The Transmission Chain of the Coranus Graecus (Vat. gr. 681)

The earliest Greek translation of the Qur’an is preserved only partially, mainly by way of an anti-Islamic polemic by Nicetas of Byzantium (9th/10th century CE) titled Refutation of the Qur’an . The text of this so-called Coranus Graecus does not, however, wholly conform to the Arabic reading of the Qur’an as transmitted by Ḥafṣ ʿan ʿĀṣim. Since Nicetas’ work survives only in a single manuscript, Vat. gr. 681, these textual departures may have originated at multiple stages in the transmission history of the Coranus Graecus . The present paper aims to provide a systematic account of the textual differences between the Arabic Qur’an and its early Greek translation. It presents several case studies from the Coranus Graecus and discusses the possible origins of the divergences found in these instances. Four categories of textual variance are identified, namely modifications arising from: a qur’anic reading or readings diverging from Ḥafṣ ʿan ʿĀṣim; the translation process as such; simple copying errors of the Greek text; and, finally, Nicetas’ tendentious use of the translation. On this basis, I propose a systematic categorization of the textual variants according to several stages of the transmission chain: Arabic base text, Greek translation, copying errors, and the translation’s use.