Title:

Le Livre de l'eschiele Mahomet

Short title

Livre de l'eschiele

Title variations

Halmaereig

Title in English

The Book of Muhammad's Ladder

Section

Language

Old French

Creation date

1264

Genre

Ascension narrative

Content

Other

Content table

Formal Expression

Prose

Qur'an quotations

Yes

Original

No

Source

Liber Scalae Mahumeti

Use (macro-category)

Poetic / Creative

Use (micro-category)

Bibliographical references

Descriptive card

The Livre de l’eschiele Mahomet (Book of Muḥammad’s ladder) is a thirteenth-century Old French translation of a text that has its roots in the Muslim tradition of the isrāʾ and the miʿrāj, which narrates Muḥammad’s night journey and ascension to Heaven. The Livre contains around fifteen quotations from the Qur'an, some of which are transliterations from Arabic; these transliterations are generally accompanied by a paraphrase or a literal translation into Old French. The rest of the quotations are directly translated. This text contains the first known occurrence of the term alcoran in French.

Entry author

Florence Ninitte