Against the law of the Saracens
By Fr. Riccoldo da monte di Croce, O.P.
Florence; c. 1243-1320
The law of the Muslims is contradicts itself
|
|
Sixthly, it must be considered that the law of the Alchoran not only disagrees with the law of God but also does not suit itself. And this is the opinion and consideration of Mahomet; for he says in the chapter Elnesa , which is interpreted "women": "If this Alchoran were not from God, certainly many contraries would be found in him." Now it is clear that many contraries and contradictions are found in him [1] . |
|
(9) For he himself says in many places that God does not guide the erring [2] , and yet he himself teaches us to pray that we may be guided and brought out of darkness into light and from error into guidance [3] ; he himself also said that he was "an orphan and a wanderer" [4] . |
|
(12) It is clear that she was an idolater; and yet she says that God made him such a prophet that when God sent for him, he himself ascended to God even to the seventh heaven and implored forgiveness from an angel who was many thousand times greater than the world, whom he found weeping for his sins [5] . |
|
(17) He also says that he is a general prophet [6] , and yet he says that the Quran was given to him in Arabic and that he does not know any other language than Arabic [7] . |
|
(20) He also says in the chapter delbachara , which is interpreted as "cow", that the Jews and the Christians and the Sabians will be saved [8] ; and in the chapter Amran he says later that no one will be saved except in the law of the Saracens. |
|
(23) He also commands them not to argue with men of another sect with harsh words but with gentle words; it is not for man to direct but for God alone, and each one has to give an account of himself alone and not of another. And afterwards he commands in many places that those who do not believe should be killed and plundered until they believe or pay the tax [9] . |
|
(28) Furthermore, he himself says in chapter 3 that "those who receive another lord besides God, you are not their patron and guardian, but God reserves them for himself" [10] . There is therefore a notable contradiction that on the one hand he so often commands by the authority of God that unbelievers be killed , and on the other hand God commands that even for such a crime there is no guardian to punish them but they are reserved for God alone. |
|
(35) Likewise in chapter .207. Eltemnun , at the end, boasts that he himself «is not one of those who compel» [11] . | 193v | But how is he not one of those who compel who commands that non-believers be killed and plundered? For what greater compulsion is there than killing? |
|
(38) Likewise, in the chapter on the Cow he admits sodomy with both males and females [12] . For he says to the Saracens that "they should not defile themselves with unbelievers unless they believe" [13] ; and of women he says: "Your women are your plowing, plow them as you wish". And yet in the same chapter [14] he says earlier that they committed sodomy in the time of Lot "an abominable vice and unaccustomed to the former nations". |
|
(44) He further says that Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their sons were Saracens; and yet he says that he was commanded that he himself should be the first Saracen. But how were they Saracens if Muhammad was the first Saracen? [15] |
|
(48) Furthermore, it is clear that there were no Saracens as to their rite until after the Saracen law was given. Now the Saracen law is the Koran, which was indeed given after the law of Moses and the Gospel, as is contained in the Koran; indeed, it is not yet seven hundred years since Mohammed existed . [16] But Noah and Abraham, Isaac and Jacob existed both before the Gospel and also before the law of Moses. |
|
(54) Likewise he himself says that God forbade divination [17] ; and yet he says later in the chapter Elaaraf : "You shall divination, if you cannot do otherwise, in the notch of the date palm; and whoever does not do this, let him be anathema . " [18] |
|
(57) He also
says that he was sent to the Arabs because they did not have the message
of God. He also says that the Koran was given only in the Arabic
language. He also says that he does not know any other language except
Arabic
[19]
. Hence, when a certain Baheyra, a Jacobite, and Salon, a Persian, and
Abdaalla of Persia, the son of Selam, a Jew, had joined Muhammad, and
some were saying that they were instructing him, and behold, he fell on
his face and his hands and feet were tied up, and his companions covered
him with their clothes. And returning to himself, he said: «God has sent
<me> to rebuke you concerning the word which you said that such people
were teaching me». |
|
(71) But if he could not be instructed by Hebrew and Persian, who are related, how could he instruct others in very distant languages? Yet he himself later says that he was sent to all the nations; hence in the chapter of the Prophets he says that God said to him: “We have not sent you except to all the nations.” But how will he go to all the nations in seventy languages, who does not know how to recite his speech except in the Arabic language? [21] It is therefore a manifest contradiction and an open lie that he was sent only to the Arabs and to all the nations. |
|
(79) Therefore, there is no law of God in which so many contraries are found. |
[1] Cf. Contrarietas alpholica II, Paris BN lat. 3394, f. 240r, 10-11: «Contrarietates autem exponentium Alchoranum commemoratus sum in libro quem edidi qui vocatur: Extraneerum [sic] expositorum». We have there the Latin name of another work composed by the author of the Alpholica.
[2] Cf. Cor. 2,257,264; 3.8; 5,51,67,108; 6,144; 9,19,24,37,109; 16,37,104,107; 28.50; 30,29; 46,10; 61.7; 63.6; CLS 8 , 107
[3] on the invocation to direction: cf. Uguccione da Pisa [† 1210], Derivations II, 1256 § 19.
[4] Cor. 93,6-7 (yatîman, dhâlan). Contrarietas alpholica X, Paris BN lat. 3394, f. 255r, 11-13: «It is said in the chapter Ebroha to Muhammad himself: Did not God find you an orphan and collect you from the wandering and direct you?».
[5]
Cf. Pietro il Venerabile († 1156), Summa totius haeresis Saracenorum, ed. J.
Kritzeck, Peter the Venerable and Islam, Princeton 1964, p. 205 «idolatriae
cultor »; et p. 206 « inter idolatras et ipse idolata habitabat».
Contrarietas alpholica XII,
Paris BN lat. 3394, f. 262v, 7-14: «In quo septimo celo describit se vidisse
populum angelorum, longitudo uniuscuiuslibet angeli erat instar mundi multis
mille uicibus (...); et respexit unum angelum flentem et quesivit causam fletus
eius, et respondit: "Colpe sunt"»; CLS
14
; Cor. 17,1; L. GARDET, La notion de prophétie en théologie musulmane, «Revue
Thomiste» 1966, 353-409.
[6] Cor. 34,28 (kâffatan li-l-nâs); 7,158 (rasûlu llahi ilaykum jamî'an); Pietro the Venerable († 1156), Book against the sect..., ed. Kritzeck, Peter the Venerable..., Princeton 1964, pp. 282, 290: "universal prophet"; JP TORRELL, La notion de prophétie et la métbode apologétique dans le Contra Saracenos de Pierre le Vénérable, «Studia Monastica» 18 (1975) 257-282; L. GARDET, Dieu et la destinée de l'homme, Paris 1967, p. 223-224 (l'universalité, note de la mission muhammadienne).
[7] Cf. Cor. 16,103 (wa hâdha lisânun 'arabyun mubîn); ARNALDEZ, pp. 29-31. Contrarietas alpholica, VIII, f. 248v, 2-5: «And again in the chapter of Seba: We have not sent you except to the whole assembly of nations (...). You do not know how to recite your message except in the Arabic language; will you not be a barbarian to them?».
[8] Koran, al-bagara (2), 62; cf. 5.69; 22,17; cf. K. SAMIR, Le commentaîre de Tabarî sur Coran 2/62 et la question du salut des non-musulmans, «Annali dell'Istituto Orientale di Napoli», V, 40, 555-617.
[9] Cor. 9,29; Encycl. de l'Islam, 2nd ed., "Djizya"; A. FATTAL, Le statut légal des non-musulmans en pays d'Islam, Beirut 1958. CLS 1, 78-79 .
[10] Koran, hm (42), 6 (min dûnibi = without God); cf. CLS 4, 51-52 , where Riccoldo traduit aussi (min dûnibi) de façon défectueuse; c'est "en plus de Dieu" que les infidèles ont pris un protecteur.
[11] Nous n'avons pas réussi à identifier ce nom de "Eltemnun". It should be compared to Cor. 38,86 (wa ma anâ mina -l-mutakallifîna, "je ne suis pas au nombre de ceux qui cherchent à s'imposer", MASSON, p. 565)? En effet le N. Cor. 207 who designates cette sourate, se situe entre le N. Cor. 176 (who designates la soura 35), and le N. Cor. 218 (qui designates la sourate 54), pourrait designates la sourate 38. Au chapitre 9 du CLS Riccoldo designates toutefois la sourate 38 par son vrai nom: "chapter Sad" (CLS 9, 116 ).
[12] Riccoldo follows Alpholica in his error on the meaning of the verb 'ankaha and attributes therefore to the Quran the permission of sodomy. Cf. Contrarietas alpholica X, f. 255r, 21 - 255v, 5: «For even the conjunction with the infidel prohibits in the chapter Elbaqra, that is, the Cow, where he says: "Do not fornicate (lâ tankihû) with participants (al-mushrikât), that is, Christians until they believe; nor even know (lâ tunkihû) male participants (al-mushrikîna) until they believe; for believing servants are better than participants". And note that here he quite concedes sodomy.» The error comes from the fact that lâ tunkihû is a verb in the fourth form (and not in the first, as Riccoldo seems to think); 'ankaha, IVe form, signifie dans ce passage du Coran, "donner sa fille en mariage" et pas "avoir des relations sexuelles" (ce qui est le sens de la première forme du verbe nakaha) d'où l'erreur de traduction suivie d'erreur sur la doctrine musulmane ("don't even know the male participants until they believe").
[13] Cor. 2,221: "Ne donnez point (vos filles) en mariage aux Associateurs avant qu'ils ne croient" (BLACHERE, p. 61). Riccoldo a traduit lâ tunkihû par "non polluant", ce qui est une erreur du même genre que celle de l'Alpholica sur ce point, et qui l'induit dans la même déformation de la pensée musulmane. L'exemplaire du Coran [Paris, BNF, Arabe 384 ] sur lequel travaillait Riccoldo compornùt-il les voyelles? S'il ne les comportait pas, il n'y avait pas de différences graphiques entre lâ tankihû et lâ tunkihû, et il était dès lors facile de se tromper.
[14] Cor. 7,80, and not the surah al-baqara (Cor. 2). Riccoldo, due to his error on Cor. 2,221, has himself forged the “contradiction” that he attributes to the Koran. The tradition which depends on Peter the Venerable is in the same vein; cf. BIBLIANDER, p. 17, 25-26; KRITZECK, p. 217, 26-30: “Quod insuper rem sodomicam atque turpissimam docuerit, praecipiens in Alchorano suo, et uelut ex persona Dei sic loquens: O uiri, mulieres uobis subiecatas, ex quacumque parte uobis placuerit perarate” (Cor. 2,223); CLS 1, 80-82 .
[15] Contrarietas alpholica IX, Paris BN lat. 3394, f. 254r, 10-11: "Also he said in the Eleucus chapter: God said: Say, I have been commanded to become the first Muslim"; Cor. 6,14 ('umirtu 'an 'akûna 'awwala man 'asIama; Dis: "J'ai reçu l'ordre d'être le premier à me soutret"; BLACHERE, p. 153); 6,163; 7,143 (wa 'anâ 'awwalu l-mu'minîna; Et je suis le premier des Croyants; BLACHERE, p. 191); Encycl. de l'Islam, 2 a ed., "Ibrâhîm".
[16] Cf. Epistles III, p. 277 = BAV, Vat. lat. 7317, f. 256r : «Mahometus, whose tyranny you strengthened against the Christians, carried on for seven hundred years»; p. 280 .
[17] Cor. 5,3 ('an tastaqsimû bi-l-'azlâmi dhâlika fisq): "Consulter le sort par les flèches est perversité" (BLACHERE, p. 132); "e v'è anche proibito di distributervi tra voi a sorte gli oggetti: questo è un'empietà" (trans. Bausani, Florence 1961). Anche i moderni traduttori del quran divergono non poco nell'interpretation del testo!
[18] Contrarietas alpholica IX, Paris BN lat. 3394, f. 253r, 14-18: «Item in the chapter Elaaraf [al-a'arâf]: Whoever shall not say that adornment and suavia are lawful, let him be anathema. And he hath ordained for you a fast of one month in the year, in which ye shall eat from the rising of the sun until the rising of the sun; and if ye cannot do otherwise, fast in the crack of a date. Whosoever shall not be anathema let him be anathema.» Cor. 7,32: «Who then hath declared unlawful the adornment which Allah hath produced for his servants, as also the excellent [foods] of his provision?» (BLACHERE, p. 178); «Who hath forbidden the ornaments of God, which he hath prepared for his servants and the good things of his providence?» (trad. Bausani, Florence 1961). Where the Alpholica has “angariemini”, Riccoldo has by a clear error “auguriemini”. In Cor. 7,32, it is not at all about divination. The word “angariemini” is used twice in the following folio of the Alpholica, f. 253v, 7-9: “And because the Saracens cannot play, he will compel seventy Jews and seventy Christians to carry those rods”; and f. 253v, 11-13: “Who ever led a prophetic life, or commanded such things to be observed in fasting, namely, that they should be distressed(?) and luxuriate, so that they may eat from evening to dawn”.
For a medieval semantics of certain lessems see Uguccione da Pisa [† 1210], Derivationes II, 300 § D4 "Dactilon"; II, 58 § 11 "Angaria": «... angario -as, idest compellere vel cogere unjusti, unde in Passione Domini "et angariaverunt Simonem quendam ut tolleret crucem Iesu"»; Matt. 27,32 "costrinsero Simone a portare la croce di Gesù"; II, 1141 "Scindo, Scissura".
[19] Cf. Cor. 12,2; 13,37; 16,103,105; 20,113; 26,195; 39,28; 41,3,44; 42,7; 43,3; 44,58; 46,12. Riccoldo trouve contradictoire le fait de la culture uniques arabe de Mahomet et celui de sa mission universelle.
[20] Contrarietas alpholica V, Paris BN lat. 3394, ff. 243v, 8-244r, 7: «Then a certain monk called Boheira joined him... and Salon the Persian and Abdalla the son of Selam the Jew joined him, and they became Saracens...; but some... told Muhammad that that Persian and that Hebrew were teaching him. And behold he fell on his face and his hands and feet were tied up, and his companions came to him and covered him with their garments; and returning to himself he said: "God has sent me to rebuke you for the word which you said that such people were teaching me". He read to them one sentence which is at the end of the lesson Elnahel, which is interpreted palm, which says thus: "We know that they will say that a man would instruct him, but the language with which they speak to him is Persian, but this is plain Arabic" [16, 103]. And from this he said: "How can it be that they teach me, one of whom is Persian, the other Hebrew?". They replied to him: "It can be that their tongues speak to you and explain, and your tongue adorns and corrects"; and he did not find an answer for them". Riccoldo here reproduces almost entirely chapter 5 of the Alpholica, "On the doctors of Machometi"; he did not correct the error concerning the name of the sura al-nahl (16), which means "The Bees" and not "palm" al-nakhl (confusion between h and kh). Let us note the variant: "you adorn and correct your tongue". Cf. Cor. 16,103. BLACHERE, p. 302, note 105, p. 368, note 5. The Alpholica and Riccoldo, in designating the monk who taught Mahomet by the name of "Baheyra", are in keeping with the tradition originating from Ibn Ishaq; M.-T. D'ALVERNY, Marc de Toledo, translator of Ibn Tumart, «AI-Andalus» 16 (1951) 128-130; Itinerarium, XXV, ed JCM Laurent , Peregrinatores medii aevi quatuor, Lipsiae 1873, p. 140, 28-30 = Liber peregrinationis, Berlin, Staatsbibliothek lat. 4°.466, f. 21vb .
[21] " Contrarietas alpholica VIII, f. 248v, 1-6: «And again in the chapter of the Prophets he imagines God saying to himself: "We have not destined you except for the sake of the wise" [21, 107]. And again in the chapter of Seba: "We have not sent you except to the universality of the nations" [34, 28]. Look and attend to the lie of your presumption that you imagine the message of God: you go to the universality of the nations in LXX languages , you do not know how to recite your message except in the Arabic language». Verse 28 of sourat 34 (Saba), by a leap from one word to another, was wrongly attributed by the copyist of the CLS to sourat 21 (Prophet).
Si tratta verentemente d'un errore specifically di copista? intento a verificare testo citato e titolo di sura di appartenenza? cf. Introduz., "Memorie Dominicane" 17 (1986) p. 22