[The Qur'an] Refutatio Alcorani, In qua ad Mahumetanicae superstitionis radicem securis apponitur; & Mahumetus ipse gladio suo jugulatur.

MARRACCI, Ludovico.

Edité par Patavii PaduaEx Typographia Seminarii ., 1698

A propos de cet article

FIRST EDITION. Second volume only (of two), this volume being the entire Qur'an in Arabic, with commentary in Latin. Folio (34.5 x 22.5 cm). pp.17+[3]+838 [but 836, pagination error 442-443]+[11, index]. Later drab cloth, spine with raised bands, one compartment lettered in gilt, pale blue endpapers. Text in Latin and Arabic. Decorative engraved initials and head- and tail-pieces throughout. Worming to upper margins of last 30 leaves (17 of which have crude tape repairs), some neat pencilled annotations in Arabic, binding a bit rubbed The first scholarly printed Qu'ran, prepared Ludovico Marracci (1612-1700), an Italian Catholic priest and learned Orientalist, also professor of Arabic at the College of Wisdom at Rome. In 1645, he contributed to the translation of the Bible into Arabic, completed in 1650, while at the same time working on the Latin translation of the Qur'an, eventually published in 1698. Marracci's Qu'ran contained a far more accurate Arabic text than any previously printed as well as the first accurate Latin translation, also including extensive notes based on the Islamic commentaries, as well as the editor's extensive "refutations" of each sutra. Each sura is given first in Arabic, then in Latin translation, followed by notes and then the refutation. The entire first volume (not present here) of about 430 pages is taken up with preliminary matter, including a 24-page life of the Prophet Muhammad (one of the first detailed biographies ever printed and again more accurate than its predecessors), an 8-page profession of faith with the Arabic and Latin in parallel columns, and additional commentaries and introductory matter. This massive work, intended for missionaries in Muslim lands, was to enable them to refute point by point the possible objections of their Muslim opponents; the work is presented under the double and singular aspect of a commented translation of the Sacred Text of Islam and of its total questioning. The fact that this edition was produced explicitly as an attempt to refute the views of Islam has naturally led Islamic scholars to dismiss it, but both the Arabic text and the Latin translation were far better than any previously printed and had no serious rival until the Leipzig edition of 1834. The commentaries also made a great deal of Islamic scholarship available to a European audience for the first time and both the Arabic and the Latin text influenced nearly every edition for the next 150 years. In his bibliography, Brunet states of this work: 'Edition très recherché et dont les exemplaires sont peu commun' ('Highly sought-after edition whose copies are uncommon'). (Graesse IV, pp41-42 Brunet III, 1307 Schnurrer 377 N. Daniel, Islam et Occident 379 Moubarac, Recherches… 137 sq. Enay 151 Larzul, Le goût de l'Orient, p.160).

N° de réf. du vendeur 65240

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: [The Qur'an] Refutatio Alcorani, In qua ad Mahumetanicae superstitionis radicem securis apponitur; & Mahumetus ipse gladio suo jugulatur.
• Éditeur: Patavii PaduaEx Typographia Seminarii .
• Date de parution: 1698
• Édition: Edition originale
• Catalogues du vendeur:
  • RELIGION & PHILOSOPHY
  • MIDDLE EAST & ISLAMIC