The
earliest direct English translation of the holy book is a testament to its
translator's resourcefulness
The first Muslim member of Congress assumed office
in January 2007. For his swearing-in ceremony, Rep. Keith
Ellison, D-Minn., chose to pledge on the Quran.
The copy he used, specially loaned by the Library of Congress for the occasion,
had once belonged to Thomas Jefferson. [Inset:
Why did Jefferson own a copy of the Quran? The third
president was interested in Islam for many reasons, as Denise A. Spellberg explains
in her book “Thomas
Jefferson’s Qur’an.” He was able to read the holy book of
Islam in the first place, however, only thanks to a recent translation, the
first direct one from Arabic into English, a copy of which he purchased as a
law student in 1765. That translation, by a young English lawyer named George
Sale, would prove to have an outsize role in the Western study and
understanding of the Quran.
European interest in Islam
Long before Europeans governed Muslim colonies,
interest in Islam and its cultures ran high in Europe. Part of the reason was
political. Three Muslim empires dominated large parts of Asia: the Ottomans in
Anatolia, the Mediterranean and Arabia; the Safavids in Persia; and the Mughals
in India.
These Muslim
dynasties were not just powerful but were also admired for their refined arts
and culture — music, poetry, gardens, ceramics and textiles. Moreover, books in
Arabic offered knowledge of many fields to those who learned the language. Not
just the sciences and philosophy but even Arabic literature enticed European
translators. Thus, in 1704 a Frenchman first translated the “1001 Nights,”
whose tales soon became an enduring classic of European as well as of Arabic
letters.
Above all else, the
religion of Islam itself seemed an especially compelling field of inquiry to a
variety of European scholars and thinkers. How had a handful of Muslims emerged
from the Arabian Peninsula in the seventh century to conquer so much of the
known world? This was one of the great questions of
world history, as both the French Enlightenment philosopher Voltaire and the
English historian Edward Gibbon agreed. In addition, philosophers and
freethinking Christians deemed the central tenet of Islam, the unity of God,
more rational than the mystery of the Christian Trinity. Thus, many different
Europeans attributed singular importance to Islam and the language of its
revelation, Arabic.
Making of a translation
In November 1733 the first
translation of the Quran from Arabic into English — a copy of which Jefferson
would eventually purchase — appeared in London. Its author, Sale, had learned Arabic in
his spare time and had never visited a Muslim country. He once wrote, “I am but
too sensible of the Disadvantages, one who is neither a Native, nor ever was in
the Country must lie under, in playing the Critic in so difficult a Language as
the Arabick.” To translate the holy book, Sale mainly used volumes in his own
library, including a recent Latin translation that had been published in
Counterreformation Rome. This Latin Quran, designed for the use of Catholic
missionaries, contained a wealth of previously untranslated information.
Sale also borrowed a manuscript copy of the Quran
from the Dutch Church in London. The book had been copied in the late 16th
century in Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, and in 1633 a Dutch
trader donated it to the London church. It sat in the library for almost a
century until Sale made use of it. We do not know why this particular copy was
gathered and brought to London, but Qurans were prestigious objects in European
eyes. The holy book of Islam was probably the most frequently collected Arabic
book, often acquired by collectors who could not read it.
Even today,
Western scholars consult his 'Koran.' The historian Michael Cook has called it
'an old translation which has worn very well.'
Although Sale did not say so, he relied directly on
this particular copy to pen his translation, as I discovered upon examining the
manuscript in London in 2012, during my research on European knowledge of Islam
in the age of the Enlightenment. This Istanbul Quran presents some rare
variants of certain words, which also appear in Sale’s translation, thus
proving the connection. The text is accompanied by a commentary that was among
the most popular in the Ottoman Empire. By employing it, Sale came to offer, in
his translation and notes, an interpretation that largely reflected the
mainstream Ottoman understanding of the Quran.
Only one earlier English version had appeared, in
1649, but it was based on a loose French translation and, as Sale put it,
“added a number of fresh mistakes” to its French original. By contrast, what
Sale achieved was a remarkably fluent, elegant and precise text. He admired the
beauty of the Quran but, with becoming modesty, claimed “it must not be
supposed the translation comes up to the dignity of the original.” Even so, his
prose continues to resonate today, as is evident in the first lines of his
version of the famous “throne verse”: “GOD! there is no GOD but he; the living,
the self-subsisting: neither slumber nor sleep seizeth him; to him belongeth
whatsoever is in heaven, and on earth.”
An intellectual legacy
Sale’s translation was not just a literary
achievement of a high caliber but also a contribution to knowledge. He included
a lengthy preface in which he explained many historical, theological and ritual
aspects of Islam. Prior to his “Koran,” the best information about Islam
available to Englishmen was in Latin. Sale’s efforts undercut the prejudicial
notions that had circulated since medieval times. For instance, he narrated the
life of the Prophet Muhammad without mention of the legendary and polemical
stories so often told in Europe since the Middle Ages. Sale worked in the wake
of a renewed European effort to learn Arabic and study Islamic traditions, and
he benefited from the work of his predecessors. Yet he also brought to the
subject a perceptive critical faculty. This combination of accurate knowledge
and a willingness to understand a foreign religion makes Sale’s “Koran” a
remarkable achievement, and one of enduring import.
Indeed, the translation remained the standard
English version into the mid-20th century. Thus, it mediated knowledge of the
Quran and Islam not just for Sale’s contemporaries but for many generations of
Britons and Americans. Even today, Western scholars consult his “Koran,”
particularly for its ample notes; the historian Michael Cook has called it “an
old translation which has worn very well.”
In our age, many translations of the Quran are
available. If the 18th century saw only one into English, and the 19th two, in
the 20th century there were at least 16, half of which were published in the
final quarter of the century. Yet the average Westerner knows little about
Islam, despite ever-increasing encounters between Muslims and non-Muslims,
whether through immigration, trade or tourism. Knowledge and sympathy for the
many peoples of the world, including its many varieties of Muslims, have not
kept pace with air travel, satellite TV and Ethernet connections.
Perhaps the
story of George Sale and his Quran translation — composed against the odds,
without the aid of the Internet — should serve as an inspiration. Western
peoples have for centuries studied Islam and its cultures. By translating its
most important texts, they have sought to reap the fruits of the many literary
and intellectual traditions that this religion has inspired.
Alexander Bevilacqua will complete his Ph.D. in history at
Princeton University this spring. His research investigates cultural and
intellectual exchanges between Christians and Muslims before the colonial era.
The views expressed in this article are the author's
own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera America's editorial policy.
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