The Latin Translation of the Qur’ān Between Controversy and Research

Abstract

This article examines the history of the translation of the Qur’an into Latin. The main attention was paid to the study of the transformation of the approach to the translation of the Qur’an into Latin. During the long historical period (XII–XVII centuries) its basic principles remained unchanged, but the ways of their practical application were significantly changed. The study shows that the combination of polemical and research components forms the basis of the translation approach developed in the translation of Robert of Ketton and Corpus Tholetanum (c. 1143), a collection of works on Islam, created in Toledo under the guidance of Peter the Venerable. These leading components of the translation approach constitute the basis of all other translations of the Qur’an into Latin. However, since Mark of Toledo’s translation (c. 1210) the structural characteristics of these components greatly change. In addition, the correlation between them also changes: while in the twelfth century the polemical component significantly shaped certain translation decisions, by the seventeenth century it was definitively detached from the translation itself. This transformation prepared the ground for the modern scientific approach to the translation of the Qur’an.