Hundred Names of God

The Hundred Names of God is a verse work by Ramon Llull which has drawn considerable attention from scholars on account of both its form and content. It is likewise the work of Llull’s in which the multidisciplinarity and intertextuality inherent to his thought emerge best. This translation into English, by Simone Sari and Robert D. Hughes, constitutes one of the milestones of the European project entitled Ramon Llull Christianus Arabicus: A Vernacular Writer Between Christianity and Islam. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 746221, under whose umbrella will also emerge the new critical editions of the work in both Catalan and Latin.

The Hundred Names of God can be considered a bridge between Islam and Christianity. Using as his starting point Islamic devotion to the Beautiful Names of Allah, Llull formulates his own list of Names, which are analysed in each chapter principally by means of terms appearing within his Art and his system of “Correlatives”, though also through the addition of moral interpretations which render the poem akin to the many proverbs he devised. With his Hundred Names, Llull is likewise introducing theological vocabulary into the vernacular tongue, this representing an extraordinary attempt to educate the common people, who showed pious devotion to God though were not in a position to employ the correct terminology. Finally, the liturgical function of this text, to which certain of its manuscripts attest, causes the Hundred Names of God to form part of a Lullian Office, for use in daily prayer.

This first translation into English will contribute towards an improved understanding of Llull’s text, and enable all those who are unfamiliar with Medieval Catalan to delve into the thought of this Majorcan and to become aware of the importance he attached to the education of the laity.