It
was in 1994 that The Centre for Translation of the Holy Qur'an
was founded by the Awqaf and Charities Organization with the
assistance of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance of
the Islamic Republic Of Iran. It has been the aim of this
Centre to offer lucid, correct, and faithful-to-the-original
translations of the Holy Qur'an. The Centre houses
one of the best collections of the holy Qur'an along with
encyclopedias and books on linguistics, translation theory and
various Islamic subjects.
Activities
& Programs:
Goals
and Activities:
a.
Collection of Printed Translations of the Quran
Specialists in the
field of Qur’anic studies and translation need to have a
first-hand knowledge of the character and contents of the
existing printed translations. Therefore, it is necessary to
make these available to them at the Center. The Centre, since
its foundation, has collected nearly 4,306
volumes of the works of 977
translators, in 101
languages. Though by no means complete, such a collection of
printed translations of the Qur’an is unique in Iran, and
efforts continue to collect each and every complete and partial
translation of the Qur’an that exists in any language
throughout the world.
b.
Archive
of Studies on Translation of the Quran:
There
is a steadily growing literature on Qur’anic studies in
general and on the theoretical issues and debates relating to
Qur’an translation in particular, as well as the special
problems that relate to particular languages. A good archive of
this kind of material consisting of critical studies of the
translations produced so far in different languages is essential
for scholars working in this field. Accordingly, the Centre has
so far collected over 800
articles and studies in such languages as Persian, Arabic,
English, German, Italian, Urdu, Turkish, Azeri, and Swahili.
c.
Specialized Library:
Along with the collection of Qur’anic
translations, there is a specialized library at the Centre with
over 3,500 works consisting of lexicons, encyclopedias and
scriptures, as well as books on various topics relating to
linguistics, world languages, religion, philosophy, literature,
bibliography, history, and geography. These books are in more
than 55 languages, such as Persian, Dari, Arabic, Turkish,
Azerbaijani, Gilaki, Kurdish, Pashtu, Urdu, Hindi, Bengali,
Telugu, Tamil, Marathi, Malayalam, English, German, Italian,
French, Russian, Esperanto, Latin, Bulgarian, Spanish,
Portuguese, Swedish, Dutch, Danish, Finnish, Polish, Hungarian,
Norwegian, Greek, Albanian, Armenian, Czech, Portuguese, and
Rumanian, Swahili, Korean, Hebrew, Japanese and Indonesian.
d.
Teams of Linguists and Translators
Since the inception of the Center, over one hundred linguists,
translators, and Qur’anic specialists relating to nearly
thirty different languages have been invited to cooperate with
the Center. There is a steady rise in the number of scholars
cooperating with the Centre in its different projects.
e.
Data Bank of Quranic Translations
For
detailed information on the translations of the Holy Qur’an
collected by the Center, a record is maintained for each
translation in which the relevant details are recorded. These
details include the translator’s academic and religious
background as well as his method and approach, his command of
the source and target languages, the characteristics of the
translation, the works consulted by the translator, the studies
and reviews written on the translation, and other details
pertaining to the printed editions.
f.
Translations in Progress
The Centre published its first
translation in Azeri (in Latin and Cyrillic scripts), the
language spoken by the people the Iranian provinces of Eastern
and Western Azerbaijan as well as by the people of the Republic
of Azerbaijan in north-east of Iran. Other publications include
an English translation, and first volume of the translation in
French. Work is in progress on translations in four other
languages, namely, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, and Turkish.
g.
The Journal Tarjuman-e Wahy
The
biannual journal Tarjuman-e Wahy is published as a forum
for interchange of views on the subject of translation and its
problems and critical review of Qur’an translations. It is
exclusively concerned with Qur’anic studies and translations.
This journal was established in the later half of 1977 and since
then its issues have been coming out regularly.
h.
Bibliography of Persian Translation Manuscript
Historical evidence shows that the first
translation of the Qur’an was made in Persian.
Persian-speaking Muslims have since long been very deeply
interested in producing Qur’anic translations. Unfortunately,
till now there does not exist any comprehensive list of
manuscripts of Persian translations of the Qur’an in various
libraries, museums, and academic centers throughout the world.
To fill this gap, a project is in progress at the Centre with
the purpose of cataloguing all manuscripts of Qur’anic
translations in Persian. This bibliography will contain the
available relevant details of each manuscript, including the
identity of the translator, the date of translation, the date of
writing of the manuscript, the character of the translation, and
all the other details that pertain to the manuscript.
We take this
opportunity to request all those who possess any such
manuscripts to inform the Centre about their details. For this
purpose the Centre will provide them with a special form to fill
in the details about he characteristics of their manuscript(s).
In this way, they can make a significant contribution toward the
comprehensiveness of the project.
i.
A
Descriptive Bibliography of Printed Translations
The
collection of Qur’anic translations at the Centre is large
enough to compile a descriptive bibliography for each language
in which there are already some translations. This will provide
useful information to the readers about the number and quality
of translations existing in any language. This project is in
progress for Persian, English, and Urdu, as these languages have
a relatively larger number of translations.
The great dimensions and significance of the task requires that
the Centre make the most of expert views of Qur’anic scholars,
researchers, and translators throughout the world as well as
benefit from the cooperation of institutions working in related
fields. The Centre deeply appreciates all the work that has so
far been accomplished, and welcomes any suggestions in order to
attain better results.The Centre will greatly appreciate any
cooperation from individuals and institutions that may help it
enrich its collection of Qur’anic translations by obtaining
new additions through purchase or donation
.
Indeed, it is with the cooperation of devoted friends of the
Holy Qur’an that we hope to succeed in producing competent and
worthy translations of this Book of universal guidance. Insha
Allah.
j.
A
Glance at the History of Translation of the Quran:
No
comprehensive study has yet been made of the general history of
translation in the Islamic world, nor that of translation of the
Holy Qur’an in particular. Muhammad Hamidullah, in the
introduction to his French translation, has given an account of
Qur’anic translations made in different languages. Adhartash
Adharnush, in the first volume of his book Ta’rikh-e
Tarjumeh az ‘Arabi beh Farsi, which is about the Persian
translations, has studied several existing translations of the
Qur’an pertaining to the period from the 4th/10th
century up to the Safavid era (11th/16th century)
on the basis of published works.
In
Islamic traditions there are certain references to translations
of parts of the Qur’an by some Companions of the Holy Prophet
(s). It is said, for instance, that Salman Farsi
translated the Surat al-Fatihah, the opening surah
of the Qur’an, for Persian-speaking Muslims, and that Ja‘far
ibn Abu Talib translated certain verses pertaining to Prophet
Jesus (‘a) and Mary (‘a) in the court of
Negus, the king of Ethiopia, during his sojourn in that land.
According to certain reports an oral translation of the Holy
Qur’an was made by one Musa ibn Sayyar before 255/869.
However
the first written translation of the Qur’an was done in
Persian and it was made by a group of scholars during the reign
of Mansur ibn Nuh, the Samanid king (r. 350-365/961-976). That
translation still exists and is commonly known as Tarjumeh
Tafsir-e Tabari (translation of Tabari’s commentary in
Arabic). But Adharnush is of the opinion that a close comparison
between this work and Tabari’s commentary shows that it is an
independent work, not a translation of Tabari’s celebrated
commentary. As mentioned, Adharnush’s study is based on
published translations, while there are more than a thousand
Persian translation works in the form of manuscripts which still
await close study.
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