Içe de Gebir

Quran translation

In 1455 CE, Isa bin Jabir left Segovia to travel to the Alps, where he assisted John of Segovia, who in his later years focused on converting Muslims through gentle persuasion rather than force. Achieving this required a good understanding of the Quran, but translations were uncommon in fifteenth-century Christian Europe, partly because Muslims did not permit transferring physical copies of the Quran due to concerns it would not receive proper respect.

Isa bin Jabir, being a Hafiz (one who memorizes the Quran), could reproduce the entire Quran from memory, solving this dilemma. As a mufti and well-respected imam of the Muslims of Segovia, he ensured accurate translation. According to letters John of Segovia sent to colleagues, Isa bin Jabir worked twelve hours a day for four months, stopping only on the Prophet Muhammad's birthday to complete the work. At the time, Muslims generally believed no translation could do justice to the Quran, making this translation an innovation born of circumstances within Spain in the fifteenth century.

In the introduction to his Sunni Breviary, Isa wrote that because the Moors of Castile, under great oppression, exaction of tribute, forced labor, and exhaustion, had declined in wealth and lost their schools of Arabic, many friends and especially the body assessing collective taxes pressed him to draw up and copy out in Romance a written work concerning Islamic law and sunna, covering what every good Muslim should know and practice. He stated he strove hard, keeping in mind that the compilation was directed to those who would succeed him.