k. Other Languages

    According to Muhammad Hamidullah, a Syriac translation of the Qur’an was made during the days of Hajjaj ibn Yusuf at the end of the 1st/7th century. He also mentions a Berber translation which was probably made in the year 137/754. One translation in a certain Indian language (probably Sindhi, but referred to as ‘Hindi’) was done as early as 270/883 by a scholar from Iraq who was deputed by ‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Umar, the ruler of Sindh, to make the translation. According to T. W. Arnold a Chinese translation also possibly existed. The basis of his statement are the remarks of a Chinese historian who wrote about the period 94-125/713-724.

    Aside from the above mentioned statements about translations that probably existed, that which can be said with certainty on the basis of extant works is that the second translation of the Qur’an was made in Latin by Robertus Ketenensis in the year 1143 C.E.. It was however published three hundred years later in the year 1543 C.E.

            The first complete translations to appear in print in other languages are given below in a chronological order of the date of publication:  

¨ 1547 Italian: The first in a modern European language, was by Andrea Arrivabene. It was used for the first German translation.

    ¨ 1616 German: The first German translation was made by Solomon Schweigger (Nurenberg 1616) and formed the basis of the first in Dutch by the same translator (Hamburg 1641).

¨ 1641 Dutch: by Solomon Schweigger.

¨ 1647 French: André du Ryer, a Frenchman who lived in Istanbul and Egypt for some time, made a direct translation from Arabic (Paris 1647). Reprinted many times, it formed the basis of many European translations.

¨ 1648 English: The first translation in English was made by Alexander Ross (London 1648) on the basis of du Ryer's French. George Sale’s was the first to be made from Arabic (London 1734). It became a source on which many other translations were based.

¨ 1734 Greek: by an anonymous translator (Helmstadt).

¨ 1792 Russian: by Alexey Vasilyevich Kolmakov (St. Petersburg).

¨ 1829 Urdu: The first complete printed translation in Urdu is commonly considered to be made by Shah Rafi‘ al-Din in 1776 (Calcutta 1840). It was followed by the translation of Shah ‘Abd al-Qadir in 1790 whose first edition was published in Delhi in 1829. Both were sons of Shah Wali Allah. There is an old translation in Deccani Urdu done in the beginning of the 10th/ 16th century.

¨ 1831 Hungarian: by Imre (Emory) Buziday Szdmajer & George (Gyorgy) Gedeon.

¨ 1841-42 Turkish: Tarjeme-e Tafsir-e Tibyan in Ottoman Tukish by Muhammad Tafsiri Ayintabi (Dabbaghzadeh), published from Cairo.

¨ 1843 Swedish: by Fredrik Crusenstolpe (Stockholm).

¨ 1844 Spanish: Abraham of Toledo translated 70 surahs at the behest of Alphonse X (1252-1284). The first complete translation in Spanish, by De Jose Garber de Robles, was published from Madrid.

¨ 1857 Hebrew: Hermann Reckendorf (Leipzig).

¨ 1858 Polish: Jana Murzy Tarak Buckzackiego (Warsaw).

¨ 1861 Pashtu: anonymous (Bhopal).

¨ 1867 Sindhi: The first to appear in print was by Muhammad Siddiq (Lahore). However, the first extant Sindhi translation was done by Qadi ‘Aziz Allah Mutta‘alawi (1747-1824), but it was published in 1870.

¨ 1870 Panjabi: by Hafiz Mubarak Allah.

¨ 1879 Gujarati: The first complete translation was by ‘Abd al-Qadir b. Luqman (Bombay).

¨ 1881-1886 Bengali: The first complete translation was by Garish Chandra Sen, a Brahmin.

¨ 1882 Portuguese: by an anonymous translator (Le Havre).

¨ 1883 Tamil: by Habib Muhammad al-Qahiri (Bombay).

¨ 1895 Bosnian: by Ljubibratic Mico (Hercegovac) (Belgrade).

¨ 1897 Sanskrit: by an anonymous translator (Cawnpore).

¨ 1899 Tatar: by an anonymous translator (Kazan).

¨ 1904 Armenian: Abraham Amirchanjanz (Varna).

¨1906 Yoruba: by M. S. Cole (Lagos)

¨ 1906 Georgian: by Doszvolano Tzanzorio (Tiflis)

¨ 1907-11 Kazak: by Ibn Asad Allah al-Hamidi (Kazan)

¨ 1908 Azeri: by Muhammad Hasan Sakwizadeh (Tiflis)

¨ 1911 Baluchi: by Mawlana Hudurbakhsh (Lahore).

  ¨ 1912 Romanian: by Silvestru Octavian Isopescul (Bokavia).

¨ 1915 Hindi: by Ahmad Shah Masihi a Christian priest (Delhi).

¨ 1916 Brahui: by Muhammad ‘Umar Dinpuri (Lahore).

¨ 1919 Danish: by Pedersen (Copenhagen).

¨ 1920 Japanese: The first translation was made by Sakamoto, a Buddhist, on the basis of the English translations of Sale, Rodwell and Palmer; it appeared in 1920.

¨ 1923 Javanese: done in the middle of 17th century by ‘Abd al-Ra’uf ibn Shaykh ‘Ali Fansuri; it was published from Cairo in 1923.

¨ 1923 Swahili: by Godrey Dale (London).

¨ 1925 Czech: by Ignag Vesely (Prague).

¨ 1927 Chinese: Shaykh Liu Che translated several chapters of the Qur’an before the beginning of the 20th century and was followed by Shaykh Mafushu, who completed 20 parts before he died. The first printed translation was done by Ma Lian Yuan (Kunming 1889). In 1927 Li Tiezheng made the first complete translation from the Japanese by Ken-ichi Sakamoto.

¨ 1928 Indonesian: by Ahmad Hasan (Bandung).

¨ 1930 Bulgarian: by Istefan Tomov & Stefan Ya Skulev (Rustchuk)

¨ 1938 Telugu: by Chilkori Narayan Rao (Madras).

¨ 1942 Finnish: by Ahsen Boere (Tampere).

¨ 1955 Uzbek: by Mahmud ibn Sayyid Nadhir al-Tarazi al-Madani (Bombay).

¨ 1960 Afrikaans: by Ismael ‘Abd al-Razzaq & Shaykh Salih Din.

¨ 1968 Maranao: by a group of translators .

¨ 1970 Sundanese: by Qamaruddin Shalih, A. A. Dahlan & Jus Rusamsi  (Bandung).

¨ 1970 Assamese: by Muhammad Sadr ‘Ali (Gauhati)

¨ 1970 Malayalam: by Mutanisseril M. Kayakutti (Kayamkulam).

¨ 1970 Kurdish: by Muhammad Koyie Golizadeh (Baghdad).

¨ 1971 Korean: by Young-Sun Kim (Seoul 1971).

¨ 1973 Marathi: by Muhammad Y‘qub Khan (Bombay).

¨ 1973 Ganda (Luganda): by Zakariya Kizito Bulwadda (Kampala).

¨ 1978 Kannada: by a group of scholars (Bangalore).

¨ 1979 Hausa: by Abu Bakr Mahmud Gummi (Beirut).

¨ 1980 Norwegian: by Einar Berg (Oslo)

¨ 1981 Zulu: by Moulana C. M. Sema (Newcastle).

¨ 1983 Siraiki: by Mehr ‘Abd al-Haqq (Multan)

¨ 198? Iranon: by ‘Abd al-‘Aziz Saromantang (Marawi City, Mindanao).

¨ 198? Wolof: (?)

¨ 198? Fulani: (?)

¨ 1988 Kikuyu: by nu anonymous Qadiyani translator (Islamabad)

¨ 1989 Oriya: by Abdul Qadir Khan & Mohammad Anwar Haque (Islamabad).

¨ 1989 Igbo: by by an anonymous Qadiayani translator (Islamabad).

¨ 1990 Mende: by an anonymous Qadiyani translator (Islamabad).

¨ 1990 Tukmen: by Shaykh Ahmad Akhund Isnayin (Ashqabad).

¨ 1991 Tagalog: by Tagumpay (Khalid) A. Glorioso (London)

¨ 1991-92 Somali: by Shaykh Mahmud Muhammad ‘Abduh (Madinah).

¨ 1991 Kirkiz: by Ermis Tursenov (Bishkek).

¨ 1991 Kashmiri: by Muhammad Ahmad Maqbul Subhani (Karachi).

¨ 1992-3 Uyghur: by Shaykh Muhammad ibn Salih (Madinah).

¨ 1995 Balti: by Muhammad Yusuf Husainabadi (Rawilpindi).

¨ 1995 Dargwa: by Hamid Mustafai Hamidov (Makhachkala).

¨ 1997 Avari: (Daghestan)  

 

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