Rare books seller

 Sharjah, November 8, 2021

The first edition of Marracci’s Quran from 1698

The exquisite work has Arabic text with Latin translations and commentary, which played a great role in spreading Islam in Europe.

One of the most striking and classy pavilions at SIBF 2021 is Peter Harrington, seller of rare books, manuscripts, and works on paper. The displays set in glass cases include an 1874 map of Oman and the UAE created by British officer E.C. Ross working in Muscat; one page from Johann Gutenberg’s Bible, the first printed book in the West; and 17th century folios of playwright William Shakespeare.

A good part of the Peter Harrington collection at SIBF is of interest to the Islamic world, the most invaluable among them being a 400-year-old copy of the Quran priced at £10,500. The firm’s sales director Ben Houston carefully unearths it from a cabinet and places it on a cushion for inspection. 

The book, which is two volumes in one, has dimensions of 34.6 x 22.5 cm. The cover is in contemporary vellum and thecompartments are lettered in gilt. 

This book presented by Peter Harrington is a first edition of Marracci’s Quran, from 1698. Ludovico Marracci was an Italian priest and a professor of Arabic, hence the holy book has Arabic text on one side and its Latin translation to the right, and a commentary or analysis of each surah. 

The book is not the oldest Quran in the West – there are others that exist. While earlier translations of the Quran in the West exist, they are now virtually unobtainable. Marracci’s edition is “the second obtainable printed edition of the Quran” in the original Arabic and the first accurate and complete Latin translation and commentary. Unlike the 12th-century Latin translation of Robert of Ketton, Marracci did not rearrange the Quranic verses or render free translations of them.

Called “the greatest pre-modern European work of Quranicscholarship” by historian Thomas E. Burman, Marracci’s bookwas hugely significant in spreading knowledge of Islam to the vast numbers of European readers who could not read Arabic. A cache of manuscripts unearthed in the library of Marracci’sorder in 2012 has since verified his claim to have translated the Quran four times before committing it to print. 

“It is the first full translation of the Quran into Latin, and that’s why it is so important,” emphasised Houston. “When it was printed and published, it spread the complete Quran through Europe. Before that, there were only manuscripts. There was a first Arabic printing of the Quran which exists only in one copy in a monastery. This is the second obtainable one with Arabic and Latin.” 

First editions and early printed material are part of the Peter Harrington collection. “We have two shops in London. Once a year we travel to the Sharjah and Abu Dhabi fairs to present our books for sale to private collectors, museums and institutions in the region. We don’t do any facsimiles,” Houston added.

The first illustrated account of Petra in Jordan is also available for sale and is priced at £19500.