Quran translations have been made throughout history by those who wish to understand it in their native language. Historically, most Muslims believed the Quran should only be read in the language it was revealed in (Classical Arabic) and saw no need for translation. Numerous translations by both Muslims and non-Muslims have been made (e.g. Mustafa Khattab's The Clear Quran, Alexander Ross' Alcoran de Mahomet, etc.) to shed light on the meanings of the Quran.
According to Islamic theology, the Qur'an is a revelation in Arabic, and thus, it should only be recited in Quranic Arabic. Translations into other languages are the work of humans and so, according to Muslims, lose the unique impact and character of the Arabic original. Since these translations subtly change the meaning, they are often called "interpretations" or "translation[s] of the meanings" . For instance, Pickthall called his translation The Meaning of the Glorious Koran rather than simply The Koran.
History
The first translation of the Qur'an was performed by Salman the Persian, who translated Surah al-Fatiha into the Middle Persian in the early seventh century.An-Nawawi, Al-Majmu', (Cairo, Matbacat at-'Tadamun n.d.), 380. According to Islamic tradition contained in the hadith, the Negus of the Ethiopian Empire and the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius received letters from Muhammad containing verses from the Qur'an. However, during Muhammad's lifetime, no passage from the Qur'an was ever translated into these languages nor any other.
The second known translation was into Greek and was used by Nicetas Byzantius, a scholar from Constantinople, in his "Refutation of Qur'an" written between 855 and 870. However, we know nothing about who and for what purpose had made this translation. It is said that it was a complete translation.Christian Høgel, "An early anonymous Greek translation of the Qurʻan. The fragments from Niketas Byzantios' Refutatio and the anonymous Abjuratio", Collectanea Christiana Orientalia 7 (2010), pp. 65–119Astérios Argyriou, "Perception de l'Islam et traductions du Coran dans le monde byzantin grec", Byzantion 75 (2005).
The first fully attested complete translations of the Qur'an were done between the 10th and 12th centuries into Classical Persian. The Samanid Emperor, Mansur I (961–976), ordered a group of scholars from Khorasan to translate the Tafsir al-Tabari, originally in Arabic, into Persian. Later in the 11th century, one of the students of Khwaja Abdullah Ansari wrote a complete tafsir of the Qur'an in Persian. In the 12th century, Najm al-Din 'Umar al-Nasafi translated the Qur'an into Persian. The manuscripts of all three books have survived and have been published several times.
In 1936, translations in 102 languages were known. The Qur'an has been translated from the Arabic into most major African, Asian, and European languages.
European languages Latin
Robertus Ketenensis produced the first Latin translation of the Qur'an in 1143 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. Ketenensis' work was republished in 1543 in three editions by Theodore Bibliander at Basel. 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.
In the early thirteenth century, Mark of Toledo made another, more literal, translation into Latin, which survives in several manuscripts. In the fifteenth century, Juan of Segovia produced another translation in collaboration with the Mudejar writer, Isa of Segovia. Only the prologue survives. In the sixteenth century, Juan Gabriel Terrolensis aided Cardenal Eguida da Viterbo in another translation into Latin. In the early seventeenth century, another translation was made, attributed to Cyril Lucaris.
In 1518, Juan Gabriel of Teruel (formerly known as Ali Alayzar), a Muslim convert to Christianity, prepared a Latin translation of the Quran for Giles of Viterbo, who had commissioned the translation for the purpose of converting Muslims to Christianity. Leo Africanus, a Muslim convert who was a godson of Giles of Viterbo, revised the translation in 1525. Surviving manuscripts of the translation are Cambridge MS Mm. v. 26 (C) and Milan MS D 100 inf. (M). MS D 100 Inf was copied by Scottish scholar David Colville in 1621, from a manuscript at the library of El Escorial in Spain. Colville later brought the manuscript to Milan. Today, it is archived at the Biblioteca Ambrosiana.
In 1622, the Genoese Jesuit priest Ignazio Lomellini (1560–1645) translated the Quran into Latin in the little-known Animadversiones, Notae ac Disputationes in Pestilentem Alcoranum (MS A-IV-4), a 1622 manuscript that is the oldest surviving example of a European translation of the Quran which also includes the complete original Arabic text.
Louis Maracci (1612–1700), a teacher of Arabic at the Sapienza University of Rome and confessor to Pope Innocent XI, issued an Arabic edition and a second Latin translation in 1698 in Padua.Samuel Marinus Zwemer: Translations of the Koran , The Moslem World, 1915 His edition contains the Qur'an's Arabic text with a Latin translation, annotations to further understanding and – embued by the time's spirit of controversy – an essay titled "Refutation of the Qur'an", where Marracci disproves Islam from the then Catholic point of view. Despite the Refutations anti-Islamic tendency, Marracci's translation is accurate, suitably commented, and quotes many Islamic sources.
Marracci'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.
Modern languages The first translation in a modern European language was in Castilian Spanish or Aragonese by the convert Juan Andrés (or so he claims in his ) but this translation is lost. A few dozen Qur'an verses in Castilian are found within the Confusión itself. There were lost translations in Catalan, one of them by Francesc Pons Saclota in 1382, the other appeared in Perpignan in 1384. Another Romance translation was made into Italian, 1547 by Andrea Arrivabene, derived from Ketenensis'. The Italian translation was used to derive the first German translation Salomon 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 Du Ryer translation also fathered many re-translations, 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.
Circassian languages Historically in Circassian society, the Quran was read in Arabic by a mullah, who would then translate and explain the text into the Circassian language for the congregation. The Adyghe translation of the Quran, "Meanings of the Quranic Verses", was prepared by Iskhak Mashbash and Pshimaf Koshbay. Faiz Autle and Daut Tlebzu served as Arabic language consultants. The Kabardian translation of the Quran, "The Quran and the Meanings of the Quranic Verses in Circassian (Kabardian)", was prepared by Mukhamed Khuazh, Mustafa Boliy and Zaur Nalo.
English
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 . This translation 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 by du Ryer.
In 1734, George Sale produced the first translation of the Qur'an direct from Arabic into English but relying heavily on O.M.D. Louis Maracci's Vatican Quran.Arnoud Vrolijk, Sale, George ODNB, 28 May 2015 Since then, there have been English translations by the clergyman John Medows Rodwell in 1861, and Edward Henry Palmer in 1880, both showing in their works several mistakes of mistranslation and misinterpretation. These were followed by Richard Bell in 1937 and Arthur John Arberry in the 1950s.
The Qur'an (1910) by Mirza Abul Fazl (1865–1956), a native of East Bengal (now Bangladesh), later moved to Allahabad, India. He was the first Muslim to present a translation of the Qur'an into English along with the original Arabic text. Among the contemporary Muslim scholars, Abul Fazl was a pioneer who took interest in the study of the chronological order of the Qur'an and drew the attention of Muslim scholars to its importance.
With the increasing population of English-speaking Muslims around the start of the 20th century, three Muslim translations of the Qur'an into English made their first appearance. The first was Muhammad Ali's 1917 translation, which is composed from an Ahmadiyya perspective, with some small parts being rejected as unorthodox by the vast majority of Muslims. This was followed in 1930 by the English convert to Islam Marmaduke Pickthall's more literalist translation.
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, alongside 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 1955 translation and native Iraqi Jew N. J. Dawood's unorthodox translation in 1956 were to be the only major works to appear in the post-war period. A. J. Arberry's The Koran Interpreted remains the scholarly standard for English translations, and is widely used by academics.
The English translation of Kanzul Iman is called The Treasure of Faith, which is translated by Farid Ul Haq. This translation is revered and higly respected by in barelvi circles. but scholar outside barelvi circles notes that Kanzul Iman adds phrases not in the Arabic Quran, like "apparently just looks human"https://islamawakened.com/quran/18/110/default.htm#gsc.tab=0 in 18:110—instead of the plain "I am only a human like you." This changes the meaning to fit Barelvi beliefs in the Prophet's special "light" nature, against the Quran's stress on his full humanity [18:110,17:93]. Classic scholars (Ibn Kathir, Tabari) never interpret it this way; it's a serious distortion (tahrif) of God's words.
Syed Abdul Latif's translation published in 1967, is regarded highly by some. He was a professor of English at Osmania University, Hyderabad. It was nevertheless short-lived due to criticism of his foregoing accuracy for the price of fluency.
The Message of the Qur'an: Presented in Perspective (1974) was published by Hashim Amir Ali. He translated the Qur'an into English and arranged it according to chronological order. Hashim Amir-Ali (1903-) was a native of Salar Jung, Hyderabad State in the Deccan Plateau. In 1938, he came under the influence of Abul Fazl and took a deep interest in the study of the Qur'an, and was aware of the significance of the chronological order of the passages contained in it.
Another Jewish convert to Islam, Muhammad Asad's monumental work The Message of The Qur'an made its appearance for the first time in 1980.