Title:

Specimen Suratarum, id est, Capitum aliquot ex Alcorani Systemate Johan. Zechendorffi, Ejusdemque tum Versionis, tum Refutationis qua Latinae, qua Arabicae, ante aliquam multos annos institutae: in DEI honorem; Verbique ejus propagationem: nec non proximi, ut sunt pagani, Turcae, Persae, Mauritani, atque alii conversionis ansam: Æquiß[im]o doctiß[im]o atque expertiß[im]o Eruditorum judicio ac censurae humillime ab Ipso Interprete subjectum

Short title

Specimen Suratarum, id est, Capitum aliquot ex Alcorani

Title variations

Title in English

Johann Zechendorff’s Sample of Suras, that is of several chapters from the system of the Qur’an together with [a sample] of his translation and refutation written several years ago, in God’s honour and for the propagation of His Word.

Section

Language

Romance

Creation date

1638

Genre

Content

Translation

Content table

following letter of dedication and suras 61 and 78 are prduced in Arabic and Latin, with a facing table, assessing the "truth value" of each Qur'anic statement.

Formal Expression

Prose

Qur'an quotations

Yes

Original

Source

Use (macro-category)

Academic / Scientific

Use (micro-category)

Bibliographical references

Asaph Ben-Tov, “Johann Zechendorff (1580-1662) and Arabic Studies at Zwickau’s Latin School”, in: Jan Loop, Alastair Hamilton, and Charles Burnett (eds.), The Teaching and Learning of Arabic in Early Modern Europe (Leiden, 2017), pp. 57-92., Ben-Tov, "Johann Zechendirff", in Christian Muslim Relations. vol. 9 Western and Southern Europa (1600-1700), ed. David Thomas and John Chesworth (Leiden, 2017), pp. 850-5.)

Descriptive card

In 1638 Zechendorff published his Specimen suratarum, containing the Arabic text of two short suras 61 (The Battle Array) and 78 (The Tidings) accompanied by an interlinear Latin translation. The slim volume is dedicated to the Danzig scholar Johann Mochinger (1603-1652). In his letter of dedication to Mochinger Zechendorff claims that his was to produce an Arabic-Latin edition of the entire Qur’an accompanied by a refutation. As with the Fabulae Muhammedicae (1627), here too refutation stands ostensibly at the centre of the work, though what Zechendorff carries out diverges from this. Each page of the coarsely printed Arabic text and interlinear Latin translation is faced by a table divided into “false” and “true” assessing the truth value of each verse in these chapters. Zechendorff was assessing it according to the criteria of his own confession (Lutheranism) yet nonetheless, a considerable portion of what he read in those short suras he deemed sound. The coarse Arabic types which Zechendorff uses here and in his other works, were carved for him by one of his pupils.

Entry author

Asaph Ben Tov