French

Qur’an translation of the week #62: The quest for a Western European language of Islam: Mohammed Chiadmi’s Le noble Coran: Nouvelle traduction française du sens de ses versets

How does one translate the Qur’an into a language that has developed in a predominantly Christian context, and whose religious vocabulary has been shaped by that context? This is a question that all translators of the Qur’an into Western European languages grapple with. This is even more the case when Muslim translators are addressing a …

Qur’an translation of the week #62: The quest for a Western European language of Islam: Mohammed Chiadmi’s Le noble Coran: Nouvelle traduction française du sens de ses versets Read More »

Qur’an translation of the week #57: The Qur’an explained to French children: recitation and meaning

Le Coran expliqué aux enfants: Juz ‘Amma is an illustrated French translation and commentary of the Qur’an for children. In many countries, there is a growing market for such books. They may take different forms, ranging from a thematic summary or arrangement of Qur’anic verses to translations of complete suras, often accompanied by additional material. …

Qur’an translation of the week #57: The Qur’an explained to French children: recitation and meaning Read More »

Qur’an translation of the week #43: A French Salafi Qur’an translation based on Ibn Kathīr’s tafsīr

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 …

Qur’an translation of the week #43: A French Salafi Qur’an translation based on Ibn Kathīr’s tafsīr Read More »

Qur’an translation of the week #26: Al-Montakhab

To mark the arrival of a certain president-elect (!), this week’s post concerns another “muntakhab” – a project to standardise Qur’an translation according to the scholarship of Egypt’s Al-Azhar University. “Al-Muntakhab fi tafsir al-Qur’an” is better translated as ‘The Select Interpretation of the Qur’an’. This thread draws numerous points from Stefan Wild’s paper on “Muslim …

Qur’an translation of the week #26: Al-Montakhab Read More »

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 …

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