LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW - Brock University

FRANCISCO: POLEMICAL WORKS AGAINST ISLAM, 1529-43 51
This three-part reference work entitled The Life, Teachings, and Qur’ân
of Muhammad the Prince of the Saracens was the first of its kind in the West
since Peter the Venerable had the Qur’ân and other Islamic texts translated
in the 1140s. 45 It was divided into three volumes. The first, Bibliander
indicated on the title page, contained an “authentic collection of the divine
laws of the Hagarians and Turks.” Along with an advanced warning to the
reader (praemonitio), 46 two defences of the Qur’ân’s publication, 47 and a
summary of Islamic doctrine, 48 were four “books of Muhammadan doctrine”.
The first was, of course, the Qur’ân. The second and third were popular
hadîths, or reports, of Muhammad’s words and deeds. 49 The fourth work was
an account of early Islamic history from Muhammad into the first century of
Islam. 50 The first volume closes with a listing of annotations for particular
verses of the Qur’ân and a (separate) listing of variant readings of the text.
The second volume contained a variety of polemical and apologetic
works or, as Bibliander called them, “Refutations of the law of Muhammad”.
The first three are short two- to three-page extracts from the works of
humanist scholars, which generally sum up the teachings of Islam while
critiquing it along the way. 51 Following this is a paraphrased copy of perhaps
the most popular medieval Arab apologetic-polemical work, usually known
as the Apology of al-Kindî. Bibliander gave it the title, “Disputation of a
learned Christian and his Saracen friend”. 52 Following this are two of the
most popular Western polemics against the Qur’ân: Nicholas of Cusa’s
Sifting of the Qur’ân, and Riccoldo da Monte di Croce’s Confutation of the
Qur’ân (in Latin in Greek). The final work is an old Byzantine polemic,
45 For the first Western attempt to translate the Qur’ân, see James Kritzeck, Peter the
Venerable and Islam (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1964). For Bibliander’s volume
on Islam, in addition to the work itself (see note 1), see Bobzin, Der Koran, 176-236; Manuel,
“Une encyclopedie de l’islam”, 31-37; and V. Segesvary, L’Islam et la Réforme: Etude sur
l’attitude des réformateurs Zurichois envers l’Islam (1510-1550) (Lausanne, 1978).
46 One of the editions contains Luther’s preface (see note 1). The other editions contain
Melanchthon’s praemonitio (in Corpus Reformatorum 5:10-13).
47 One was written by Bibliander (Apologia pro editione Alcorani) and the other was Peter
the Venerable’s letter to Bernard of Clairveaux written 400 years earlier in defence of the first
Latin translation.
48 Peter the Venerable’s Summula brevis contra haereses et sectam diabolicae fraudis
Saracenorum, sive Ismahelitarum.
49 Doctrina Machumetis and De generatione Mahumet & nutritura eius.
50 Chronica mendosa et ridiculosa Saracenorum.
51 The first is an extract from Juan Luis Vive’s De veritate fidei Christianae: De Mahomete
& Alcorano. The second is a work by Raffaele Maffei of Volterra entitled De Mahometo,
eiusque legibus, & Sarracenorum rebus. And the third was from Girolamo Savonarola under
the title Mahumetanorum sectam omni ratione carere, commentatiucula lectu dignissima.
52 Disputatio Christiani eruditissime, qui diversatus est apud principem Sarracenorum cum
magna dignatione, & Sarraceni sodalis ipsius, adversus doctrinam & flagitia Mahumetis.