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Robert of Ketton

روبرت الكيتوني

Notable figure 12th century · Source: Johann Fück, Tarikh harakat al-istishraq (Die arabischen Studien in Europa), trans. ʿUmar Lutfi al-ʿAlim, 2nd ed., Dar al-Madar al-Islami, Beirut 2001, p. ١٧–٢٠ · Second source: Biblissima authority record Q14877: Robertus Ketenensis, citing Richard Sharpe, Handlist of the Latin Writers of Great Britain and Ireland (2001), p. 559 (d. after 1157, archdeacon of Pamplona), and Charles Burnett in the Oxford DNB, «Ketton, Robert of (fl. 1141–1157)»

From the United Kingdom; worked in Spain

Field: Qur'an translation

Affiliation

Made the first Latin version of the Qur'an (1143)

Biography

An Englishman working in Spain in the twelfth century, he read Arabic astronomical books and put them into Latin. Peter the Venerable, abbot of Cluny, commissioned him to translate the Qur'an, and he finished in 1143; he later became archdeacon of Pamplona. Europe relied on this version for centuries: Bibliander printed it at Basel in 1543, and it gave way only after Marracci's work of 1698, despite its serious errors.