Translating to Refute: Peter the Venerable, the Qur’an, and the Shaping of Christian Anti-Islamic Discourse

Abstract

Aim of the Study: This paper aims to analyze the project of Abbot Peter the Venerable to translate the Qur’an into Latin (Lex Mahumet Pseudoprophete) with the help of his associates in Toledo in the beginning of 12th century. The paper focuses on Abbot Peter’s approach of direct and scholarly translation and rationalized blasphemy as an alternative to the accepted medieval militaristic crusades and superficial invectives attempting to contrast Islamic scriptures with a rationalized rebuttal. Methodology: The paper uses thematic and historical discourse analysis applied to the primary literary sources of Toledan Collection (Collectio Toletana). It classifies the most relevant texts, including Summa Totius Haeresis Saracenorum and Contra Sectam Saracenorum, explores translation practices, marginal annotations, and heresiological frameworks. Findings: All of this is realized within the context of defense of the orthodox Christian faith, conceptualized Islam as a form of an earlier Christian heresy interpreted through the “false prophet”, and constructed an image of Islam as antithetical to the true Christian faith. Peter’s heretical interpretation of Islam as Christianity “in reverse” was presented with the help of numerous metaphorical descriptions and annotating comments filled with violent and vivid imagery. It was intended to help provide a certain degree of rational understanding of Islam while simultaneously keeping the doctrinal purity of the Christian religion. Conclusion: Peter’s project provided a scholarly and methodological basis for the later developments in critiques of Islam that would echo throughout Europe for centuries to come. The paper concludes that this medieval approach provides structural and conceptual foundation for contemporary “neo-Islamophobia”; a complex of systematically ingrained hostilities towards Islam encoded in the social, civic, and political frameworks of modern society.