Although there are many translations of the Qur’an into modern Turkish, Kur’an-ı Kerim ve Türkçe Açıklamalı Meali is of special interest. Prepared by a team of scholars on the initiative of the Muslim World League (MWL) and first published in 1982, this is a collective work rather than the more traditional individually-authored translation that comprise …
This Turkish Qur’an translation has been successfully – and incorrectly – marketed as the work of a famous, long-dead scholar. It has also been demonized as constituting an attempt by a terrorist organization to subvert Islam in Turkey. For both reasons, it is an intriguing case study in the economics and politics of contemporary Qur’an …
Unlike Arabic works, Qur’an commentaries in other languages have to involve or incorporate translation of the scriptural text. When those works are translated, the Qur’an translation itself may have to be rendered in the new language. Before looking at a few examples, particularly noting how this process can go wrong, let’s appreciate the value of …
Qur’an translation of the week #47: Chain Translations from Urdu to English Read More »
‘Fatḥ al-Raḥmān bi-tarjamat al-Qurʾan’, the Persian Qur’an translation authored by the famous Indian scholar Shāh Walī Allāh Dihlawī (1703–1762), was the first translation to have a substantial influence on the genre of Qurʾan translation in the Indian subcontinent. Shāh Walī Allāh was born into a religous family who lived near Delhi. He began learning the …
Qur’an translation of the week #46: Revolutionizing the genre of Qurʾan translation Read More »
This week’s thread focuses on a Shiite foray into Qur’an translation into the Russian language. While the overwhelming majority of Muslims in Russia are Sunnis, there is also a sizeable number of Shiite Muslim communities scattered across the Russian Federation. These communities are mostly made up of ethnic Azerbaijanis and Lezgins and are scattered in …
There has been a history of close interaction between the Byzantine and Arab cultures in the Mediterranean and Middle East ever since the Arab conquests in the seventh century CE. This, and the concomitant rise of Christian-Muslim polemics, resulted in the production of the first complete translation of the Qur’an into Greek before the end …
This week, we discuss a recent, all-out Salafi rendition of the Qur’an into French that claims to follow the only valid methodology for translating the Qur’an: condensing Ibn Kathir’s (d. 1373 CE) Qur’an commentary into one volume. Nabil Aliouane’s “Le Coran et la traduction du sens de ses versets” (Marrakesh: Éditions Tawbah, 2020) or “The …
A guest contribution by Ulya Fikriyati, Institut Ilmu Keislaman Annuqayah (INSTIKA) Guluk-Guluk Sumenep, Indonesia The “Bhâsa Madhurâ” (Madurese) translation of the Qur’an is one of many vernacular translations of the Qur’an available in Indonesia. The Madurese (after whom the Madurese language is named) hail from the island of Madura, which is located immediately to the …
Qur’an translation of the week #42: The Bhâsa Madhurâ Translation of the Qur’an Read More »
The Qur’an is “not the word of a poet” but aspects of structure, rhythm and rhyme certainly evoke aspects of Arabic poetry. Can any of that carry over into translation? Should it? Shawkat Toorawa is Professor of Arabic at Yale, and his approach to teaching and translating the Qur’an draws from his broader interests in …
Qur’an translation of the week #41: The Rhyming Cadences of Shawkat Toorawa Read More »
The Bulgarian language is spoken by at least eight million people (including more than half a million Muslim speakers) and has played an especially interesting role in the history of Qur’an translation in the Balkan area. As the Balkans have historically been a space where Slavic culture encounters Turkish influence, the “Bulgarization” of the Qur’an …
