Section IV: On the Arabic Translation of Holy Scripture
Section IV: On the Arabic Translation of Holy Scripture
§ 511. Just as Chaldaic took its beginning from Hebrew and as Syriac took its beginning from Chaldaic, so from those two came Arabic. (Although the Hebrew language had flourished in Chaldea for some time after God had called Abraham and commanded him to leave that land, Gen. 11:1, the inhabitants gradually began to lose, along with true divine worship, their purity of language and began to speak in that dialect they call Aramaic, from Aram. Elias Levita recounts the origin of this language and calls it “the sacred language corrupted” and also “a language more closely related to the sacred language than are all the others.” [Later,] after the older Jews died, the younger ones began to forget their native Hebrew during the long Babylonian captivity, and because of their long familiarity with that people with whom they were now living, they had learned Chaldaic or the Syriac language, “which was then familiar to that people.” This language they took back to their own country later as their own familiar tongue, made common by long use. Finally, they used it regularly as their vernacular. Hebrew was preserved only among the learned. This Syriac language Christ used in the days of His flesh, that He might be understood by the common people.) Arabic was used first by the Hagarenes (who later preferred to be called Saracens) and the Ishmaelites (who take their beginning from Abraham). It is now used throughout Asia and Africa with Muhammad as its author, who descended from the Ishmaelitic tribe and wrote his Qur’an in this language. We also see that it was spread from the time of Heraclius by the frequent victories of the Turks, with the result that it is not inferior to any of the other languages but surpasses them all in the breadth of its use. Those who understand it can travel through Asia and Africa, as well as a large part of Europe, without a translator.
§ 512. Nicolaus Clenardus (who burned with such a desire to learn and to spread this language that he did not hesitate to go to Africa itself and to spend several years, not without peril to his life, among those barbaric peoples and enemies of the cross of Christ), Epistol., at the end of bk. 1, and Guido Fabricius, on the last page of his preface to the Syriac New Testament, prove that all the sacred writings are extant in the Arabic tongue ** authored by Saadia Gaon. ** These, indeed, have not been printed but are only manuscripts. Witness of this is Rutgerus Spey of Boppard, in his preface to the Epistle to the Galatians (which was written in Arabic characters and words and published for public use at Heidelberg in 1583): “Except for the Psalter of Augustine, bishop of Nebbio, there is nothing that has been printed in this language. Nevertheless this Psalter was printed so poorly that the Arabs themselves can barely read it.” Later, in 1592, there was published at Rome an Arabic New Testament, a copy of which we have in our academy’s library.
** In Biblioth., bk. 4, Sixtus Senensis witnesses: “Augustine of Nebbio gave fifth place in his Octapla to the Arabic, and of this work only two volumes were seen, namely, his printed Psalter and the four Gospels, transcribed in the hand of that author and set off with black and red ink.” **
But let us pass the same judgment on the Arabic translation that we declared with regard to the Syriac paraphrase.
** Guido Fabricius, preface to the Syriac New Testament, bears witness that there is a Persian translation of both Testaments that Jacob Tavasius and the Pavians produced, as well as Syriac, Armenian, and Ethiopian translations. **