Qur’an translation of the week

Qur’an translation of the week #10: Interlinear translations from Masjid al-Huda

Interlinear Qur’an translation is often considered a thing of the past – but in many contexts, it is alive and kicking! This points to fundamental differences between translations of the Bible and the Qur’an. Translations of the Bible are typically stand-alone texts that are meant to be read and studied by themselves. By contrast, interlinear …

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Qur’an translation of the week #09: The Majestic Qur’an by Dr. Musharraf Hussein OBE

“The Majestic Qur’an” (Nottingham: Invitation Publishing, 2018) is among the recent translations placing an emphasis on “plain English”. Its translator, Dr Musharraf Hussein OBE, is a graduate of Al-Azhar and longstanding educationist in the UK. The front matter contains an endorsement from Egypt’s Dar al-Ifta’ and various individuals. The translator’s intro draws attention to the …

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Qur’an translation of the week #08: Kur’oni Karim. Uzbekcha izoxli tarjima

It is not unusual that a Qur’an translation becomes a source for translations into further languages, but what about a single translator who produces his work in five languages?That is the fascinating story behind the “Kur’oni Karim. Uzbekcha izoxli tarjima” (“The Noble Qur’an: Annotated Translation into Uzbek”) by Alouddin Mansur. Born in 1952 in Qorasuv …

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Qur’an translation of the week #07: ‘Le Saint Coran‘ and its convoluted publication history

This book, which I purchased in a bookstore in Tunis, was published in Homs, Syria, in 2011 and claims to contain a French Qur’an translation produced by the Mauritanian scholar Mohamed El-Moktar Ould Bah (b. 1924) for the King Fahd Complex in Medina – evidence of the longstanding presence and importance of Mauritanian scholars in …

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Qur’an translation of the week #06: “The Message of the Qur’an” by Muhammad Asad

This week we look at the highly original and influential work by the rationally-inclined Muhammad Asad: “The Message of the Qur’an”. Born Leopold Weiss in 1900 in Austria-Hungary (modern-day Lviv, Ukraine), he became Muslim in 1926. As he recounts in his autobiography “The Road to Mecca”, a Qur’an translation played an important role in his …

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Qur’an translation of the week #05: The Bosnian translation by Besim Korkut

Among the numerous translations of the Qur’an into Balkan languages, the Bosnian translation by Besim Korkut (1904–1977) may still be the most popular. After finishing at Shariah school in Sarajevo in 1925, Korkut continued his religious education at al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt. Graduating in 1931 and returning home, Besim Korkut started his activities as a …

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Qur’an translation of the week #04: The Lies! edition of Muhammad Rassoul’s Qur’an translation

This book, entitled “The Approximate Meaning of Al Qur’ān Al Karīm in German Language” („Die ungefähre Bedeutung des Al Qur’ān Al Karīm in deutscher Sprache”), is the most politicized Qur’an translation in German history. Originally published by the Egyptian-born Muhammad Rassoul (1929–2015) in 1986 in a bilingual edition, it was distributed in a monolingual German …

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Qur’an translation of the week #03: Bridges’ Translation of the Ten Qira’at of the Noble Qur’an

This week we peek inside probably the most recent English translation to be published: Bridges’ Translation of the Ten Qira’at of the Noble Qur’an. It was released in 2020 by its lead translator, Mr Fadel Soliman, an Egyptian based in London. As well as Soliman, the credits inside the book include translator Dr Hala Muhammad, …

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Qur’an translation of the week #02: Koran perevod smyslov

“Koran: perevod smyslov” (1993) was the first Russian translation by a Muslim woman. By the late 1980’s, the Muslim community in the Soviet bloc experienced significant changes related to the return of religious freedom and the subsequent growth of religious revivalism. Only the academic work of Ignatij Krachkovskij (1963) and the outdated Christian Orthodox missionary …

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Qur’an translation of the week #01: Al-Qur’an dan terjemahnya

“Al-Quräan dan terdjemahnja”, a hugely successful project of the newly-independent Republic of Indonesia, was the first Qur’an translation ever to be commissioned by a government and produced by a committee of scholars. The first volume was published in 1965. President Sukarno’s “Old Order” regime wanted it to represent the revolutionary “fire of Islam”. Sukarno was …

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