Lives of Great Religious Books

A Biography

Bruce B. Lawrence

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781400887798
• Topic: Théologie et religion
• Subtopic: Théologie islamique

The untold story of how the Arabic Qur'an became the English Koran For millions of Muslims, the Qur'an is sacred only in Arabic, the original Arabic in which it was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad in the seventh century; to many Arab and non-Arab believers alike, the book literally defies translation. Yet English translations exist and are growing, in both number and importance. Bruce Lawrence tells the remarkable story of the ongoing struggle to render the Qur'an 's lyrical verses into English—and to make English itself an Islamic language. The "Koran" in English revisits the life of Muhammad and the origins of the Qur'an before recounting the first translation of the book into Latin by a non-Muslim: Robert of Ketton's twelfth-century version paved the way for later ones in German and French, but it was not until the eighteenth century that George Sale's influential English version appeared. Lawrence explains how many of these early translations, while part of a Christian agenda to "know the enemy, " often revealed grudging respect for their Abrahamic rival. British expansion in the modern era produced an anomaly: fresh English translations—from the original Arabic—not by Arabs or non-Muslims but by South Asian Muslim scholars.The first book to explore the complexities of this translation saga, The "Koran" in English also looks at cyber Koran s, versions by feminist translators, and now a graphic Koran, the American Qur'an created by the acclaimed visual artist Sandow Birk.

Muhammad and Revelation

CHAPTER 1

The Essentials

Any narrative about the Arabic Qurʾan must begin in the seventh century, with the life of Muhammad ibn Abdullah, the Arab Prophet.¹ The Qurʾan was revealed to this Arab merchant/trader through a celestial intermediary, the Archangel Gabriel, in his own language, Arabic. It was in Arabic, and solely in Arabic, that each of the Qurʾan’s 6,236 verses and 114 chapters was announced to Muhammad.² Biography and revelation are intertwined, so even to recount in English the story of the last prophet requires use of Koran translations; several are provided below.³

The sparsest outline of the life of Muhammad would include five dates: Born in 570 CE, he married in 595 CE, was called to prophesy in Mecca in 610 CE, then left Mecca for Yathrib/Medina in 622 CE, and after subduing his enemies, died in Medina in 632 CE at the age of sixty-two.

But the impress of the Qurʾan in Muhammad’s life demands more. It requires beginning with his early life. For the first forty years Muhammad was an orphan, raised by his uncle, with his first cousin ʿAli as a companion. He later became a merchant, traveling beyond Arabia but always returning to Mecca. He only became a messenger under duress. The message was not his own, nor did he seek it. The message sought him, filled him and transformed him, making his life a journey that none, including he, could have imagined.

Before Revelation

Muhammad was a successful merchant but a reluctant messenger. His success at the business owned by his wife, Khadija, allowed him time to reflect. Like others in his community, he set aside time to go to a mountain, to a mountain cave. Between caravan trips that took him away from home to places near and far, he would stay at home but in a place apart. He would go to this mountain retreat often. Sometimes he would go there by himself or with his young cousin. He would sit quietly and ponder what life means.

What does it mean that he was born an orphan but found a new family among his close relatives? What does it mean that he had been an honest but poor merchant until a wealthy widow found him, employed him, trusted him, and then married him?

Although he felt gratitude for the gifts of family and wealth, he still lacked something. It was that lack that drove him to the mountain retreat, to find a space within himself and apart from others—except for his young cousin ʿAli—to ponder the mystery of human success and the lessons of human failure.

Like many of his tribe, he had acknowledged the power of the rock that marked his home town of Mecca. The Kaʿba contained that rock, a rock ancient with history. It is linked to an early seeker of Truth, a prophet in his time, named Abraham. It was to this place that Abraham sent his concubine Hagar. It is here that Abraham, with divine guidance, made provision for a branch of his family, and its central role has been etched in the Qurʾan:

Our Lord [prayed Abraham] I have settled

some of my children

in a barren valley

near Your Holy House,

our Lord,

that they may be constant in prayer,

making the hearts of some incline to them

and providing them with fruit,

that they may give thanks.

Q 14:37⁴

But the Holy House became a place that Abraham shared with others, with idols that represented local gods and tribal deities. These idols were said to possess a power that rivaled the God of Abraham. Some folk who came to Mecca cast doubt on the power of the idols, saying that after Abraham came other seekers of Truth, other prophets, each proclaiming a god not found in idols. Some opponents of the idols were the Jews. Their prophet was Moses. Other opponents were the Christians. Their prophet was Jesus, though some of them went further, claiming that Jesus was more than a prophet. Muhammad also met some Arab opponents of idol worship. They claimed that there was an ancient Arab prophet, Salih by name, and that he too followed the way of Moses and Jesus, looking for the source of all life and all created forms, beyond idols of any shape or any place. It was Salih who said to his people what was later revealed to Muhammad:

O my people, serve God.

You have no god except Him.

It is He who raised you from the earth

and settled you in it.

Seek His forgiveness,

then turn to Him in repentance.

My Lord is Near, Responsive.

Q 11:61⁵

Muhammad meditated on these matters when he sat in the cave of Hira during the holy month of Ramadan. Ramadan was the time each year when blood feuds were suspended. It was a time when Meccans who had wealth and free time could retreat to the outskirts of their town, to the hills that enclosed it, and to the caves that offered shelter and repose.

Revelation

Muhammad had been following the practice of retreat and meditation for over a decade. Then one night in Ramadan 610 he felt a stirring inside him. He loved the nighttime in this special month; it drew him deep into himself and allowed him to resist those impulses that pulled him back to the world, to concerns with family or with business or travel. He was alert to repel those impulses. They clouded his vision, they denied him peace of mind, but above all, they blocked his search for the Truth. But this was a different stirring. It was deep, it was arresting. It overpowered him, and then it produced words, words that were not his. He listened:

“Recite!” And he was shown a piece of silk with words on it.

He did not know how to read. “What shall I recite?” he asked.

“Recite!” came the command, and again the brocade was thrust before him.

He stammered: “But what shall I recite?”

He became like the Prophet Jeremiah who was told by the Lord of Israel to speak when he was a child and he could not. Unlike Jeremiah, Muhammad could speak but he could not read. All those who accompanied him on caravan trips, whether to Egypt or Syria, to Yemen or Abyssinia, knew that he could read symbols but not words. It was they who handled the few documents of exchange that required reading or signing. When Muhammad had to sign, he would ask others to read aloud what was written, then he would sign by pressing the palm of his hand to the paper. Why then did this voice ask him to recite?

Even as he was thinking these thoughts, for the third time, the voice commanded him:

“Recite!”

“But what, what shall I recite?”

No sooner had he spoken than the words appeared:

Recite in the name of your Lord who created

Created man from blood coagulated

Recite for your Lord is Most Generous

Who taught by the pen

Taught what they did not know unto men

Q 96:1–5⁶

These words became part of him. He recited them without reading them. But why did they invoke the Lord as His Lord? And why did they rhyme? “Created” rhymed with “coagulated” in the first two lines, and then “pen” with “men” in the fourth and fifth lines. Since Muhammad could not read the words, he was puzzled, dismayed. Had it been his secret impulses that had produced these verses? Had he become a man possessed, an ecstatic poet such as his clansmen distrusted, even despised? Was his pursuit of the Truth forfeited by a single moment of self-deceit?

Scarcely had he absorbed the experience when his whole body began to tremble. Then the voice spoke again. It addressed him by name: “O Muhammad!” “Muhammad,” it continued, “you cannot protect yourself from the Evil One. Only the One who hears all and knows all can protect you. Invoke God but before you mention God by His loftiest name, say ‘I seek refuge from Satan, the Accursed, in the name of the One who hears all and knows all.’ Before you repeat the words I have just given you from Your Lord, say: ‘In the name of God, Full of Compassion, Ever Compassionate!’” and the silence descended.

He waited for more counsel. He needed advice. What was he to do? Where should he go? How was he to make sense of all this? But nothing more came. In a flash, he got up and bolted down the mountain, running toward Mecca, toward home, toward Khadija, his beloved wife. Halfway down the voice returned. Now it was a booming voice with a face, a man’s face. The face appeared to come from beyond the horizon. The celestial form announced: “O Muhammad, you are the apostle of God, and I am Gabriel.” He tried to look away but wherever he looked, there was the face; there w...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Preface
• Chapter 1: Muhammad and Revelation
• Chapter 2: The Orientalist Koran
• Chapter 3: The South Asian Koran
• Chapter 4: The Virtual Koran and Beyond
• Chapter 5: The Koran Up Close
• Chapter 6: The Politics of Koran Translation
• Chapter 7: The Graphic Koran
• Conclusion
• Acknowledgments
• Appendix: The Koran in English by Author and Date
• Notes
• Index