Full Description
From the first centuries of Islam to well into the Middle Ages, Jews and Christians produced hundreds of manuscripts containing portions of the Bible in Arabic. Until recently, however, these translations remained largely neglected by Biblical scholars and historians. In telling the story of the Bible in Arabic, this book casts light on a crucial transition in the cultural and religious life of Jews and Christians in Arabic-speaking lands. In pre-Islamic times, Jewish and Christian scriptures circulated orally in the Arabic-speaking milieu. After the rise of Islam--and the Qur'an's appearance as a scripture in its own right--Jews and Christians translated the Hebrew Bible and the Greek New Testament into Arabic for their own use and as a response to the Qur'an's retelling of Biblical narratives. From the ninth century onward, a steady stream of Jewish and Christian translations of the Hebrew Bible and New Testament crossed communal borders to influence the Islamic world. The Bible in Arabic offers a new frame of reference for the pivotal place of Arabic Bible translations in the religious and cultural interactions between Jews, Christians, and Muslims.
Contents
List of Illustrations ix Preface xi Introduction 1 Chapter I: The Bible in Pre-Islamic Arabia 7 Chapter II: The Bible in the Arabic Qur'a'n 54 Chapter III: The Earliest Translations of the Bible into Arabic 97 Chapter IV: Christian Translations of the Bible into Arabic 127 Chapter V: Jewish Translations of the Bible into Arabic 155 Chapter VI: Muslims and the Bible in Arabic 175 Chapter VII: Intertwined Scriptures 204 Bibliography 217 Index 247
