Could it be ... ?

I've made some corrections and edits to my previous post. (I ought to know better by now than to write solely from memory, but ... !)

One thing from the back-cover blurb to my copy of The Portable Milton is a statement that claims the notion of Satan as a "radiant usurper" is more due to "Paradise Lost" than either the Old or New Testament, says the blurb.

That got me to thinking. The "backstory" of Satan's battle with God over Adam's creation is clearly related in the Koran.

So I checked. Yes, the first (slanted, I'm told) translation of the Koran in the West was in 1143. This same Latin translation was published in Switzerland thirty years before Milton was born in three editions, each with a preface by no less than Martin Luther!

Milton toured Europe, staying a while in Italy, as a young man, impressing all with his skill at Latin. He surely would have seen this translation in some form. Whether it influenced him as a poet is another matter.