The Approach of Richard Simon (1638–1712), One of the Leading Figures of Bible Criticism to Islam

Yıl 2019, Cilt: 2019 Sayı: 38, 9 - 55, 31.10.2019

Ramazan Adıbelli

https://doi.org/10.28949/bilimname.533129

Öz

Richard Simon, one of the pioneers of Biblical criticism did not write a monographic work on Islam. Simon's main area of interest was the critical study of biblical texts. These texts, which constitute the holy books of Christianity, have been submitted to changes over time due to multiple reasons. Starting from the fact that it was impossible to understand the Bible correctly without knowing the situations in which these texts were at different times and in different places and without shedding light on the changes that they have undergone in order to approach the original text Simon decide to tackle these problems with a historical and philological approach. These texts could not be understood without knowing the language of the most voluminous part of the Bible, that’s to say the Old Testament or Tanakh. After grasping the importance of philology in textual criticism, Simon learned not only Hebrew, but also Syriac and Arabic. As if he had heard the famous maxim of the Max Müller urging for comparison in the stud of religion two centuries earlier –“He who knows one, knows none”-, Simon realized that not only the historical approach but also the comparative approach was essential for understanding religions. His curiosity for languages and religions led him to study Islam.

He addressed the issue of Islam in the appendix of the translation to the book of the Italian Jesuit Jerôme Dandini who was sent by Pope Clement VIII as nuncio to Maronites in Lebanon. The translation’s French title is Voyage du Mont Liban. Simon added the appendix in order to correct the deficiencies in Dandini’s book. Besides Simon mentioned Islam in the fourth chapter of his work titled Additions aux recherches curieuses sur la diversité des langues et religions d’Edward Brerewood. Some circumstances prevented Simon from publishing this work. But he used the information he gathered about Islam in the fifteenth chapter of his Histoire critique de la créance et des coûtumes des nations du Levant, published in 1684. Especially in this last work, a very objective and neutral stance about Islam has been exhibited. 

Simon's approach to Islam appears to be objective and impartial. But the example of Simon also shows that doing such a thing in 17th century Europe was not an easy task. In an environment in which Islam was accepted by the majority as an enemy or at least one other, and even the rationalist thinkers such as Voltaire or Pascal adopted the rhetoric of the ’false Prophet’, Simon could draw a phenomenological picture of Islam on the basis of ethnological data.

In order to better understand what this approach -which is accepted as a simple scientific principle today- meant in the 17th century in France we have described the main lines of views and approaches related to Islam and to its Prophet at this time. The merit of Simon appears more clearly when considered through the difficulties encountered by Simon when discussing about “the religion of the enemies”. Simon has successfully preserved his unbiased approach in an environment where a very negative image of Islam dominated and where the majority of the thinker speaking and writing about this religion were profoundly attached to the rhetoric of the so called “false Prophet”.

At a time when the freedom of thought and expression was limited and a strict censorship mechanism was under way, it is noteworthy that Simon approached Islam with the principle of objectivity and impartiality. Although Islam was regarded by the majority of Europeans thinkers as an enemy, or at least as another, and in an epoch when it was seen as nearly a necessity to adopt this rhetoric, Simon managed to draw a phenomenological picture of Islam on the basis of historical and ethnological data. 

On the other hand, Simon used the comparative methode like Bartolomé de las Casas, who about a century ago by comparing the religion of America with Greek and Roman paganism argued that the religion of the indigenous people of America was superior because they worshiped the true God. Reminding that Europeans praise the moral principles of the writers of Greek and Roman paganism, Simon emphasized that the morality of Muslims who believe in one God was superior. On the basis of the fact that these religions constitute a family because Judaism, Christianity and Islam come from the same root, Simon has made it clear that the image of Islam that has been formed for centuries has made this religion unrecognizable in Europe. As a result, confronting the historical and ethnological reality of İslam with its deformed and virtual image Simon tried to explain that when the layers of lies and prejudices lying under this image would be removed Christians will find a figure that is absolutely no stranger to them. The will eventually discover their real image.

Anahtar Kelimeler

History of Religions, Richard Simon, Islam, Prophet Mohammad, Turk, Scienific Approach

Kitab-ı Mukaddes Eleştirisinin Öncülerinden Katolik Rahip Richard Simon’un (1638–1712) İslam’a Yaklaşımı

Öz

Kitab-ı Mukaddes eleştirisinin öncülerinden Katolik rahip Richard Simon, İslam hakkında monografik bir eser yazmamıştır. Jerôme Dandini’nin Fransızcaya çevirdiği eserindeki eksiklikleri gidermek ve hataları düzeltmek maksadıyla kitabın ek bölümünde İslam konusuna da değinmiştir. Diğer taraftan Edward Brerewood’un kitabına yazdığı ilavelerin dördüncü bölümünde ve özellikle de Histoire critique de la créance et des coûtumes des nations du Levant adlı kitabının on beşinci bölümünde İslam’dan söz etmiştir. Oldukça olumsuz bir İslam imajının hâkim olduğu ve bu din hakkında söz söyleyenlerin büyük çoğunluğunun sözde “sahte Peygamber” retoriğine sarıldığı yaygın olan 17. yüzyıl Fransa’sında yaşayan Simon’un yapmaya çalıştığı işin zorluğu daha net görülmektedir. Düşünce ve ifade özgürlüğünün sınırlı olduğu ve sıkı bir sansür mekanizmasının işlediği bir dönemde Simon’un yine de objektif ve tarafsızlık ilkesiyle İslam’a yaklaştığı dikkat çekmektedir. İslam’ın çoğunluk tarafından bir düşman ya da en azından bir öteki olarak kabul edildiği ve sözde “sahte Peygamber” retoriğini benimsemenin adeta bir zorunluluk gibi görülmesine rağmen Simon, etnolojik verilerden hareketle fenomenolojik bir İslam tablosu çizebilmiştir. Diğer taraftan Simon, Avrupalıların Yunan ve Roma paganizmine mensup yazarların eserlerindeki ahlaki ilkeleri övmelerini hatırlatan Simon tek Tanrıya inanan Müslümanların ahlakının daha üstün olduğunu vurgulamıştır. Sonuç itibariyle Yahudilik, Hıristiyanlık ve İslam’ın aynı kökten geldikleri için bu dinlerin bir aile oluşturdukları gerçeğinden hareketle Simon, yüzyıllar boyunca meydana gelen İslam imajının bu dini Avrupa’da tanınmaz hâle getirdiğini ve bu imajın altında yatan yalan ve önyargı tabakalarının kaldırıldığında Hıristiyanların hiç de yabancısı olmadıkları bir simanın karşılarına çıkacağını anlatmaya çalışmıştır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Richard Simon, Hz. Muhammed, Bilimsel Yaklaşım, Dinler Tarihi, İslam, Türk

Kaynakça

• ARMOGATHE, Jean-Robert. «Richard Simon, Additions aux Recherches curieuses.» XVIIe Siècle, 1984: 270-271.
• ARNALDEZ, Roger. «L'image du prophète Muhammad dans la culture française.» Uluslararası Birinci İslâm Araştırmaları Sempozyumu içinde, 45-61. İzmir: Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi Yayınları, 1985.
• ARNAULD, Antoine. Sixieme partie des Difficultez proposées a Mr. Steyaert. Sur le Nouveau Testament de Mons. Cilt 3. Cologne, 1692.
• BATTEREL, Louis. Mémoires domestiques pour servir à l'histoire de l'Oratoire. Paris, 1905.
• BAUDİER, Michel. Histoire générale de la religion des Turcs. Paris, 1625.
• BAYLE, Pierre. Dictionnaire historique et critique. Cilt 2/1. Rotterdam, 1697.
• BAYLE, Pierre. Dictionnaire historique et critique. Nouvelle édition. Cilt 10. Paris, 1820.
• BEAUVOİS, E. Du Ryer (André). Cilt 15, Nouvelle biographie générale: depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu'à nos jours içinde, 481-482. Paris, 1856.
• BENNETT, Clinton. Understanding Christian-Muslim Relations: Past and Present. London: Continuum, 2008.
• BENOİT XIV. «Réponse de Benoit XIV à Voltaire.» Mahomet, tragédie de Voltaire, publiée avec un commentaire historique et critique içinde, yazan Voltaire, 10-11. Paris, 1825.
• BEVİLACQUA, Alexander. The Republic of Arabic Letters: Islam and the European Enlightenment. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2018.
• CAMPİ, Emidio. «Early Reformed Attitudes towards Islam.» Theological Review of the Near East School of Theology 31 (2010): 131-151.
• CARNOY, Dominique. Représentation de l'Islam dans la France du XVIIe siècle. La ville des tentations. Paris: Harmattan, 1998.
• CURTİS, Michael. Orientalism and Islam: European Thinkers on Oriental Despotism in the Middle East and India. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
• DANDİNİ, Jerôme. Voyage au Mont Liban. Paris, 1685.
• DANDİNİ, Jerôme. Voyage du Mont Liban. Paris, 1675.
• DANİEL, Norman. Islam and the West: The Making of an Image . Oxford: Oneworld, 1993.
• DANNECKER. Simon (Richard). Cilt 22, Dictionnaire encyclopédique de la théologie catholique içinde, 153-162. Paris, 1870.
• DE BOULAİNVİLLİERS , Henri. La vie de Mahomed. Londres, 1730.
• DEROST, J.-B. «Notice sur André Du Ryer.» Bulletin de la Société d'études du Brionnais, 1935: 237-240.
• DU RYER, André. Gulistan ou L'empire des roses. Paris, 1634.
• DU RYER, André. L'Alcoran de Mahomet translaté d'arabe en françois par le sieur Du Ryer. Paris, 1647.
• ELMARSAFY, Ziad. The Enlightenment Qur'an: The Politics of Translation and the Construction of Islam. London: Oneworld Publications, 2014.
• GERSTENBERG, Annette. «Stages of French Orientalism in the Mirror of Koran Translations.» Frühe Koranübersetzungen içinde, düzenleyen Reinhold F. Glei, 159-190. Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, 2012.
• GRAFTON, David D. «Christians and Muslims in the Americas.» Routledge Handbook on Christian-Muslim Relations içinde, düzenleyen David Thomas, 402-412. New York: Routledge, 2018.
• GROTİUS, Hugo. Traité de la vérité de la religion chrétienne. Utrecht, 1692.
• HAMİLTON, Alastair, ve Francis Richard. André Du Ryer and Oriental studies in seventeenth-century France. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
• HENTSCH, Thierry. Hayali Doğu: Batı’nın Akdenizli Doğu’ya Politik Bakışı. İstanbul: Metis, 1996.
• HEYBERGER, Bernard, ve Sylvette Larzul. «Simon Richard.» Dictionnaire des orientalistes de langue française içinde, düzenleyen François Pouillon, 900-902. Paris: IISMM - Karthala, 2008.
• HUNWİCK, Andrew. «Richard Simon (1638–1712): Sketch of Life and Career .» Critical History of the Text of the New Testament içinde, yazan Richard Simon, xxv-xxxvi. Leiden: Brill, 2013.
• JAMES, David. Early Islamic Spain: The History of Ibn al-Qutiyah. New York: Routledge, 2009.
• JOUBİN, Rebecca. «Islam and Arabs through the Eyes of the Encyclopédie: The "Other" as a Case of French Cultural.» International Journal of Middle East Studies 32, no. 2 (2000): 197-217.
• KALIN, İbrahim. İslâm ve Batı. İstanbul: İSAM Yayınları, 2013.
• KRİTZECK, James. Peter the Venerable and Islam. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1964.
• LAMARQUE, Henri. «Introduction.» Le Coran à la Renaissance. Plaidoyer pour une traduction içinde, yazan Théodore Bibliander, 17-38. Toulouse: Presses Universitaires du Mirail, 2007.
• LAMBE, Patrick J. «Biblical Criticism and Censorship in Ancien Régime France: The Case of Richard Simon.» The Harvard Theological Review 78, no. 1/2 (1985): 149-177.
• LARZUL, Sylvette. «Du Ryer André.» Dictionnaire des orientalistes de langue française içinde, düzenleyen François Pouillon, 359-360. Paris: Karthala, 2012.
• LARZUL, Sylvette. «Les premières traductions françaises du Coran, (XVIIe-XIXe siècles).» Archives de sciences sociales des religions, no. 147 (2009): 147-165.
• LE CLERC, Jean. Défense des sentimens de quelques Théologiens de Hollande sur l'Histoire critique du Vieux Testament. Contre la réponse du Prieur de Bolleville. Amsterdam, 1686.
• LE CLERC, Jean. Sentimens de quelques Théologiens de Hollande sur l’Histoire Critique du Vieux Testament, composéee par le P. Richard Simon de l'Oratoire. Amsterdam, 1685.
• LE COZ, Raymond. Jean Damascene. Écrits sur l'Islam. Présentation, commentaires et traduction. Paris: Cerf, 1992.
• LEPAN. «Notice historique sur la tragédie de Mahomet.» Mahomet, tragédie de Voltaire, publiée avec un commentaire historique et critique içinde, yazan Voltaire, 1-4. Paris, 1825.
• LEVİN, Paul T. Turkey and the European Union: Christian and Secular Images of Islam. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.
• MARSHALL, John. John Locke, Toleration, and Early Enlightenment Culture: Religious Toleration and Arguments for Religious Toleration in Early Modern and Early Enlightenment Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
• MARTİN, Richard C. «Islamic Studies: History of the Field.» The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World içinde, 325-331. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
• MAYNARD, Abbé. Voltaire, sa vie et ses oeuvres. Cilt 1. Paris, 1867.
• MİLLER, Gregory J. «Theodor Bibliander's Machumetis saracenorum principis eiusque successorum vitae, doctrina ac ipse alcoran (1543) as the Sixteenth-century “Encyclopedia” of Islam.» Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations 24, no. 2 (2013): 241-254.
• PASCAL, Blaise. Pensées. Paris, 1754.
• PİNTARD, René. Le Libertinage érudit dans la première moitié du XVIIe siècle. Genève: Slatkine, 2000.
• POPKİN, Richard H. Isaac La Peyrère (1596-1676): His Life, Work, and Influence. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1987.
• PRİDEAUX, Humphrey. The True Nature of Imposture Fully Display’d in the Life of Mahomet . London, 1698.
• RELAND, Adrien. La Religion des Mahométans. La Haye, 1721.
• RENAN, Ernest. «L'Exégèse biblique et l'esprit français.» Revue des deux mondes 60 (1865): 235-245.
• SAHAS, Daniel J. John of Damascus on Islam: The “Heresy of the Ishmaelites”. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1972.
• SİMON, Richard. «Des remarques sur la Theologie des Chrêtiens du Levant, & sur celle des Mahometans.» Voyage du Mont-Liban içinde, yazan Jerôme Dandini, 199-356. Paris, 1685.
• SİMON, Richard. Histoire critique de la créance et des coûtumes des nations du Levant. Francfort, 1684.
• SİMON, Richard. Histoire critique du texte du Nouveau Testament. Amsterdam, 1689.
• SİMON, Richard. Lettres choisies. Rotterdam, 1705.
• SİMON, Richard. Lettres choisies de M. Simon. Cilt 3. Amsterdam, 1730.
• SİMON, Richard. «Preface.» Ceremonies et coutumes qui s'observent aujourd'huy parmi les Juifs içinde, yazan Leon de Moden. Paris, 1684.
• SİMON, Richard. «Preface.» Voyage du Mont Liban içinde, yazan Jerôme Dandini. Paris, 1685.
• SİMON, Richard. Réponse au livre intitulé Sentimens de quelques théologiens de Hollande . Rotterdam, 1686.
• STROUMSA, Guy G. A New Science: The Discovery of Religion in the Age of Reason. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2010.
• STROUMSA, Guy G. «Comparatisme et philologie: Richard Simon et les origines de l'orientalisme.» Le comparatisme dans l’histoire des religions içinde, düzenleyen Francois Boespflug ve Françoise Dunand, 47-62. Paris: Cerf, 1997.
• TOLAN, John V. «European Accounts of Muhammad’s Life.» The Cambridge Companion to Muhammad içinde, düzenleyen Jonathan E. Brockopp, 226-250. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
• VAN DER CRUYSSE, Dirk. De branche en branche. Études sur les XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles français. Louvain: Peeters, 2005.
• VAN GENNEP, Arnold. «Nouvelles recherches sur l'histoire en France de la méthode ethnographique.» Revue de l'histoire des religions, 1920: 139-162.
• VOLTAİRE. Dictionnaire philosophique. Cilt 1. Amsterdam, 1789.
• VOLTAİRE. Lettre civile et honnête à l'Auteur malhonnête de la Critique de l'Histoire universelle de M. de V***, qui n'a jamais fait d'Histoire universelle. Genève, 1760.
• VOLTAİRE. Mahomet, tragédie de Voltaire, publiée avec un commentaire historique et critique. Paris, 1825.
• VOLTAİRE. Oeuvres complètes. Cilt 65. Paris, 1785.
• VOLTAİRE. Oeuvres complètes avec des notes. Cilt 12. Paris, 1846.
• VRYONİS, Speros. Byzantium and Europe. London: Thames and Hudson , 1967.
• WESTWATER, Lynn Lara. «Girolamo Dandini.» Christian-Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History. Volume 9: Western and Southern Europe (1600-1700) içinde, düzenleyen David Thomas ve John Chesworth, 756-762. Leiden: Brill, 2017.
• WETSEL, David. Pascal and Disbelief: Catechesis and Conversion in the Pensées. Washington: The Catholic University of America Press, 1994.
• WOODBRİDGE, John D. «Richard Simon le "père de la critique biblique".» Le Grand Siècle et la Bible içinde, düzenleyen Jean-Robert Armogathe, 193-206. Paris: Beauchesne, 1989.