Javanese

Qur’an translation of the week #111: Javanese Qur’an translation between grammatical instruction and storytelling- Bisri Musthofa’s al-Ibrīz

Bisri Musthofa’s (1915–1977) al-Ibrīz li-maʿrifat al-Qurʾān al-ʿazīz, a Javanese translation-cum-tafsīr of the Qur’an, provides an excellent example of how Qur’an translation practices have developed in Muslim societies in a wide variety of ways that go far beyond the modern European model. It also provokes the question of what a ‘faithful translation’ could (or should)_look like: …

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Qur’an translation of the week #95: The New Order, the Armed Forces and the Republic of Indonesia- Bakri Syahid’s Javanese Qur’an translation Al-Huda

Qur’an translation as propaganda: war alliances and nation-building (3/3) On the cover of Al-Huda, a Javanese Qur’an translation first published in 1979, the author, Bakri Syahid (1918–1994), is presented as both a retired brigadier general and a former rector of the State Islamic Institute Sunan Kalijaga in Yogyakarta. As this description shows, army and state …

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Qur’an translation of the week #21: Soedewo and the Dutch Qur’an in Indonesia

The first Dutch Qur’an translation of the 20th century was authored by a young Javanese Muslim, Soedewo (1906–1971), and printed in Batavia in 1934 for an Indonesian audience. While criticized by some ulama for being an Ahmadiyya translation, it was enthusiastically hailed by Indonesian Sunni intellectuals. For several decades, it was probably the most widely …

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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 #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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