Salafism

Qur’an translation of the week #103: ‘Interpretation of the meanings of the Noble Qur’an in the English language‘ by al-Hilālī and Khān- the story behind the first translation of the Qur’an in Saudi Arabia (2/2)

How does the early 1977 edition of the Hilali-Khan translation differs from later revisions? First of all, the English text of 1977 is almost completely free from the inclusion of Arabic glosses, i.e. transliterated Arabic words inserted in brackets, with only very few exceptions. Consider, for example, Q 2:43. In both the 1977 and 1978 …

Qur’an translation of the week #103: ‘Interpretation of the meanings of the Noble Qur’an in the English language‘ by al-Hilālī and Khān- the story behind the first translation of the Qur’an in Saudi Arabia (2/2) Read More »

Qur’an translation of the week #102: ‘Interpretation of the meanings of the Noble Qur’an in the English language‘ by al-Hilālī and Khān- the story behind the first Saudi translation (1/2)

This popular translation of the Qur’an into English, widely known as ‘Hilali-Khan,’ is one of the most influential Islamic texts in the world. Published in numerous editions, it gained much of its fame in the late 1990s and early 2000s, while recently it has been criticized on various grounds, some more controversial than others. Criticisms …

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Qur’an translation of the week #98: Ibn Kathīr’s commentary as a source for a Qur’an translation into Bosnian

Since 1990, a large number of Arabic religious texts have been translated into Bosnian. When it comes to exegetical texts specifically, the appearance of a shortened version of Ibn Kathīr’s commentary in Bosnian in the mid-1990s was quite significant, and can be considered a mark of the rise of Salafism in the country which was, …

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Qur’an translation of the week #75: The Qur’an in Kazakh – The First Saudi Qur’an translation for the Central Asia

With a population of around nineteen million people, Kazakhstan is the largest Central Asian state. Its official language, Kazakh, is the native language of some fifteen million people living both within Kazakhstan and beyond. Kazakh belongs to a Turkic language group of the Kipchak branch and is thus closely related to Kyrgyz, Karakalpak and Nogai. …

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Qur’an translation of the week #72: The Qur’an in Kyrgyz: Between Hanafism and Salafism

The Kyrgyz language belongs to the Turkic language family, and is currently spoken by five million people in the Kyrgyz Republic (Kyrgyzstan) and beyond. Still using the Cyrillic alphabet (after the Soviet reforms of 1940), this language has much in common with Kazakh (most notably in terms of grammar). As with other Central Asian countries …

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Qur’an translation of the week #60: From Yemen to Russia: Ruslan Abu Ibrahim Tatarstani’s Translation of a tafsīr on the Last juzʾ of the Qur’an by Muḥammad ibn ʿAbdallāh Bājammāl’

This week’s post addresses Ozarenie ot znayuschego, sveduyuschego [Озарение от Знающего, Сведующего], a Russian translation of Fatḥ al ʿalīm al khabīr bi-tafsīr ‘al-juzʾ al-akhīr’, a tafsīr on the last juzʾ of the Qur’an by the Yemeni preacher Muḥammad ibn ʿAbdallāh Bājammāl. The translation is by a prolific Tatar preacher and translator known by the teknonymic name …

Qur’an translation of the week #60: From Yemen to Russia: Ruslan Abu Ibrahim Tatarstani’s Translation of a tafsīr on the Last juzʾ of the Qur’an by Muḥammad ibn ʿAbdallāh Bājammāl’ Read More »

Qur’an translation of the week #54: Qur’anic Culture in the North Caucasus and the translation of the Qur’an into the Avar language

The Avar language (originally known as ‘Magarul mac’) belongs to the subgroup of Avar–Andic languages and is currently spoken by more than a million people in Russia (in western Dagestan), Azerbaijan (in the Zaqatala region), and Georgia. The oldest texts written in Avar date back to the fifteenth century and the language has survived a …

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Qur’an translation of the week #52: Friends, helpers, leaders, allies? Muslims, interreligious relations, and the translation of Q 5:51

In celebration of the one-year anniversary of ‘Qur’an Translation of the Week’, the GloQur team today jointly looks at modern translations of a contested verse. We will discuss Q 5:51, a verse that pertains to the relations between Muslims, on the one hand, and Christians and Jews, on the other hand. How is it rendered in …

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Qur’an translation of the week #51: Following the Saudi Trend: A Translation of the Meaning of the Qur’an, Accompanied by Concise Interpretation, by Abu Adel.

This week we turn our attention to Koran: Perevod Smysla Ayatov i ih Kratkoe Tolkovanie (‘The Qur’an: A Translation of the Meaning of its Verses, Accompanied by Concise Interpretation’), a Russian Qur’an translation by a Tatar translator known by the teknonymic name Abu Adel. First published in 2008, it is already on its fourth edition. …

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Qur’an translation of the week #46: Revolutionizing the genre of Qurʾan translation

‘Fatḥ al-Raḥmān bi-tarjamat al-Qurʾan’, the Persian Qur’an translation authored by the famous Indian scholar Shāh Walī Allāh Dihlawī (1703–1762), was the first translation to have a substantial influence on the genre of Qurʾan translation in the Indian subcontinent. Shāh Walī Allāh was born into a religous family who lived near Delhi. He began learning the …

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