The Rendering of Qur'anic Quotations in Hebrew Translations of Islamic Texts

Beginning in thelate twelfth century, a Jewish intellectual revolution took place in Christian Iberia and in Provence that centered on the translation of Arabic and Judeo-Arabic texts into Hebrew. In the Arabic-speaking world, Jews had been avid readers of Arabic literature and Islamic disciplines and composed works on philosophy, science, grammar, and biblical exegesis in Arabic, usually in Hebrew characters. Outside of the Arabic-speaking environment, Jews made Hebrew translations of texts by Jewish and Muslim authors from philosophical, theological, scientific, ethical, lexicographic, and literary genres.¹ Studies by numerous scholars have focused on the development of a Hebrew philosophical and scientific vocabulary by translators such as Judah, Samuel, and Moses Ibn Tibbon, Judah al-Harizi, and Shem Tov Ibn Falaquera, and the merits, from the perspective of accuracy, of the various methods used by these translators.² Others have noted renderings by Judah al-Harizi and Jacob Ben El'azar of Arabic belletristic texts in the clear diction of biblical Hebrew and argued that Jews composed these translations in order to establish Hebrew's versatility, eloquence, and superiority over Arabic.³

The complex dynamics of translation have been a central subject of inquiry for literary theorists for over a century.⁴ These dynamics often involve cultural as well as literary issues and can vary depending on the relationship translators maintain with the cultural group from which the parent text originates. Medieval translations from Arabic into Hebrew provide an interesting case study in that the act of translation posed complex issues on literary and ideological grounds. On a literary level, Hebrew did not possess the vocabulary for capturing Islamic technical terms or Arabic philosophical and scientific concepts; new terminology had to be invented even when rendering an Arabic text by a Jewish author for a non-Arabic-speaking Jewish audience. Belletristic texts also contained culturally specific allusions that were difficult to recreate in a Hebrew version. On an ideological level, translation brought to the fore tensions inherent in the relationship between Judaism and Islam, especially when it came to the revelatory status of the Bible and the Qur'an.

The rewriting of classic texts by Muslim authors in Hebrew garb was an enterprise riddled with ambivalences. Because Jews saw their Muslim predecessors simultaneously as intellectual and literary guides and also as religious competitors, Hebrew translations exhibit great tension when rendering statements suggestive of Islamic particularism. When translators encountered references from Islamic holy books, they had to make choices between translating texts literally and distorting them for the sake of de-Islamicization (and its complement, Judaization).

This article focuses on the rendering of quotations from the Qur'an (and to a lesser extent the h adīth) in Hebrew translations of Arabic texts by Muslim authors within the context of the polemical atmosphere of Christian Iberia and Provence. Numerous methods of rendering qur'anic verses—from simple omission, to literal and paraphrastic translation, to the substitution of biblical verses—are observed in ethical, philosophical, and belletristic texts. Translators of belletristic works often replace qur'anic quotations with biblical allusions in order to Judaize texts and to showcase Hebrew's eloquence and capacity. However, qur'anic quotations are also left intact for specific literary effects (such as irony) and for less apparent reasons. In translating philosophical and ethical literatures, in which qur'anic verses are introduced as prooftexts for arguments, translators make efforts to de-Islamicize texts lest the Qur'an appear as a valid source of truth. Even still, qur'anic verses are often preserved in Hebrew garb, though usually with an omission of attribution. Translators sometimes explain their translation choices (especially verse substitution) in polemical terms and even devalue the status of the Qur'an and the prophecy of Muhammad explicitly. However, translations are generally inconsistent in that Islamic materials are downplayed but not completely discarded.

Polemical Contexts

Jewish polemical writings against Islam during the...