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Qur'an translations

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Translations of the Qur'an


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Translations by Sunnis
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Title page of a German translation of the Qur'an

Translations of the Qur'an are interpretations of the holy book of Islam in languages other than Arabic. Even though translating the Qur'an has been a difficult concept, both theologically and linguistically, Islam's scriptures have been translated into most African, Asian and European languages.[1]

See also: List of translations of the Qur'an

Contents

[edit] Islamic theology

Translation of the Quran 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 can not be reproduced in another language or form. Furthermore, an Arabic word may have a range of meanings depending on the context, making an accurate translation even more difficult.[1]

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.

[edit] History

The first translator of the Qur'ān was Salman the Persian, who translated Fatihah in Persian during the 7th century.[2] Other early translations were made for Emperor Negus of Abyssinia and Byzantine Emperor Heraclius, as both received letters by Muhammad containing verses from the Qur'an.[1]

The idea that the Qur'an and prayers must always be in Arabic was not firmly established in early Islamic theology. After the initial Muslim conquests, converts in some non-Arabic speaking areas established their own translations of the suras to use for salat. This was especially true in Persia. However, this idea later fell from favor in the inter-Muslim political struggles, and by the 1400s, the idea that only the original Arabic was truly the Qur'an was strongly agreed upon.

First ever complete translation of the Qur'an was in Persian in [India] by famous scholar Shah Waliullah. His sons Shah Rafiuddin and Shah Abdul Qadir translated the Qur'an in Urdu.

In 1936, translations in 102 languages were known.[1]

[edit] European languages

[edit] Latin

Robertus Ketenensis produced the first Latin translation of the Qur'an in 1143.[1] His version was entitled Lex Mahumet pseudoprophete ("The law of Mahomet the pseudo-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 (Buchmann) 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 in 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.[1]

A second Latin translation was issued in 1698 by Ludovico Marracci,[3] a confessor to Pope Innocent XI. 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's self-stated goal was to discredit Islam. Marraci's translation too was the source of other European translation (one in France by Savory, and one in German by Nerreter). These later translations were quite unauthentic, and one even claimed to be published in Mecca in 1165 AH.[1]

[edit] Modern languages

The first translation in a modern European language was in Italian, by Adrea 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.[1]

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.[1]

[edit] English

In 1734, George Sale produced the first scholarly translation of the Qur'an direct from Arabic into English. Since then, there have been important English translations by John Rodwell in 1861, E.H. Palmer in 1880, Richard Bell in 1937 and Mohammed Habib Shakir.

Other noted translations include:

  • The Holy Qur'an (1917) by Maulana Muhammad Ali. The work is strongly colored by the Lahori-Ahmadi belief of its translator, including disbelief in the miraculous and disdain for Judaism and Christianity.[4] It has nonetheless been the basis for many later works, and is notably the version adopted by the Nation of Islam.[4]
  • The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) by Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall. Heavily influenced by Muhammad Ali, this version shares that author's bias against descriptions of miracles. Popular in the first half of the twentieth century, it is now in limited demand due to its archaic prose and lack of annotations.[4]
  • The Holy Qur'an: Translation and Commentary (1934) by Abdullah Yusuf Ali. Ali elegantly conveys the rich style of the Arabic into eloquent English verse, but his translation has been criticized for providing copious medieval exegesis in the footnotes without contextualization. Written in a context of growing anti-Zionism, the commentary is also a polemic against Jews, to the extent that a Saudi-financed 1989 revision was banned from use in Los Angeles schools in 2002.[4] Ali's translation was until recently the most popular version used by Muslims, notably due to its subsidization by the Saudi government, but is losing influence due to its dated language.[4]
  • The Koran Interpreted (1955) by Arthur Arberry. The title of this first English translation by a bona fide scholar of Arabic and Islam reflects the Muslim belief that the Qur'an cannot be translated, just interpreted. Arberry's translation without prejudice has received wide acclaim by other scholars and remains the academic reference work at the beginning of the twenty-first century.[4]
  • The Message of the Qur'an (1980) by Muhammad Asad. Written by a Jewish convert to Islam, this work is banned in Saudi Arabia because of conflicts with the dominant Salafi interpretation of Islam, which has made the book difficult to obtain.[4] It has been acclaimed as "one of the best translations available" on account of the quality of its English and its annotations.[4]
  • Exposition of the Holy Quran by Ghulam Ahmed Pervez. The English rendering of the Urdu presentation Mafhum-al-Quran. Published in 1990.
  • Al-Qur'an, A Contemporary Translation (1984) by Ahmed Ali. This accessible translation has been criticized by many Muslim scholars because of the many liberties it takes with the text.[4]
  • The Qur'an: The First American Version (1985) by T. B. Irving alias Al-Hajj Ta’lim Ali. This version, criticized for fundamental flaws in translation, has met with little demand.[4]
  • The Holy Qur'an (1988) by Syed V. Mir Ahmed Ali. A widely used Shi'ite translation, criticized as unwieldy and for its "heavy sectarian bias".[4]
  • The Noble Qur'an in the English Language (1996) by Muhammad Taqi al-Din al-Hilali and Muhammad Muhsin Khan. Intended to replace the Abdullah Yusuf Ali translation, this is now the most widely disseminated Qur'an among Sunnis in the English-speaking world in part due to its free distribution by the Saudi government.[4] It has been severely criticized in the West as a "supremacist Muslim, anti-Semitic, anti-Christian polemic" for its reliance on medieval commentary and for its use of parenthetical insertions that reflect contemporary political disputes, such as "Holy Land (Palestine)" instead of just "Holy Land".[4]
  • The Noble Qur'an: A New Rendering of Its Meaning in English (1999) by Abdalhaqq Bewley and Aisha Bewley. A Sufi translation, acclaimed for lack of bias and readable English, but difficult to obtain because it is not supported by religious institutions.[4]

[edit] 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 Izutsu Toshihiko in 1945[5]. In 1950, another translation appeared by Okawa Shumei (1886-1957), who had been charged with war-crimes after the World War II on account of his anti-Western sympathies[6]. 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 1949-1951, 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.[7].

Kanzul Iman is the name of the 1910 Urdu translation of the Qur'an by Ahmad Raza Khan, the scholar who revived Sunni Islam in the Subcontinent. The Sunnis of the Subcontinent are sometimes referred to as Barelwi due to him.[8] It was subsequently translated into English by Professor Shah Faridul Haque. Recently, it has been translated into many other regional languages and become popular on the internet. Kanzul Iman is regarded highly by Sunni Muslims.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Fatani, Afnan (2006), "Translation and the Qur'an", in Leaman, Oliver, The Qur'an: an encyclopedia, Great Britain: Routeledge, pp. 657–669 
  2. ^ An-Nawawi, Al-Majmu', (Cairo, Matbacat at-'Tadamun n.d.), 380.
  3. ^ S. M. Zwemer: Translations of the Koran, The Moslem World, 1915
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Mohammed, Khaleel. "Assessing English Translations of the Qur'an". Middle East Quarterly (Spring 2005). ISSN 1073-9467. http://www.meforum.org/717/assessing-english-translations-of-the-quran. 
  5. ^ "The Qu'ran and its translators"
  6. ^ Democracy and Social Justice in Asia and the Arab World, Unesco, 2006
  7. ^ "Chinese Translations of the Qur'ān: a Close Reading of Selected Passages", by Ivo Spira, MA thesis, Oslo University, 2005
  8. ^ Robinson, Neal (01 October 1997). "Sectarian and ideological bias in Muslim translations of the Qur'an". Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations 8 (3): 4–5. doi:10.1080/09596419708721126. 

Part of a series on the Qur'an

Mus'haf

Sura · Ayah
Qur'an reading

Tajwid · Hizb · Tarteel · Qur'anic guardian · Manzil · Qari' · Juz' · Rasm · Ruku' · Sujud ·
Translations

List
Origin and development

Meccan revelations · Medinan revelations
Tafsir

Persons related to verses · Justice · Asbab al-nuzul · Naskh · Biblical narratives · Tahrif · Bakkah · Muqatta'at · Esoteric interpretation
Qur'an and Sunnah

Literalism · Miracles · Science · Women
Views on the Qur'an

Shi'a · Criticism · Desecration · Surah of Wilaya and Nurayn · Tanazzulat · Qisas Al-Anbiya · Beit Al Qur'an

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[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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