The Qur’an’s first European vernacular translation prioritized literary polish over fidelity

Evidence

In Du Ryer’s case, it seems that his real aim was to produce a readable translation that would make the French public aware of one of the glories of Arabic literature. Like Galland who translated The Thousand and One Nights half a century later, Du Ryer set upon improving the barbarousness of the Arabic by turning it into a stately and courtly French. ‘I have made the Prophet speak French,’ he declared. Du Ryer’s was the first complete translation of the Qur’an since the Middle Ages and the first translation ever into a vernacular. — Robert Irwin, For Lust of Knowing, 183

Categorization

• SEED: Angle for an essay: how early European translations ‘improved’ non-Western classics by smoothing them into courtly French — the translator as co-author.
• XREF: connects to: Early European translations of Islamic texts ignored most major source works besides the Quran

Related

• Early European translations of Islamic texts ignored most major source works besides the Quran (similarity 0.90)
• The first vernacular Qur’an translation appeared in 1647. (similarity 0.82)
• The first English Qur’an translation carried an anti-Islamic caveat (similarity 0.79)