has failed to address this damning accusation in particular. This article therefore re-assesses the handling of the verb aslama in the first Latin translation of the Qur’an, by asking to what extent an authentic understanding of Islam and Muslim belief was provided by Robert of Ketton’s paraphrase.","PeriodicalId":45172,"journal":{"name":"Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4000,"publicationDate":"2021-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09596410.2021.2014692","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"RELIGION","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 1
Abstract
ABSTRACT
Around 1141, Peter the Venerable, one of the most prominent Christian leaders in Europe, commissioned Robert of Ketton, an otherwise undistinguished astronomer from Rutland, to translate the Qur’an into Latin for the first time. His objective was to provide an accurate understanding of the Qur’an, so that Christian refutations of Islam and Muslim belief could be more effective. The resulting text would become the most popular version of the Qur’an in Europe for the next six hundred years. However, the verb aslama, from which the words ‘Islam’ and ‘Muslim’ derive, was so thoroughly paraphrased in this translation that historian Norman Daniel would be moved to condemn it in 1960 for attempting ‘to obscure passages which define the religion of Islam and thin the more specifically Islamic content of the Qur’ān’. Since then, despite a renewed appreciation for his methods in general, recent scholarship on Robert of Ketton’s translation has failed to address this damning accusation in particular. This article therefore re-assesses the handling of the verb aslama in the first Latin translation of the Qur’an, by asking to what extent an authentic understanding of Islam and Muslim belief was provided by Robert of Ketton’s paraphrase.
大约在1141年,欧洲最著名的基督教领袖之一,德高望重的彼得,委托来自拉特兰的一位不起眼的天文学家,凯顿的罗伯特,第一次将《古兰经》翻译成拉丁文。他的目标是提供对古兰经的准确理解,以便基督教对伊斯兰教和穆斯林信仰的反驳可以更有效。由此产生的文本将成为未来600年欧洲最受欢迎的古兰经版本。然而,“伊斯兰”和“穆斯林”这两个词的来源动词aslama在这个译本中被彻底改写,以至于历史学家诺曼·丹尼尔(Norman Daniel)在1960年谴责它试图“模糊定义伊斯兰宗教的段落,淡化古兰经ān中更具体的伊斯兰内容”。从那时起,尽管人们对他的翻译方法有了新的认识,但最近关于罗伯特·凯顿翻译的学术研究却未能特别解决这一该死的指控。因此,本文通过询问罗伯特·克顿(Robert of Ketton)的解释在多大程度上提供了对伊斯兰教和穆斯林信仰的真实理解,重新评估了古兰经的第一个拉丁翻译中对动词aslama的处理。
期刊介绍:
Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations (ICMR) provides a forum for the academic exploration and discussion of the religious tradition of Islam, and of relations between Islam and other religions. It is edited by members of the Department of Theology and Religion, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom. The editors welcome articles on all aspects of Islam, and particularly on: •the religion and culture of Islam, historical and contemporary •Islam and its relations with other faiths and ideologies •Christian-Muslim relations. Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations is a refereed, academic journal. It publishes articles, documentation and reviews.