Curated Curiosities: A 500 Year Old Introduction To Islam

It is only every so often that you come across something that is so historically unique and, yet, at the same time plays such a pivotal part in our daily lives. A manuscript laying bare the origination of a belief followed by more than 1.5 billion people worldwide.

The Quran was verbally revealed by God to Muhammad by the angel Jibril. It wasn’t a closely-knit monologue but a gradual revelation spanning 23 years, beginning in the year 609 CE. These revelations are considered a proof of Muhammad’s prophet hood and were written down by a small group of his companions after Muhammad passed away in 632 CE. The Quran is the single most important miracle of Muhammad. 

Antiquariaat Forum, renowned and internationally acclaimed for their rare book collection is offering a first Latin edition of the Quran. This translation by Theodor Bibliander, released in 1543 is the second edition in any language after Paganino’s Arabic edition, published in Venice in 1537/38, of which there is just 1 existing copy. This copy is quintessential in its mere existence and is accompanied by extensive commentaries and historical additions in parts 2 and 3. 

In the first half of the 12th century, Pierre de Cluny and Bernard de Clairvaux acquired an Arabic manuscript in Toledo. De Clairvaux was a French abbot and the primary reformer for the Cistercian Order. De Cluny, also known as Pierre de Montboissier, abbot of the Benedictine abbey of Cluny, took the manuscript to the Englishman Robert of Ketton, who in 1143 completed his Medieval Latin translation Lex Mahumet pseudoprophete on which this translation of the Quran is based.  

Though supported by the Church, the choice for Robert of Ketton seemed risky, as he preferred to translate scientific, rather than theological works. Based on the translation many scholars feel it has been fed with distortions and exaggerations in favour of the Church’s marketing campaign in those days.

In the 16th century, Protestantism and Islam first encountered each other when Reformed Protestants in present-day Hungary and Transylvania and the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans coincided in their mutual conflict with the Roman Emperor. Numerous encounters followed sparking curiosity in the Western world about Islam which at the same time proofed a pressing concern for Christian authorities, after the Ottoman Turkish sultan Suleiman the Magnificent besieged Vienna in 1529.

_{Martin Luther by Lucas Granach the Elder, 1528}

The German professor of theology Martin Luther, who played a seminal role in the Protestant Reformation, acquired a copy of Ketton’s 400-year-old translation and had Theodor Bibliander edit and publish it. Luther did this so Christians could be informed about Islam and refute its theological positions “for the propagation of the Christian faith and of Holy Mother Church”. Bibliander, a Swiss Orientalist and linguist, was familiar with the Arabic language and published the first printed Quran, a copy of the one on offer, in Basel in 1543. Bibliander’s copy remained the only source for any European scholar who wished to study the Quran.

Luther in his time was criticised for this publication by critics who stated that in fact printing the Quran for polemical purposes was an acknowledgement of its religious significance.

The second part of this copy contains a compilation of earlier writings about the Islam and the Quran, printed in both Greek and Latin parallel texts, including writings by Savonarola and Nicolaus Cusanus. 

For more information please see the full description here.

Antiquariaat Forum will attend the Sharjah International Book Fair from 2-12 November and the Doha International Book Fair from 30 November – 10 December

For more curated fine art also have a look at Gallerease!