Abdullah bin Abdullah al-Turjuman al-Mayuqi al-Muhtadi, a Tunisian theologian, translator, and writer. He grew up as a priest in Spain, then immigrated to Tunisia, where he converted to Islam and worked in the court of the Hafsid state. He wrote works in Arabic and Catalan that dealt with the Christian-Islamic controversy, ethics and philosophy.

Birth and upbringing

Abdullah al-Turjuman was born as "Anselm Turmada" to a family of merchants in the town of Ciutat in Mallorca in the Mediterranean Balearic Islands (Spain) around the year 1355 AD, and he was the only son of his father.

He received a religious upbringing, where he studied the Bible from the age of six, and began learning Latin, grammar, and logic from an early age.

He moved to study in the city of Lleida in Catalonia (Catalonia), which is “the city of knowledge for Christians in that country,” as he describes it, and there he studied for 10 years and acquired knowledge in medicine, astronomy, and natural sciences, in addition to Christian religious sciences.

As part of his educational and religious path, he joined Bologna, where he studied law and theology, and deepened the knowledge he had acquired before. He also studied for a period in Paris, according to some sources.

He joined the Franciscan order when he was in his twenties.

The translator says about his studies in Bologna that he used to meet in this city "every year, two thousand men seeking knowledge," and there he accompanied for 10 years the cleric Niglad Martel, from whom he learned the principles and rulings of the Christian religion and became his closest associate and servant.


His spiritual journey and entering Islam

According to what Abdullah al-Turjuman himself narrates in his book "The Masterpiece", a hadeeth that priest Niqlad confided to him was the reason for his conversion to Islam.

He explains that a discussion in a scholarly council, which he was absent from due to illness, usually gathered around Martil's niqad, and witnessed a disagreement over the interpretation of the word "Paraclete" mentioned in the Bible.

The difference resulted in a debate among the attendees, "then they left without obtaining any benefit in this matter."

According to the interpreter, the priest confided to him, after insistence and hope, and after taking the covenants on him with secrecy, that the true meaning of the term over which the clerics in the aforementioned council differed is the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, then he advised him to join Muslim countries and convert to Islam and provided him with 50 golden dinars to help him. on his journey.

After the incident of the theological discussion about the "Paraclete" and the dialogue with the cleric Niklad, he immediately began preparing for the trip to the Islamic lands, and so he returned first to his country Mallorca in 1387, staying there for 6 months, then he stayed 5 months in Sicily before going down to Tunisia, where he was received with a warm welcome. Majestic from "the rabbis of the Christians, accompanied by some merchants living in Tunisia," and he stayed in the hospitality of the European community for 4 months.

The ancient city in Tunisia, where Abdullah al-Turjuman arrived, after traveling from Spain, converted to Islam, died and was buried in that city (the island)

He initiated his contacts in Tunisia and met Sultan Abu al-Abbas Ahmed al-Hafsi after his doctor, Yusuf, introduced him to him. But the interpreter preferred to announce his conversion to Islam in public and in the presence of Christian notables, justifying this by the fact that "no one comes out of a religion except that its people say a lot about it and challenge it," he says.

Thus, he suggested that the merchants and rabbis mentioned in the Sultan's council attend to present testimony on his behalf, and after asking them - in his absence - they praised him and his high heels in knowledge and religion, and when the Sultan asked them: "What do you say about him if he becomes Muslim?"

They replied, completely ruling it out, but he immediately appeared in the assembly and surprised them by announcing the two testimonies and entering Islam.

In his book, al-Turjuman details the events of the aforementioned council, which witnessed the declaration of his conversion to Islam, and narrates how the Christian notables, after they were surprised by the incident, "poured on their faces and said: What motivated him to do this except the love of marriage, because the priest among us does not marry."

During these transformations, he was in the middle of the fourth decade of his life, and the Sultan approached him, gave him a salary, and housed him in the palace of the “specialist.” He also married him to the daughter of Hajj Muhammad al-Saffar, from whom he had a son, whom he named Muhammad.

Sultan Abu Al-Abbas Ahmed Al-Hafsi, who worked in his court, Abdullah Al-Turjuman (social networking sites)

At the court of the Hafsids

The interpreter gained the confidence of the Hafsid court, and his arrival coincided with the restoration of the Hafsid state's strength during the reign of Sultan Abi al-Abbas, and his linguistic and diplomatic skills enabled him to gradually undertake missions for the benefit of the rulers of Tunisia.

Thus, he worked in Diwan al-Bahr, where he mastered the Arabic language within one year. He also participated in repelling the failed attack of the French and Genoese against Mahdia in 1390, which was known as the "barbaric crusade", during which he was responsible for translating letters to the Sultan.

He also witnessed the siege of Sultan Abi al-Abbas of the city of Qabes in 1387, with the aim of suppressing the rebellion of the Mekki and subjecting it to the authority of the Hafsids, as he witnessed with the Hafsids the campaign against Gafsa.

And within his work in the Hafsid court, he also took over the customs plan and the plan of the court superintendent, and after the death of Abu Abbas, he continued to work with his son and successor, Abu Fares Abdel Aziz, who approved him for his previous jobs and appointed him as a viewer of his palace.

A page from the novel "Arguing with the Donkey" written in 1417, version of the 1922 edition (social networking sites)

adherence to Islam

Although he maintained links with European space, especially with European merchants and some important figures from the Kingdom of Argonne, he rejected multiple offers to return to his country and renounce Islam, and those offers included material temptations, promises of amnesty and even "forgiveness of sins."

Archive letters show that many documents of safety and pardon were issued to him by the Pope of the Catholics in 1412, and by Ferdinand, King of Aragon, and Alfonso V wrote to him in 1421 asking him to intervene to facilitate the ransom of some Christian prisoners.

His choice of settling in Tunisia and loyalty to the Muslims is confirmed in the story of the seizure of a boat loaded with Muslim goods by attackers from Sicily who demanded an exorbitant ransom to clear it. With the Sicilian attackers was a priest who was a friend of the translator, whom the study had gathered together, and he wrote to him trying to win him over and lure him back with them.

Abdullah al-Turjuman was then the "commander of the sea and translation," as he narrates, and he took advantage of the situation in coordination with Sultan Abi Faris to deceive the attackers and clear the goods, and so the priest went along and responded to him, deceiving him with his intention to flee at night with him, and after the Sicilians were lenient in the ransom of the goods, they were eventually forced to leave, and They were deceived and despaired of taking him.

A page from an old edition of the book Tuhfat al-Arib by Abdullah al-Turjuman (Photocia.cat)

Antiquities and literature

Despite his preoccupation with ruling plans, Abdullah al-Turjuman left writings, the most prominent of which was his book, which he wrote in Arabic, "The Masterpiece of the Areeb in Refuting the People of the Cross," which was written in 1420 and dealt with the Christian-Islamic controversy and devoted it to the victory of the Islamic faith and the debate of the people of his previous faith in the origins of their faith.

At its beginning, the book included what looked like personal notes in which he gave a personal definition of his upbringing, his journey, and part of the military and political events that he experienced in Tunisia, and the book received attention in the Islamic world.

The translator wrote books in the Catalan language to the extent that he was considered one of the pioneers of writers who wrote it down, and his books received great attention, dealing with ethics and philosophy and have been used for centuries as textbooks.

Among the works he left behind were the book “Numerics on the Dispersal of the Kingdom of the Majorcans”, which he wrote at the request of merchants from Majorca and includes Christian references and prayers, and “The Book of Good Admonitions”, which is a poetic composition addressed to Catalan-speaking Christians, in addition to 3 letters dealing with prophecies and future events.

The author also left a novel entitled "Arguing with the Donkey" in 1417, which is closer to a translation of the Arab philosophical work "The Fall of Animals on Man" by the Brotherhood of Purity, but with many additions and a touch of humor, and the rejection of the authority of priests.

The Spanish Inquisition authorities placed this book on the list of banned books, but it escaped loss thanks to its French translation.

Mausoleum of Abdullah al-Turjuman in Tunis (Marco Pedretti)

European connections

The Christian content of his books in Catalan, which he wrote while he was a Muslim in Tunisia, represented a phenomenon that added some ambiguity to his personality.

And the Spanish-Catalan historian Jean-Louis Marvani believes that the translation's writings hid, under the guise of committed preaching, tendencies of skepticism and materialism.

Within this context, his spiritual journey is not entirely surprising given the context that characterized the last half of the fourteenth century, and the first half of the following century, and the “spiritual and economic crisis” that surrounded it, as Louis Marvani sees it.

The Catalan historian considers that the doubts of the translator, sharpened by the desire for knowledge and his contacts with rational circles during his studies, may have made him feel "suffocated by the social structures and religious and spiritual hierarchies in Europe." Thus, he chose a "self-centered" solution, pursuant to one of the typical positions in the Renaissance, where he preferred Flee to another society "in search of personal freedom, tranquility and personal well-being".

The tomb of Abdullah al-Turjuman in the Sakagen market in Tunis (Marco Pedretti)

The death of Abdullah Al-Turjuman

The exact date of Abdullah al-Turjuman's death is not known with certainty, but different references place his death between 1423 and 1430.

After nearly 6 centuries, the place of his grave still exists today in the Sakakin market - artisans specialized in beautifying saddles and equestrian supplies - in the ancient city of Tunis.