Quran translations

Title page of a German translation of the Qur'an published in 1775

Translations of the Qur'an are interpretations of the holy book of Islam in languages other than Arabic. Though translation of the Qur'an is theologically problematic in Islam, it has been translated into most African, Asian and European languages.

The first complete translation of the Qur'an was completed in 884 CE in Alwar (currently known as Sindh, Pakistan) by the orders of Abdullah bin Umar bin Abdul Aziz on the request of the Hindu Raja Mehruk.

See also: List of translations of the Qur'an

Islamic theology

Translation of the Qur'an has always been a problematic and difficult issue in Islamic theology. Since Muslims revere the Qur'an as miraculous and inimitable (i'jaz al-Qur'an), they argue that the Qur'anic text cannot be reproduced in another language or form. Furthermore, an Arabic word, like a Hebrew or Aramaic word, may have a range of meanings depending on the context - a feature present in all Semitic languages, when compared to the moderately analytic English, Latin, and Romance languages - making an accurate translation even more difficult.

According to modern Islamic theology, the Qur'an is a revelation very specifically in Arabic, and so it should only be recited in the Arabic language. Translations into other languages are necessarily the work of humans and so, according to Muslims, no longer possess the uniquely sacred character of the Arabic original. Since these translations necessarily subtly change the meaning, they are often called "interpretations." For instance, Pickthall called his translation The Meaning of the Glorious Koran rather than simply The Koran.

The task of translation is not an easy one; some native Arab-speakers will confirm that some Qur'anic passages are difficult to understand even in the original Arabic. A part of this is the innate difficulty of any translation; in Arabic, as in other languages, a single word can have a variety of meanings. There is always an element of human judgment involved in understanding and translating a text. This factor is made more complex by the fact that the usage of words has changed a great deal between classical and modern Arabic. As a result, even Qur'anic verses which seem perfectly clear to native speakers accustomed to modern vocabulary and usage may not represent the original meaning of the verse.

The original meaning of a Qur'anic passage will also be dependent on the historical circumstances of the prophet Muhammad's life and early community in which it originated. Investigating that context usually requires a detailed knowledge of Hadith and Sirah, which are themselves vast and complex texts. This introduces an additional element of uncertainty which can not be eliminated by any linguistic rules of translation.

History

The first translation of the Qur'an was performed by Salman the Persian, who translated Surah al-Fatihah into the Persian language during the early 8th century. According to Islamic tradition contained in the hadith, Emperor Negus of Abyssinia and Byzantine Emperor Heraclius received letters from Muhammad containing verses from the Qur'an^{[citation needed]}. However, during Muhammad's lifetime, no passage from the Koran was ever translated in to these languages nor any other.

The first ever complete translation of the Qur'an was in Persian in India by Shah Waliullah. His sons Shah Rafiuddin and Shah Abdul Qadir translated the Qur'an into the Urdu language.

In 1936, translations in 102 languages were known.

European languages

Latin

Robertus Ketenensis produced the first Latin translation of the Qur'an in 1143. His version was entitled Lex Mahumet pseudoprophete ("The law of Mahomet the false prophet"). The translation was made at the behest of Peter the Venerable, abbot of Cluny, and currently exists in the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal in Paris. According to modern scholars^{[citation needed]}, the translation tended to "exaggerate harmless text to give it a nasty or licentious sting" and preferred improbable and unpleasant meanings over likely and decent ones. Ketenensis' work was republished in 1543 in three editions by Theodor Bibliander at Basel along with Cluni corpus and other Christian propaganda. All editions contained a preface by Martin Luther. Many later European "translations" of the Qur'an merely translated Ketenensis' Latin version into their own language, as opposed to translating the Qur'an directly from Arabic. As a result early European translations of the Qur'an were erroneous and distorted.

Ludovico Marracci, a confessor to Pope Innocent XI, issued a second Latin translation in 1698. The introductory volume contained an essay titled "Refutation of the Qur'an". This version selectively quoted commentaries to the Qur'an to give the most negative image possible. Marraci himself stated that he aimed to discredit Islam. Marraci's translation too became the source of other European translations (one in France by Savory, and one in German by Nerreter). These later translations were quite inauthentic, and one even claimed to be published in Mecca in 1165 AH.

Part of a series on
Translations of the Quran into English
By Sunnis
Hilali / Khan Marmaduke Pickthall, 1930 Abdullah Yusuf Ali, 1934 Ahmed Raza Khan Mohammed Knut Bernström Ali Ünal Muhammad Asad
By Shi'as
Mir Ahmed Ali Mohammed Habib Shakir
By Ahmadis
Maulvi Sher Ali Muhammad Zafarullah Khan Maulana Muhammad Ali
By non-Muslims
Robert of Ketton, 12th century Sieur du Ryer, 1647 John Medows Rodwell, 1861 A. J. Arberry, 1955 Thomas Cleary

Modern languages

The first translation in a modern European language was in Italian, 1547 by Andrea Arrivabene, derived from Ketenensis'. The Italian translation was used to derive the first German translation Solomon Schweigger in 1616 in Nuremberg, which in turn was used to derive the first Dutch translation in 1641.

The first French translation came out in 1647, and again in 1775, issued by André du Ryer. The Ryer translation also fathered many retranslations, most notably an English version by Alexander Ross in 1649. Ross' version was used to derive several others: a Dutch version by Glazemaker, a German version by Lange and two Russian versions by Postnikov and Veryovkin.

Spanish

There are four complete translations of the Qur'an in Spanish that are commonly available.

• Julio Cortes translation 'El Coran' is widely available in North America, being published by New York-based Tahrike Tarsile Qur'an publishing house.
• Ahmed Abboud and Rafael Castellanos, two converts to Islam of Argentine origin, published 'El Sagrado Coran' (El Nilo, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1953).
• Kamal Mustafa Hallak fine deluxe Hardback print 'El Coran Sagrado' is printed by Maryland based Amana Publications.
• Abdel Ghani Melara Navio a Spaniard who converted to Islam in 1979, his 'Traduccion-Comentario Del Noble Coran' was originally published by Darussalam Publications, Riyadh, in December 1997. The King Fahd Printing Complex has their own version of this translation, with editing by Omar Kaddoura and Isa Amer Quevedo.

English

This is a sub-article to English translations of the Quran.

The earliest known translation of the Qur'an in any European language was the Latin works by Robert of Ketton at the behest of the Abbot of Cluny in c.1143. As Latin was the language of the church it never sought to question what would now be regarded as blatant inaccuracies in this translation which remained the only one until 1649 when the first English language translation was done by Alexander Ross, chaplain to King Charles I, who translated from a French work L'Alcoran de Mahomet by du Ryer. In 1734, George Sale produced the first translation of the Qur'an direct from Arabic into English but reflecting his missionary stance. Since then, there have been English translation by the clergyman John Rodwell in 1861, E.H. Palmer in 1880, both show in their works a number of mistakes of mistranslation and misinterpretation, which brings into question their primary aim. Followed by Richard Bell in 1937 and Arthur John Arberry in the 1950s.

The Qur'an (1910) by Dr. Mirza Abul Fazl Arabic Text and English Translation Arranged Chronologically. Mirza Abul Fazl (1865–1956) was a native of Allahabad, India. He was the first Muslim to present a translation of the Qur'an in to English along with the original Arabic text. Among the contemporary Muslim scholars Dr. Mirza Abul Fazl was a pioneer who took interest in the study of the chronological order of the Qur'an and invited the attention of Muslim scholars towards its importance.

With the increasing population of English-speaking Muslims at the turn of the 20th century, three Muslim translations of the Qur'an into English made their first appearance. The first was the Ahmadi Maulana Muhammad Ali's 1917 translation. This was followed in 1930 by the English convert to Islam Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall's translation, which is literal and perhaps the most accurate.^{[citation needed]} Soon thereafter in 1934, Abdullah Yusuf Ali published his translation, featuring copious explanatory annotation - over 6000 notes, generally being around 95% of the text on a given page, to supplement the main text of the translation. This translation has gone through over 30 printings by several different publishing houses, and is one of the most popular amongst English-speaking Muslims, along the Pickthall and Saudi-sponsored Hilali-Khan translations.

With few new English translations over the 1950–1980 period, these three Muslim translations were to flourish and cement reputations that were to ensure their survival into the 21st century, finding favor among readers often in newly revised updated editions. Orientalist Arthur Arberry's translation circa 1955 and native Iraqi Jew N.J. Dawood's unorthodox translation circa 1956 were to be the only major works to appear in the post-war period. AJ Arberry's The Koran Interpreted remains the scholarly standard for English translations, and is widely used by academics.

Dr. Syed Abdul Latif's translation published in 1967, regarded highly by some (he was a professor of English at Osmania University, Hyderabad), was nevertheless short-lived due to criticism of foregoing accuracy for the price of fluency.

The Message of the Qur'an: Presented in Perspective (1974) was published by Dr. Hashim Amir Ali. He translated the Qur'an into English and arranged it according to chronological order. Dr. Hashim Amir-Ali (1903-c. 1987) was a native of Salar Jung, Hyderabad, Deccan. In 1938 he came under the influence of Dr. Mirza Abul Fazl Allahabadi, and took a deep interest in the study of the Qur'an and was aware of the significance of the chronological order of the Qur'an.

A Jewish convert to Islam, Muhammad Asad's monumental work The Message of the Qur'an made its appearance for the first time in 1980.

Professor Ahmed Ali's: Al-Qur'an: A Contemporary Translation (Akrash Publishing, Karachi, 1984, Reprinted by Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1987; Princeton University Press, New Jersey, 1988, with 9th reprinting 2001), brought new light to the translations of the Qur'an with Dr. Fazlur Rehman of the University of Chicago saying: "It brings out the original rhythms of the Qur'anic language and the cadences. It also departs from traditional translations in that it gives more refined and differentiated shades of important concepts". According to Dr. F. E. Peters of the New York University: "Ahmed Ali's work is clear, direct, and elegant – a combination of stylistic virtues almost never found in translations of the Qur'an. His is the best I have read".

At the cusp of the 1980s, the 1974 Oil Embargo, the Iranian Revolution, the Nation of Islam and a new wave of cold-war generated Muslim immigrants to Europe and North America brought Islam squarely into the public limelight for the first time in Western Europe and North America. This resulted in a wave of translations as Western publishers tried to capitalize on the new demand for English translations of the Qur'an. Oxford University Press and Penguin Books were all to release editions at this time, as did indeed the Saudi Government, which came out with its own re-tooled version of the original Yusuf Ali translation. Canadian Muslim Professor T.B. Irving's 'modern English' translation (1985) was a major Muslim effort during that time.

Arrival of the 1990s ushered in the phenomenon of an extensive English-speaking Muslim population well-settled in Western Europe and North America. As a result, several major Muslim translations emerged to meet the ensuing demand. In 1991 appeared an English translation under the title: The Clarion Call Of The Eternal Qur-aan, by Muhammad Khalilur Rahman (Dhaka, Bangladesh).

In 1996 the Saudi government financed a new translation "the Hilali-Khan Qur'an" which was distributed free world wide by the Saudi's government's as it was in line with their particular interpretation .

In 2007 appeared the English translation of Laleh Bakhtiar under the title of The Sublime Quran. Her translation of the Qur'an was the first ever by an American woman.

A spate of new translations between 1998 and 2008 owe their roots to two new emerging trends: 1) a need for Muslims to defend and explain the Qur'an to non-Muslims following the September 11 terrorist attacks^{[citation needed]}; and 2) various sectarian movements among Muslims vying for approval of English-speaking Muslims in the West via publishing of their own translations of the Qur'an^{[citation needed]}. As such over a dozen new translations from various Sufi schools of thought, Progressive Muslim movements, various political movements in the Muslim world, and various mainstream American-Muslim identity groups have all emerged during this time period.

Asian languages

The first translation into Japanese was done by Sakamoto Ken-ichi in 1920. Sakamoto worked from Rodwell's English translation. Takahashi Goro, Bunpachiro (Ahmad) Ariga and Mizuho Yamaguchi produced Japan's second translation in 1938. The first translation from the Arabic was done by Toshihiko Izutsu in 1945. In 1950, another translation appeared by Shūmei Ōkawa (1886–1957), who had been charged with war-crimes after the World War II on account of his anti-Western sympathies. Other translations have appeared more recently by Ban Yasunari and Osamu Ikeda in 1970 and by Umar Ryoichi Mita in 1972.

It is claimed that Yusuf Ma Dexin (1794–1874) is the first translator of the Koran into Chinese. However, the first complete translation into Chinese did not appear until 1927, although Islam had been present in China since the Tang Dynasty (618–907). The translation was by Lǐ Tiězhēng, a non-Muslim, who did not translate from the Arabic, but from Rodwell's English via Sakamoto Ken-ichi's Japanese. A second non-Muslim translation appeared in 1931, edited by edited by Jī Juémí. Wáng Jìngzhāi was the first Chinese Muslim to translate the Koran. His translation, the Gǔlánjīng yìjiě, appeared in 1932, with new revised versions being issued in 1943 and 1946. Other translations appeared in 1943, by Liú Jǐnbiāo, and 1947, by Yáng Zhòngmíng. The most popular version today is the Gǔlánjīng, translated by Mǎ Jiān, parts of which appeared between 1949 and 1951, with the full edition being published posthumously only in 1981.

Tóng Dàozhāng, a Muslim Chinese American, produced a modern translation, entitled Gǔlánjīng, in 1989. The most recent translation appeared in Taibei in 1996, the Qīngzhēn xīliú – Gǔlánjīng xīnyì, translated by translated by Shěn Xiázhǔn, but it has not found favour with Muslims.

Girish Chandra Sen (1835/36–1910), a Brahmo Samaj missionary, was the first person to translate the Qur'an into Bangla language in 1886. It was his finest contribution to Bangla literature. Abbas Ali of Candipur West Bengal was the first Muslim who translated the entire Qur'an into Bangla.

The Koran has also been translated to Aceh, Bugis, Gorontalo, Javanese, Sundanese, and Indonesian language of Indonesia, the most populous Muslim country in the world. Translation into Aceh language was done by Mahijiddin Yusuf in 1995; in Bugis language by Daude Ismaile and Nuh Daeng Manompo in 1982; in Gorontalo language by Lukman Katili in 2008; in Javanese by Ngarpah (1913), Kyai Bisyri Mustafa Rembang (1964), and K.H.R. Muhamad Adnan; in Sundanese by A.A. Dallan, H. Qamaruddin Shaleh, Jus Rusamsi in 1965; and in Indonesian at least in three versions: A Dt. Madjoindo, H.M Kasim Bakery, Imam M. Nur Idris, A. Hassan, Mahmud Yunus, H.S. Fachruddin, H. ,Hamidy (all in 1960s), Mohammad Diponegoro, Bachtiar Surin (all in 1970s), and Departemen Agama Republik Indonesia (Indonesian Department of Religious Affair).

William Shellabear (1862–1948) a British scholar and missionary in Malaysia, after translating the Bible into the Malay language began a translation of the Qur'an, but died in 1948 without finishing it.

There have been numerous translation of the Qur'an into Urdu, the most famous of which is Kanz al-Iman [The treasure of faith] by the Indian Sunni scholar, Imam Ahmad Raza Khan.

See also

• History of the Qur'an
• Tafsir

Further reading

• M. Brett Wilson, "The First Translations of the Qur'an in Modern Turkey (1924-1938)", International Journal of Middle East Studies, volume 41, issue 03, pp. 419–435. IJMES
• Bein, Amit. Ottoman Ulema, Turkish Republic: Agents of Change and Guardians of Tradition (2011) Amazon.com
• Tafsir of the Holy Qur'an in a couple of languages: http://www.altafsir.com/Languages.asp?LanguageID=2

External links

• Khaleel Mohammed (Spring 2005), "Assessing English Translations of the Qur'an" Middle East Quarterly (Philadelphia: Middle East Forum) XII (1): 58-71