History of the Translation of the Noble Qur'an

SCHOLARS agree that the meanings of the Qur'an were translated for the first time into a foreign language, namely Syrian, during the caliphate of Hisham Ibn Abdul Malek.

During the Renaissance, many priests, thinkers, scholars and Orientalists became interested in the Qur'an. Some of them translated the meanings of the Qur'an, but their translations were full of mistakes and distortions due to their religious bias.

Those translators simply wanted to "refute" the Qur'an and to prove that it is written by the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and it is not a Holy Book.

The first translation of the meanings of the Qur'an in Europe was in Latin by Robert of Ketton in 1143 who was helped by Herman of Dalmatia. Peter the Venerable, the Abbot of Clunny, was the one who chose, encouraged and supported the above-mentioned translators to complete their work. This translation was published by Theodore Bibliander at Basel in 1543, 400 years after its composition.

But this translation was not satisfactory because the two translators used words and notions that suited the Christian World, but not that of Islam. There are no existent copies of this translation. Then the meanings of the Qur'an were translated into Italian in 1547, into German in 1616, into French in 1647, into Russian in 1776, into Dutch in 1941 and into about 120 languages of the world.

As for the history of English translations, there are more than 50, most of them are the renderings of the original Arabic. Some others are renderings from Urdu versions.

The English translations of the meanings of the Qur'an started in the 17th century and continued to the present time. That is to say, the translations extend over more than four centuries.

The 17th century witnessed the publication of one translation only, that is, the one published by Alexander Ross in 1649 and in the 18th century only one translation was published by George Sale in 1731. The 19th century witnessed the publication of two translations, those of J.M. Rodwell in 1861 and F.H. Palmer 1880. However, these early translations were full of deliberate mistakes due to religious bias or were unintentional due to imperfect knowledge of Arabic. In the 20th century, there was a growing interest in the studies related to the Qur'an and this led to the emergence of tens of English translations of the meanings of the Qur'an.