Germany

Qur’an translation of the week #135: The elusive quest for dogmatic correctness: Al-Azhar’s German Qur’an translation

In 1999, al-Azhar University in Egypt published the German version of its project to standardize Qur’an translation. Like the versions in other languages (for English and Russian, see Al-Montakhab and Al-Muntakhab In Russian- Egyptian Daʿwa In The Post-Soviet Space), this German Qur’an translation was based on the concise Qur’an commentary al-Muntakhab (‘The Select’) which purports …

Qur’an translation of the week #135: The elusive quest for dogmatic correctness: Al-Azhar’s German Qur’an translation Read More »

Qur’an translation of the week #120: Back to recitation- a German interlinear translation and its pitfalls

In 2020, a nondescript self-publisher in Turkey issued a colour-coded interlinear word-for-word translation of the Qur’an into German with the (not very idiomatic) title Quran Wort zu Wort Übersetzung. Since it was the first of its kind, and still remains unique, it seems to have gained a certain popularity among German-speaking Muslims, especially those who …

Qur’an translation of the week #120: Back to recitation- a German interlinear translation and its pitfalls Read More »

Qur’an translation of the week #93: The Qur’an as a weapon in the Great War – Mahmud Mukhtar Pasha and the German-Ottoman alliance

Qur’an translation as propaganda: war alliances and nation-building (1/3) When the Ottoman Empire entered the First World War in November 1914 on the side of Germany and Austria-Hungary, pro-Ottoman circles in Germany were eager to sell this new alliance to a German-speaking public that was under the influence of decades of discourses on Oriental despotism …

Qur’an translation of the week #93: The Qur’an as a weapon in the Great War – Mahmud Mukhtar Pasha and the German-Ottoman alliance Read More »

Qur’an translation of the week #77: A time of experimentation – A chronological Qur’an translation in early twentieth-century British India

In 1911 and 1912, an Indian Muslim academic called Mirza Abu’l-Fadl published a work entitled The Qur’ân: Arabic Text and English Translation: Arranged Chronologically: With an Abstract in his home town of Allahabad. This was only the second Qur’an translation into English, or any other Western European language, by a Muslim. While Qur’an translations into …

Qur’an translation of the week #77: A time of experimentation – A chronological Qur’an translation in early twentieth-century British India Read More »

Qur’an translation of the week #71: Al-mathani and the gigantic Qur’aan: Strategies of translating Arabic terminology in Amir Zaidan’s At-tafsiir

At the time it was first published in 2000, Amir Zaidan’s At-tafsiir, an annotated translation of the Qur’an into German, stood apart from all other German translations due to its deliberate and extensive use of Arabic terminology. It contained phrases such as ‘In it are clear ayat, [including] maqamu-Ibrahim’ (‘In ihm sind deutliche Ayat, [davon] …

Qur’an translation of the week #71: Al-mathani and the gigantic Qur’aan: Strategies of translating Arabic terminology in Amir Zaidan’s At-tafsiir Read More »

Qur’an translation of the week #69: ‘Der Heilige Qur’an’ – a new revised German translation of the Qur’an

Recently, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat has published a new revised German translation of the Qur’an. In this post, I will take a close look at this new edition and discuss some of the things that have been changed. The Ahmadiyya Movement has been translating the Qur’an into different languages for more than 100 years, with …

Qur’an translation of the week #69: ‘Der Heilige Qur’an’ – a new revised German translation of the Qur’an Read More »

Qur’an translation of the week #37: The editors and their voices: Max Henning’s “Der Koran” and its revised editions

The three revised editions of Max Henning’s German Qur’an translation (“Der Koran”, Reclam: Leipzig, 1901) introduced last week illustrate the role of editors in shaping existing translations. The extent of interference with the text may range from the modernization of spelling to a complete rewriting, and even in the latter case, the result may still …

Qur’an translation of the week #37: The editors and their voices: Max Henning’s “Der Koran” and its revised editions Read More »

Qur’an translation of the week #36: The impact of standardization: Max Henning’s 1901 Qur’an translation and its editors

One of the most widely-sold Qur’an translations on the German market is “Der Koran” by Max Henning (1861–1927), an autodidactic Orientalist. First published in 1901 by Reclam in Leipzig, it was one of the few available German Qur’an translations at the time, and was generally considered to be the most reliable one, an assessment that …

Qur’an translation of the week #36: The impact of standardization: Max Henning’s 1901 Qur’an translation and its editors Read More »

Qur’an translation of the week #29: The Qur’an for children and adults by Lamya Kaddor and Rabeya Müller

Qur’an translations often play a part in familiarizing children with the scripture. Many of them are based on traditional pedagogical approaches, e.g. as a backdrop to teaching the recitation of the shortest surahs in Arabic. In contrast, “The Qur’an for children and adults” (“Der Koran für Kinder und Erwachsene”) by Lamya Kaddor and Rabeya Müller …

Qur’an translation of the week #29: The Qur’an for children and adults by Lamya Kaddor and Rabeya Müller Read More »

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 …

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