André Du Ryer in Spanish: an Anonymous handwritten Indirect Translation of the Qur’an

Abstract

During the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Qur’an was translated into Spanish in indirect translations based not on the original arabic text, but rather on prior translations into other languages, foremost among them French. In particular, the French translations by Claude Savary and especially albin de Biberstein Kazimirski were repeatedly translated and published in Spanish. However, there is a striking near total absence of references to L’Alcoran de Mahomet by andré Du Ryer, a French translation that achieved widespread success throughout Europe following its publication in 1647. This gap in the history of the translation of Islam’s most sacred text into Spanish is completed with the discovery of an anonymous Spanish translation of Du Ryer’s text in mss. II/609, II/610 and II/3544 held in the Royal Library of Madrid. It is this anonymous translation, characterized by its nearly total fidelity to Du Ryer’s French text, that is given a preliminary presentation here.