A Bridge Too Far? Ludovico Marracci's Translation of the Qurʾan and the Persistence of Medieval Biblicism

Abstract

The medieval tendency to view Islam as a Christian heresy continues to influence Qurʾanic studies in the Western academy due to the academy's origins as a religious institution and the absence of systematic reckoning by contemporary scholars. Ludovico Marracci's 1698 Qurʾan commentary was both the culmination of the medieval polemic tradition and the blueprint for subsequent Western engagement with the Qurʾan. Though few Qurʾanic scholars have the proficiency in Latin necessary to read Marracci's work, Western Qurʾanic studies continues to overemphasize biblical “sources” for the Qurʾan because the field originated in a methodology that was fundamentally polemical rather than exegetical. This essay proposes models from within the Christian and Muslim traditions that can pave the way toward a break from Biblicist tropes toward an interfaith understanding based on the rich tradition of Muslim exegesis.