refuting Islam and the Qur’ân, and as such, served the purpose of giving a distorted picture of both to the Europeans.

(d) Attempt of the Congregatio de Propagatione Fidei of Rome to refute the Qur’ân Translation of Marracci and its offshoots

The next notable step in the European Qur’ânic study was taken by the Congregatio de Propagatione Fidei of Rome which, under the direction of the Pope, prepared and published a Latin "refutation" of the Qur’ân in 1691 under the title: Prodromus ad Refutationem Alcorani. This was shortly afterwards republished along with the full Arabic text of the Qur’ân. (1) Almost simultaneously, in 1694, Abraham Hinckelmann published the full Qur’ân in Arabic from Hamburg in Germany in 1694. Copies of this print of the Qur’ân are preserved in some of the European libraries. More importantly, a new Latin Translation of the Qur’ân prepared by Ludovico Marracci was published from Padua in 1698. Marracci was a confessor to Pope Innocent XI and the work was dedicated to the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I. The professed aim of the work was the same as that of its predecessors, to refute and discredit Islam and the Qur’ân; but it differed from them in scope. It gave a translation together with the Arabic text. Second, it added explanatory notes and comments in two forms: in the translation of almost every ‘âyah explanatory notes were included in the body of the translation which more often than not distorted its meaning; and further comments for the same purpose were added as footnotes. These were also carefully selected from the unorthodox and faulty Arabic commentaries so as to give the worst possible impression of Islam. Third, the whole work was introduced by a companion volume entitled "Refutation of the Qur’ân".

Naturally this work was eagerly welcomed by the Christian enthusiasts and evangelists and it was translated as well as made the basis for further translations in a number of European languages. Thus, just five years after its publication, David Nerreter translated Marracci’s translation into German which was published at Nuremberg in 1703. And in 1734 was published the famous English translation of George Sale