First critical edition of a key text in the history of Christian-Muslim relations
The 10th-century Arabic dialog Masail Abdallah ibn Salam (“Questions of Abdallah ibn Salam”) has been published for the first time in a critical edition by Ulisse Cecini, researcher at the Department of Antiquity and Middle Age Studies, as part of the UAB's Islamolatina research project. The study unveils the starting point of an important history of diffusion, reception, transformation and adaptation of cultural and religious heritage between the Islamic and Christian worlds.
30/06/2021
The 10th-century Arabic dialog Masail Abdallah ibn Salam tells the story of a Jewish sage, who went to the Prophet Muhammad to ask him critical questions and thus verify if he was a real prophet. Object of the questions are not only the Islamic articles of faith, but also the creation of the first man and woman and their social status, the angels, Heaven and Hell, what will happen at the End of Times, as well as clever riddles, based mostly on Biblical histories, given the Jewish background of the questioner. After Muhammad has answered successfully each and every one of Abdallah’s requests, questions and riddles, the latter recognises the veracity of Muhammad’s prophethood, converts to Islam and becomes one of the most important and appreciated companions of the Prophet.
This history of conversion and, in more general terms, of Islamic success was spread both in the East and the West, counting with numerous translations, e.g. into Persian, Turkish, Urdu, Javanese and Malay, and also into Latin and the European vernacular languages. Now for the first time a critical edition of the Arabic text at the origin of this success story is presented by Ulisse Cecini, TALENT UAB Researcher and currently member of the UAB Research Project Islamolatina and of the ERC Synergy Grant The European Qur’an.
The edition, appearing in the prestigious Corpus Islamo-Christianum-series of the German Harrassowitz Verlag, is based on almost thirty manuscripts from all around the globe. It is preceded by an extensive study which reveals the complex tradition of the text, its genesis and sources, as well as its fortune in and outside the Islamic World. The text is accompanied by the critical edition of the Latin translation, edited by Concetta Finello and Reinhold Glei, which permits to appreciate the dynamics at stake in the translation process and the reception in the Christian milieu.
“The “Questions of Abdallah ibn Salam” are an incredibly rich repository of popular knowledge and legends, some of which have parallels in Thousand and One Night and may have inspired authors such as Lope de Vega. As a matter of fact, in the 12th century, the Arabic text was translated into Latin by Christian scholars, who entitled it Doctrina Mahumet and presented it as a compendium of irrational traditions in a clearly polemical perspective”, Ulisse Cecini states.
The Latin text shaped Christian-Muslim relations for centuries, as it was translated into all major Western European languages in the Early-Modern Times. Nonetheless, most of its versions lack a modern, scholarly edition. This much-awaited edition is the result of a sustained research and productive collaboration between the UAB, its SGR Islamolatina-project, and the Ruhr-University in Bochum, Germany.