Early Qur’an translators claimed missionary aims to dodge church censorship
Evidence
However, new translations of the Qur’an were produced by Catholics with the aim of assisting missionaries to the Muslim lands, or alternatively fuelling anti-Muslim polemic. The translation of the Qur’an into French in 1647 by André du Ryer, the former French vice-consul in Alexandria, had an introduction that declared that the translation had been produced for the use of missionaries, so that they might have material for their missions of conversion. This was a traditional excuse used by those who wished to avoid censorship and ecclesiastical disapproval of any translation of the Qur’an. The risks involved in publishing any such translation were considerable, but so were the profits, as the Qur’an was widely regarded as a kind of black book, or Satanic text, and there were always readers eager for such novelties. — Robert Irwin, For Lust of Knowing, 182
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to the prestige/censorship dynamics in ‘Complaints About Immodesty Go Way Back’ — religious authorities policing dangerous texts.
Related
- The first English Qur’an translation carried an anti-Islamic caveat (similarity 0.82)
- The first vernacular Qur’an translation appeared in 1647. (similarity 0.81)
- Early English translators framed the Qur’an as dangerous imposture. (similarity 0.81)