Research Seminar in Inter-Religious Relations, Professor Paul Shore (University of Regina and Visiting Fellow, Cambridge Inter-faith Programme), ‘The Jesuit Translation of the Qur'an in the Seventeenth Century’, Thursday 4 Oct 2018 12:00-13:30
A seminar presented by Professor Paul Shore, University of Regina and Visiting Fellow, Cambridge Inter-Faith Programme. The paper is titled 'The Spirit of the letter: The Politics of a 1622 Qur'an Translation in the Christian West', and a response will be given by Dr Justin Meggit. It will take place on Thursday 4 October, 12:00 – 13:30 in the Lightfoot Room, Faculty of Divinity.
The session will be followed by informal refreshments in the Selwyn Room (Divinity).
All welcome. Please email team@interfaith.cam.ac.uk if you would like to attend.
Overview
My paper will have four parts. First, I'll say a little bit on the early history of Latin translations of the Qur'an in the Christian West. Then I'll explain the background pf the translation that will be the focus of my work at Cambridge: that of Ignazio Lomellini, a Genoan Jesuit who died in 1645. I'll talk next about the tension between the desire to produce an accurate translation of the Arabic and the requirement Lomellini faced, given when and where he worked, to prove that Islam and its sacred text are "false," heretical," etc. To conclude I'll say a few words about the two Suras from the Qur'an I have chosen to concentrate on Srua 18 and 53, and what I hope to accomplish during my Fellowship in Cambridge