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Trinitarian Bible Society – Quarterly RecordBrief Timeline ofMuslim Beginnings(all dates AD)610: Muhammad of the Quraysh tribepreaches a new religion, Islam, whichis at that time a model of religioustolerance—all gods are allowed.615: Muslims travel to Ethiopia.622: Muhammad and his followers(‘Muslims’) migrate (hejira) to Yathrib,which was renamed Medina byMuhammad.From this point, ‘Arab’ and ‘Muslim’ aregenerally (if inaccurately) synonymous.630: Muhammad conquers Meccaand establishes the first religiousdictatorship in the world; all other godsare banned.632: Muhammad dies. The Shiites claim thatAli should succeed Muhammad, sincehe is a blood relation; the council of theelderly, the Sunnites, prefer Abu Bakras the first Muslim caliph (‘prophet’ssuccessor’).636: Arabs capture Jerusalem .639: Arabs conquer Nestorian Syria.642: Arabs conquer mainly MonophysiteEgypt. They destroy the library ofAlexandria and place the first mosquein Africa on the site of future Cairo.642: Oldest extant manuscript in Arabic.655: The text of the Qur’an is finalised.656: Ali (cousin and son-in-law ofMuhammad), the first ‘imam’ of Shiah,moves the capital from Medina to Kufa.695: Arabs build the Dome of the Rockin Jerusalem, with a first Quranicinscription.696: Arabic becomes the official language ofthe Islamic world.definitive Classical Arabic tongue andscript, and the labours to produce the Biblein print in that tongue and script makefascinating reading.k Arabic BibleEarly WorksArabic translations of Biblical materialbegan early. Tatian’s Diatesseron 13of AD 163 certainly existed in Arabictranslation in medieval times, and Jerome(AD 342–420), through his masteryof Aramaic and Syriac, certainly had afamiliarity with Arabic. The language,though, had no clear shape or form untilthe text of the Qur’an was settled andArabic became the standard tongueof the Islamic world in the late 7thcentury. Almost all early printed ArabicScripture was the work of Roman Catholictranslators, and Latin dependent: a legacynot always faced up to in later years.The first printed Arabic Scripture was anedition of the Psalms in 1516 at Genoa,the work of Petrus Paulus Porrus. The firstprinted Arabic Gospels were produced in1590, in Rome; these were based on theAlexandrian text of the Latin Vulgate. Afirst Arabic New Testament was printed in1616 in Leyden, edited by T. Erpenius froma manuscript in the Leyden library datingfrom 1342. In 1645 came the Paris PolyglotBible, a massive and vastly expensive tenvolumeproduction containing, amongother languages, a first complete ArabicBible, edited from manuscripts of Aleppoand Constantinople. Walton’s LondonPolyglot used the same Arabic text ina nine-language, six-volume edition ofthe Bible. The ‘Propaganda Edition’ ofthe Arabic Bible was produced in 1671at Rome by the College de PropagandaFide, under the general guidance ofSergius Risius, the Maronite 14 Bishopof Damascus. Early versions of this Old26
Issue Number: 601 – October to December 2012Testament were withdrawn while still inpreparation, as insufficiently in agreementwith the Vulgate text! At first ignored, itbecame widely accepted amongst ArabicChristians, being reprinted by the Britishand Foreign Bible Society from 1820 andthe American Bible Society from 1841.A curious ‘Holy Bible…in the Arabiclanguage’ based on the London Polyglottext appeared in 1811; it was the workof Sarah Hodgson at Newcastle uponTyne and published after her death.The Society for the Propagation of theGospel secured one thousand copies tobe distributed in Africa and Asia, as didthe British and Foreign Bible Society.Even more interesting is the existence ofan Arabic New Testament translated byNathaniel Sabat under the supervisionof Henry Martyn, and published bythe British and Foreign Bible Society inCalcutta. The British and Foreign BibleSociety and the American Bible Societycontinued to produce these Bibles, withgrowing unease. The Society for PromotingChristian Knowledge attempted new workin 1851 with a New Testament, and a Biblein 1857, which follow the Authorised (KingJames) Version too closely for the likingof some. 15 Pressure for a wholly improvedArabic Bible was growing, particularlyin the American Syrian Mission and theAmerican Bible Society.Every work of Bible translation facesdistinct problems. With some there is noexisting language or literacy; others havean existing, but inadequate, version of theBible which is difficult to displace. In Arabicthe language and the people possess whatthey consider a ‘holy book’—the Qur’an—not the possession of a minority group,but defining the very language (in bothscript and style), the religion, the very lifeand meaning of a vast people. An Arabiclanguage Bible will be seriously scrutinisedfrom every aspect, by both Muslims andArabic Christians, who may be ready tosneer or to take offence.In the 19th century, it was realised that afresh translation needed to be made, usinglinguists and theologians of good quality,able to confer with native speakers, andmaking rigorous use of the Greek andHebrew texts. Such a project had begunin Syria in the 1830s under the directionand support of the American Board ofCommissioners for Foreign Missions. Theresulting Scriptures in Arabic, printedin Beirut in 1860 (New Testament) and1865 (Bible), were to be accepted as thestandard Bible of Protestant missionarywork in the Arabic-speaking world. These,the work of Eli Smith, DD, and Corneliusvan Alen van Dyck, MD, 16 were wellaccepted and are, in essence, what theSociety publishes today.The Smith–Van Dyck ArabicBibleEli Smith was born in Northford,Connecticut, in 1801, of a ScottishPresbyterian family. He graduated fromYale in 1821, and began training forChristian ministry at Andover College in1823. After ordination he was directed toMalta, which was then the familiar bridgebetween Europe and the Arabic nations.There he began to learn Maltese, with itsmix of Italian and Arabic, written then inArabic script. The American Board agreedto his studying Arabic, and he moved toBeirut in Lebanon (Syria) to pursue this.Returning from furlough to the MiddleEast in 1833, now with a wife, Eli Smithoversaw the removal of the Americanprinting press from Malta to Beirut in1834 and began the heroic labour of Bibletranslation into Arabic. 17 On the textualside, Dr Smith with his knowledge not onlyof Biblical Hebrew and Greek, but otherSemitic languages, ancient Greek, Latin,Turkish, and not forgetting Maltese and27
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