Encountering Islam: the Qu'ran in the European Enlightenment

The Qur’an was something of a bestseller in Europe, despite (or perhaps because of) the endless warnings about its dangerous effects. The early modern period (roughly 1600-1800) saw the publication of the first translations of the complete received text of the Qur’an into modern vernacular European languages as well as Latin. This lecture will survey the history of this process and the intellectual conditions that made it possible.

This lecture is the fifth in a series entitled Cultural Encounters: Travel, Religion, and Identity in the Early Modern World, which explores the findings and implications of the research coming out of the Conversion Narratives in Early Modern Europe project.

Cultural Encounters poster (PDF , 738kb)