Christian polemicists distorted Qur’anic verses with small, impactful translation shifts

Evidence

The implications of the text as this puts it are obvious. A careful comparison with the Qur’anic original will show how, with a minimum of inaccuracy, it gives an erroneous sense. Thus the Prophet’s being allowed more wives than the other believers becomes promiscuous access to all women; a suggestive phrase about their offering their bodies derives really from permission for marriage without a dowry. The final verse refers to the obligation of the Prophet to sleep with his wives in rotation; instead of conferring promiscuous licence, it regulates marital rights. It was to this Revelation that ‘A’ishah referred when she said that God hastened to satisfy Muhammad’s desires; but the reprobatio understood something much more shameful. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 565 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

The infinite respect for authority did not extend to the letter of the text. Provided that the words of the Qur’an cited proved the untruth of Islam, they were correctly cited. Verbal accuracy was not sought at all. The Qur’an would be quoted as rendering correctly some tenet of Islam (whether true or supposed ) to which it was desired, for polemic reasons, to draw attention; for example, ‘they were ordered to rob, to make prisoner and kill’ or ‘whatever (those in Paradise ) desired would immediately be supplied’. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1410 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

The Contrarietas has a perversion of the Qur’anic text here. For ‘it is /awful for you … to go unto your wives’ it has ‘estote solicitt ut impregnetis mulzeres’ (Q. 11.183; Cont. 1x). — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 2364 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Mediaeval Christian polemicists dismissed Quranic metaphors by misreading them as literal physics; Medieval Christian polemic distorted Qur’anic texts with minimal inaccuracy — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 565; Medieval polemicists distorted Quranic verses to serve anti-Muslim arguments — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 2364 (+6 more)

Related

• Medieval Christian polemic distorted Qur’anic texts with minimal inaccuracy (similarity 0.94)
• Medieval Christian polemic interpreted Qur’anic texts as nastily as possible (similarity 0.92)
• Medieval polemicists distorted Quranic verses to serve anti-Muslim arguments (similarity 0.92)
• Mediaeval Christian polemicists dismissed Quranic metaphors by misreading them as literal physics (similarity 0.90)
• Medieval European conflation of Qur’an and Traditions may have been a deliberate polemic tactic (similarity 0.90)
• Medieval polemicists quoted the Qur’an inaccurately without scruple (similarity 0.88)
• Ketton’s medieval Qur’an mistranslated but did not deliberately distort Islam (similarity 0.88)
• Christian annotators charged the Quran with self-contradiction on points later seen as mere nuance (similarity 0.85)
• Ricoldo first conflated hadith commentary with the Qur’anic text (similarity 0.84)
• Medieval Christians polemicists routinely conflated the Qur’an with reported sayings of Muhammad (similarity 0.84)
• Qur’anic verses recast through biased lenses can change their meaning with minimal inaccuracy (similarity 0.83)
• Medieval polemicists attacked the Qur’an with pedantic misreadings to prove Muhammad misunderstood truths (similarity 0.82)
• Mediaeval anti-Islamic polemics convinced neither Muslims nor Christians (similarity 0.82)
• Medieval attacks on the Qur’an obscured its evident piety to unlearned readers (similarity 0.82)
• Christian polemicists distorted the Qur’an by insisting it lacked charges they knew were there. (similarity 0.82)

Broader Connections

• Medieval Christian polemic distorted Qur’anic texts with minimal inaccuracy #corroborates (0.95) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 565
• Medieval polemicists distorted Quranic verses to serve anti-Muslim arguments #corroborates (0.90) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 2364
• Medieval polemicists quoted the Qur’an inaccurately without scruple #corroborates (0.90) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1410
• Medieval Christian polemic interpreted Qur’anic texts as nastily as possible #corroborates (0.85)
• A Qur’anic verse was distorted into an incitement to fight non-Muslims #exemplifies (0.75) — Asena Karipek, Portrayals of Jihad, 46
• Scholastic Christians judged the Qur’an by alien stylistic criteria and inverted its self-understanding #expands (0.70)