The Turkish Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı, usually known simply as the Diyanet) was established in 1924 by the nationalist government of the newly emerged Turkish Republic. Initially a secular institution of, it has undergone a continual process of transformation throughout the almost one hundred years of its operation as it adapts to …
In May 2023, I came across an English Qur’an translation that appeared at first glance to be a reprint of an old work but, as is often the case, at second glance turned out to be much more than that. Right next to the entrance of the Ibn Tulun Mosque, one of the major Islamic …
Qur’an translation of the week #159: An Englishman’s translation in present-day Egypt Read More »
Turkmenistan, a landlocked country located in Central Asia with a population of around six million people, is one of the world’s most closed off and authoritarian states. With many limitations on religious freedom in place, the country imposes a kind of secular personality on its domestic politics, in contrast to its neighboring Central Asian states, …
A guest contribution by Sheam Khan, University of Leicester Identifying the ideology of a Qur’an translator has rarely been more complex than in the case of The Sublime Quran and its translator, Laleh Bakhtiar, whose ideological positions are often paradoxical. There is a wealth of information available regarding her life and works, but the polarities …
The Netherlands has a long history of engagement with Islam, due not least to the fact that for some 300 years the Dutch ruled over Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority country. However, Muslim translations of the Qur’an into Dutch only began to emerge following the onset of the modern, global trend of Muslim migration to …
In a period in which, one after another, the countries of francophone Africa gained independence, the renowned West African intellectual Oumar Bâ (1917–1998) embarked upon writing the very first Qur’an translation into the Fula (or Fulani, or ‘Peul’ in French) language. Or at least, it was the first translation that was put down in writing, …
A guest contribution by Muhammad Alwi HS and Iin Parninsih, STAI Sunan Pandanaran Yogyakarta, UIN Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta. Ever since the arrival of Islam in Indonesia, Muslims living in the Bugis region of Eastern Indonesia have studied the religious teachings of Islam almost entirely in their local language, also called Bugis. Ulama who teach in …
The story of the most recently published Qur’an translation into Ukrainian has its origins in the activities of the Ukrainian Shii Twelver community, specifically the Ahli-bayt Center of Islamic Culture in Ukraine and Eastern Europe. Primarily comprising members of the Azerbaijani and Iranian diasporas in Ukraine, local Shii organizations are especially active in Kyiv, Kharkiv …
Qur’an translation of the week #153: A Shii Qur’an translation into Ukrainian Read More »
On the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius, a dentist called Houssein Nahaboo (1920–2000) published Qur’an translations in no less than three languages – Mauritian Creole, French and English – during the 1980s. Through the lens of the small Muslim community of Mauritius in general, and Nahaboo’s work in particular, we can observe both the local …
This week we will take a closer look at ‘The Qur’an: The Eternal Revelation Vouchsafed to Muhammad,’ an English Qur’an translation authored by Sir Zafarullah Khan (d. 1985), who served as Pakistan’s first Foreign Minister. Sir Zafarullah Khan was born in 1893 in Sialkot where he attended primary school at the American Mission School. Receiving …
