The Miʿrāǧ of Muḥammad According to Baldassarre Loyola Mandes S.J. (1631-1667). Sources, Controversy and Christianization of an Islamic Tradition (original) (raw)
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The Earliest Latin Lives of Muhammad
Michael Gervers and Ramzi Jibran Bikhazi, eds., Conversion and Continuity: Indigenous Christian Comunities in Islamic Lands, Eighth to Eighteenth Centuries, Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, Toronto, 1990, pp. 89-101.
The Earliest Latin Lives of Muhammad Kenneth B. Wolf The eleventh-century Codex of Roda, rediscovered in 1927 after centuries of obscurity, has received considerable attention as an important early source for the study of the Christian kingdoms in northem Spain.l But the codex also enjoys the less publicized distinction of containing copies of the two earliest Latin lives of Mu0ammad. The longer of the two, found under the rubric, "Istoria de Mahomet," is not unique to the Codex of Roda. There are four known manuscript versions in addition to a printed one based on a manuscript that is no longer extant.2 The other life, curiously titled "Tultusceptru de libro domni Metobii," has no other extant versions. Both of these lives are fascinating from a "history of ideas" perspective, as early examples of the repositories of misconceptions about Islam that would be drawn upon over and over again by Christians trying to explain, or more appropriately, explain away the success of Islam. But both pose problems for the historian of westem views of Islam because they have come down to us with neither the names of their authors nor the dates of their composition. My purpose here will be to attempt to recreate the historical context within which the lives were composed based on their polemical content and what we know about one of the earliest redactors of the Istoria de Mahomet.3 Garcfa Vill. "Roda," pp. 113-130. a Escorial d.I.2 (975); Esairial d.I.l (992); Biblioteca de la Academia de Historia 78 (Codex of Roda, 11th c.); and Biblioteca Nacional 8831 (12th c.). Ambrosio de Morales, a court historian for Philip I[, pubhshed an edition of the writingg of the ninth-caitury priest Eulogiug of Coioba, which also cont ains a version of ffie lost Istoria, but the manuscript was subsequently lost. Ijkewise, the manuscript from which Eulogius himself transcribed the life-in faa, the earliest known version-is no longer extant. See PL, vol. 115, cols. 859-60. For a critical edition see Dfaz, pp. 157-59. ' Dfaz y Dfaz offers some preliminary speculation about the dates and authors of these acoounts and surnniarizes the opinions of others about the better known of the two lives (Dfaz, p. 149). The present study is a response to his call for more research on the matter. Conversion and Continuity: Indigenous Christian Communities in lslamic Lands, Eighth to Eighteenth Cemuries, ed. Michael Gervers and Ramzi Jibran Bikhazi, Papers in Mediaeval Studies 9
ABSTRACT The objective is to present and comment two extracts, taken from two independent texts, which retell the biography of the Prophet Muhammad. Both of the sources, Rodrigo ]iménez de Rada's 'Historia Arabum' chapters I-VI, and Marcos de Toledo's 'Prologus Alcorani', were wrirten in Toledo, in the thirteenth century, The fragments, extracted frorn the Arabs' History (1245) and the second Latin translarion of the Qur'an (1210-1211), belong to the literary movement of the Islamic-Christian conrroversy, the primary objective of which was to present information about Islam and interpret them frorn such an angle so that the enemy religion was showed ridiculous and inferior to Christianity. In order to justify the selection of the texts, the connection between the two authors will be mentioned. Marcos de Toledo belonged to the intellectual circle formed under the auspices of Don Rodrigo ]iménez de Rada when the latter was the archbishop ofToledo (1209-1247). KEYWORDS: Christian Muhamrnad, Islamic-Christian controversy, Marcos de Toledo, Rodrigo ]iménez de Rada
The goal of this article is to show, through a case study of a convert from Islam to Catholicism in the seventeenth century, how multi-faceted and complex the phenomenon of conversion is, where political, social, and religious factors are intertwined. The article recounts the conversion story of Mohammed el-Attaz, later known as Baldassarre Loyola (1631-1667). Son of the king of Fez (Morocco) of the Saʿadian dynasty, Mohammed was captured on his way to Mecca by the Knights of Malta; he converted to Christianity, went to Italy, became a Jesuit, and spent some years of his life converting Muslims in Italian port cities. The story of Baldassarre Loyola is unique for many reasons. First, this is the only known case of a Muslim prince joining the Society of Jesus. Second, we have an extraordinary range of sources: more than 200 letters written by Baldassarre, Christian and Muslim firsthand sources, an unpublished Autobiography, and a 600-page unpublished Life written by Baldassarre's spiritual director, the Jesuit Domenico Brunacci. Additionally, a sacred drama on Baldassarre's story (El gran principe de Fez) was composed by Calderón de la Barca and performed in Jesuit colleges in Europe as well as overseas. This case study of a man between two worlds-struggling for a new identity but always linked to his ancient rootsilluminates, through the phenomenon of conversion, the tormented, rich, and fascinating relationship between Islam and Christianity on the eve of modernity.
JOURNAL OF QUR'ANIC STUDIES, vol. 25, pp. 93-119, 2021
Comment le Qur’ān est-il nommé, défini, figuré? Comment le Qur’ān est-il jugé, évalué? Comment le Qur’ān est-il lu et compris? Comment le Qur’ān est-il utilisé, transformé, exploité? Ces questions, au centre du débat des journées d’étude, ont été appliquées à la réception de l’Alcoranus dans les commentaires à la Comédie. La question des sources arabes de la Comédie, depuis la publication des thèses de Asín Palacios, a donné lieu à une polémique considérable entre partisans et decrateurs de la dépendance de Dante aux traditions musulmanes. Les chercheurs ont toutefois compris qu’il faut repenser les terms du débat et évaluer le rôle joué par les intermediares latins ou romans. On a donc insisté sur la reconstruction des canaux de transmission possibles de la culture arabe, à la fois dans le christianisme et dans l’Alighieri, ou sur l’évaluation de l’image de la religion musulmane et de son fondateur, Mahomet, répandue au Moyen Âge. En revanche, la réception du texte de l’Alcoranus est restée insuffisamment étudiée, confinée dans le cadre, qui est d’ailleurs philologiquement sûr, de la citation indirecte. La communication s'est concentrée donc sur l’image du livre sacré de l’Islam rendue par les anciens commentaires à la Comédie. Le texte de l’Alcoranus apparaît le résultat d’un filtrage idéologique et culturel réitéré qui devient une opportunité pour rappeler les tópoi les plus courants de la polémique anti-islamique.