NOTES FROM THE QURAN (7/6/'24) - SOME HISTORY.

 Although the Quran is over 1,400 years old it remained (and perhaps remains) a largely unknown document. The largest majority of Muslims, including Arab Muslims, just do not know what is in the Quran. 

The first printed Arabic Quran appeared in the 16th century (1537) in Venice in Italy. A fellow called Paganini (not the famous composer of the 18th century)  and his son published what was probably the first printed edition of the Quran in Arabic. This work was likely intended for export to the Ottoman Empire, with which Venice had extensive trade ties. All copies of that printed Arabic Quran have vanished except for one copy which was discovered in 1987. It is said that the printing had many faults.

But what does this mean? It means that before 1537 the Quran just did not exist in printed form. You could not walk into any Muslim house or even mosque or madrasah and ask to see a copy of the Arabic Quran - which you can do today. There were almost none.

Before the 16th century (or even much later) the Quran existed as hand written mushaf or hand written manuscripts. Like these two here:

The Quran on the left, kept in Tashkent, Uzbekistan is a handwritten volume from the 8th century and the one on the right, kept in Cairo, is from between the 8th to 10th centuries. I have personally seen this copy in Cairo. You can see how difficult (and expensive) it would have been to produce a Quran.

In the early times the Quran was indeed scarce, hence unknown to the vast majority of Arab and non-Arab Muslims around the world, hard to access due to its large-sized volume and the high cost to produce a hand-written copy. 

For example, here is some copy paste:

According to Ignacio Olagüe in his book "The Arabs Never Invaded Spain" (Flammarion, Paris, 1969), he quotes Eulogius of Córdoba (857) and John of Seville (858), that the 8th-century conquest of Spain occurred without the presence of the Quran or any collection of religious texts.

So when the Arab conquests began in the 7th and early 8th centuries they didnt even carry the Quran with them. 

The first English translation of the Quran (1734) was done by George Sale. This copy is in print until today.

The first English translation of the Quran by a Muslim translator was done circa 1920s. The famous English translation by Abdullah Yusuf Ali was first printed in 1938. The first Javanese translation was completed in 1913 while the first Acehnese translation was completed in 1965 (this is what I found on the Net, cant vouch for 100% accuracy).

The point I am trying to make is that printed translations of the Quran are fairly recent occurences. Meaning many, many non-Arab Muslims did not have easy access to read and understand the Quran.

To conclude here is some brain-shock. The French researcher (on Islam) Odon Lafontaine  has most recently (about a week ago) released the English version of his book The Great Secret of Islam.

 

The 162 page PDF version is available for FREE here at www.thegreatsecretofislam.com.  Indeed the book is a brain-shocker.   To illustrate this, here is a chart from this book: 

 

Odon Lafontaine belongs to the modern genre of researchers who rely a lot on scientific methods, historical evidence, archaeological remains, numismatics to support their research and conclusions. 

In the present day this type  of research into Islam's past is very vibrant among French scholars. The French seem to be pioneering this effort in the 21st century.  

If you have the time, the gumption, the curiosity do read Lafontaine's book. Agree or disagree is up to you. I am more interested in what they have found out and how they present their findings. 

The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.