The Law of Abraham the Catholic: Juan Gabriel as Qur’an Translator for Martín de Figuerola and Egidio da Viterbo

Abstract

The main aim of this article is to investigate the similarities between the Latin translation of the Qur’ān commissioned by the Italian cardinal Egidio da Viterbo (first version, 1518) and Quranic quotations included in a treatise entitled Lumbre de fe contra el Alcoran (Valencia, 1521) authored by a Catholic preacher, Fray Johan Martin de Figuerola, in order to corroborate the hypothesis that the texts share a common author. The person regarded as the link between them is a convert from Islam to Christianity known as Juan Gabriel from Teruel, formerly Ali Alayzar. The arguments in favour of this thesis are presented, first of all, within a historical description of the circumstances and coincidences of the people involved in the production of the two translation projects; secondly, textual evidence is put forward in which correspondences, similarities and differences are highlighted and discussed. We also consider the similarities to the quotations in Juan Andres’s Confusion o confutacion del Alcoran , drawing attention to a circle of other Christian polemicists around Martin Garcia who were all working in various ways with the Arabic Qur’ān.