The Issue of Blasphemy

The first English translation of the Koran directly from the original Arabic was completed in 1734 by George Sale. Sale had privately studied Arabic under two Syrians, one from Aleppo and another from Damascus, and the Society employed him to promote Christian Knowledge in London. Sale’s translation was dominant in the English-speaking world for more than a century. The early translations of the Islamic holy book into Latin, Spanish, and French were accompanied by unequivocally condemnatory statements. However, these statements should not be taken as a true reflection of the sincere opinions of the translators. Such statements were likely to be included to seek ecclesiastical permission for publication and to protect the translators from accusations of heresy or potential prosecution for disseminating blasphemous material. In 1960, the Egyptian government still considered Sale’s translation to contain objectionable comments in his “Preliminary Discourse,” resulting in orders to withdraw copies from the library of the American University at Cairo. In the Field of English Literature A significant development occurred in the early seventeenth century when Oxford University established a new chair of Arabic and appointed Edward Pocock (also known as Pococke) as its inaugural professor in 1636. Pocock had served as a chaplain for six years at the English factory of the Levant Company in Aleppo, where he gained proficiency in Arabic and firsthand knowledge of Islam. During this