As early as the 17th century, translating the Qur’an in France was separated from religious disputes. However, there was no dependable French translation available before Kazimirski’s in the mid-19th century: Antoine Galland’s quality work had disappeared in the early 18th century before publication, and both Du Ryer’s pioneer translation (1647) and Savary’s deist literary version remained very imperfect. This article puts all these French translations into their European space, and traces their debts to two authoritative translations, into Latin by Marraci (1698) and into English by George Sale (1734).