Chronica mendosa et ridicula sarracenorum / Liber de generatione Mahumet: Edición y traducción anotada

The Chronica mendosa et ridicula Sarracenorum and the Liber de generatione Mahumet are Latin versions by Robert of Ketton based on Arabic texts from the Islamic tradition. They are part of the so-called corpus islamolatinum, a collection of texts translated into Latin in 1143 at the request of Peter the Venerable, abbot of Cluny, among which the Latin translation of the Qur’an (Alchoranus) stands out; Robert of Ketton also took part in this work. This volume offers, for the first time, a critical edition of both works, with a translation and explanatory notes on the contents of the text. Until now, the only available edition was the one printed by the humanist Theodor Bibliander (Basel, 1543, reissued in 1550).

The Chronica mendosa is a work of Islamic historiography whose Arabic original has not yet been identified. Its narrative presents a history of the world from its creation, with particular emphasis on the sequence of the Prophet Muhammad’s ancestors and the succession of the first caliphs up to Yazid I (r. 680–683). At its centre, it offers a biography of Muhammad containing a vast amount of information that is unique to this source within the entire medieval Latin tradition. The accuracy and thoroughness of the material it conveys make this text the most authoritative Latin source for confirming the high level of knowledge about Islam available in the medieval Latin world.

The Liber de generatione, however, is a short work belonging to Islamic devotional literature, focusing on the birth of the Prophet Muhammad and his adoption by the wet nurse Halima. Although its Arabic original also remains unidentified, the theme and textual parallels of this work likewise appear in the Aljamiado tradition in The Book of Lights. In its first part—just as the Chronica mendosa had done—the Liber de generatione presents the Prophet Muhammad’s genealogy from Adam, in this case to explain how the mystical light surrounding him came to be transmitted to him.