Muslim-Christian Polemics and Scriptural Translation in Safavid Iran: ᶜAli-Qoli Jadid al-Eslām and his Interlocutors

Abstract

This article explores the work of ᶜAli-Qoli Jadid al-Eslām (d. circa 1722), a Portuguese Augustinian missionary who embraced Islam during in the late seventeenth century. This investigation situates the work of this author within the social, political, and intellectual context of the late Safavid period. It traces the genealogy of his work as a response to the Jesuit missionary Jerome Xavier (d. 1617) and the Italian scholar Filippo Guadagnoli (d. 1656). The article examines how ᶜAli-Qoli’s production fits within the genre of dalā’il al-nubuwwah, whereby the Bible is used as “proof” of the validity of Islam. It also analyzes the author’s use of common tropes of polemical literature, mainly that of accusing Christian scholars of practicing taḥrīf or scriptural tampering.