A Byzantine Reading of the Qur’an: Was Sūrat al-Fātiḥa Included in the Earliest Greek Translation of the Qur’an (Third/Ninth Centuries terminus ante quem)? — A Philological Analysis

This paper discusses whether Sūrat al-Fātiḥa was part of the early Greek translation of the Qur’an used by Nicetas of Byzantium in the third/ninth century. The first sura is not expressly quoted in Nicetas’ polemic Refutation of the Qur’an, which preserves extensive fragments of the translation. Some passages in this anti-Islamic work, however, allude to the existence of Sūrat al-Fātiḥa even if it might not have been understood as a proper sura (κεφάλαιον/ kephalaion, ‘chapter’) of the Qur’an. Through a philological analysis of specific passages in the Refutation, I reevaluate the question of how to understand Nicetas’ explanation of and allusion to introductory verses of the Qur’an. This investigation will contribute to the reconstruction of the original text form of the Greek translation of the Qur’an and the early understanding of the Qur’anic text corpus as such.