Muslims, Jews, and Christians: How the Bible Was Translated into Arabic

Sidney H. Griffith’s recent book, The Bible in Arabic: The Scriptures of the “People of the Book” in the Language of Islam, discusses how the Bible was translated into Arabic, the language of Islam, but increasingly the vernacular of Jewish and Christian communities in the Middle East: When, where, and by whom was the Bible translated partially or fully into Arabic? Were such translations made from the original Hebrew and Greek, or from the Septuagint or the Syriac versions? Why did Christians, Jews, and Muslims make translations? For what purposes did they use them? How did these translations reflect the religious and intellectual life of their communities? Griffith draws carefully supported conclusions on these subjects based on his expertise as a historian of Middle Eastern Christian communities before and after the spread of Islam.