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Qur’an translation of the week #172: Plagiarism and Sectarianism: the Ahmadi-Shi’i-Sunni trajectory of M. H. Shakir’s The Holy Quran

The English Qur’an translation by M. H. Shakir is widely available today in various printed editions produced by numerous publishers, and also on websites and smartphone apps. It is sometimes mistakenly ascribed to the renowned Egyptian scholar Muḥammad Shākir (1866–1939), however he was an opponent of Qur’an translations and it is safe to assume that …

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Qur’an translation of the week #168: The Turkish afterlife of a global scholar: Muhammad Hamidullah’s French Qur’an translation in Turkish

Aziz Kur’an is a Turkish Qur’an translation based on Le Saint Coran by Muhammad Hamidullah. Producing such a translation of a translation is an unusual decision given that there are already dozens of Qur’an translations on the Turkish market from the original Arabic. It speaks to the renown and appeal of this illustrious and prolific …

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Qur’an translation of the week #164: From The Great Tiding to The Awesome News: Mahmoud Ayoub’s Translation and Exegesis between Lebanon, Libya and the United States

Despite the fact that Mahmoud Ayoub (1935–2021) was a fairly renowned member of the Muslim community in North America, his translation of the Juzʾ ʿamma, the last of the thirty parts of the Qur’an, is virtually unknown and hard to obtain. It is a fascinating source for at least two reasons: first, because of its …

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Qur’an translation of the week #157: Feminist? Qur’anist? Perennialist? Aḥmadi? Or Sufi Mystic? Harmonizing the Multiple Identities of Laleh Bakhtiar in her Translation of The Sublime Quran

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 …

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Qur’an translation of the week #30: The Gracious Quran: A modern-phrased interpretation in English

We noted previously that official efforts by Egypt’s religious establishment – represented by Al-Azhar University – have been eclipsed by translations by men associated with the institution. Today’s post concerns one of those. The 1st edition (2007) of “The Gracious Quran: A modern-phrased interpretation in English” is particularly fine, in two volumes: one with the …

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