Judaism - Naima Afif

‘Jews, the Qur’an and Islam: Contacts and Influences’, International workshop, 1-2 February 2023

I am delighted to announce the forthcoming international workshop, ‘Jews, the Qur’an and Islam: Contacts and Influences’ which will take place on 1-2 February 2023 in Copenhagen under the auspices of the EuQu project.

The workshop aims to explore how Jews approached the Qur’an and Islam from the Middle Age to the early modern period both in the lands of Islam and in Europe. Through various sources and textual genres ranging from polemics, exegesis to Qur’anic translations, we will discuss how Islam was perceived, how the Qur’an was used and how the Jews in some contexts were influenced by the material, textual and theological aspects of the Islamic tradition.

Online participation is possible via Zoom. You can learn more about the event here or contact me: naima.afif@teol.ku.dk

New publication: « De Leipzig à Fès: une copie sépharade de la traduction hébraïque du Coran d’Hermann Reckendorf »

Publication_Naima_Afif_Hebrew — Jerusalem, National Library of Israel, Ms. Heb. 8° 6453. Sura 1 in Hebrew, with a transliteration of the Arabic text in Hebrew script.

The first Hebrew translation of the Qur’an directly from Arabic was produced by Hermann Reckendorf (1825–1875) in Germany during the Jewish Enlightenment.

While Reckendorf’s translation circulated primarily in Ashkenazi intellectual circles, it also survives in a remarkable manuscript copied in nineteenth-century Morocco. This article examines this unique Sephardic witness and explores how a European Hebrew translation of the Qur’an was transmitted in a North African Jewish context.

Read the publication in Open Acces.