3. “First off, I praise the title:
The Qurʾan: A New
Translation. There is no
silliness of trying to say this
'isn't really' the Qurʾan,
which is, after all, totally
apparent to anyone when
the title is in English and it
is called a translation.”
:: ANDREW RIPPIN
4.
5.
6. “The Koran cannot be translated. That is the belief of
old-fashioned Sheykhs and the view of the present
writer.”
:: PICKTHALL, TRANSLATOR’S FOREWORD
9. WHAT CONCERNS UNDERLIE THIS CAUTIOUSNESS?
QURʾAN TRANSLATION
“For Christians, translation is not only permitted, it is
required....The Muslim position on the other hand is quite
different; translation of the Qur'an is not only not
encouraged, it is expressly forbidden. The text is divine,
inimitable, uncreated and eternal, and to translate it would
be an act of presumption.”
:: BERNARD LEWIS, FROM BABEL TO DRAGOMANS
10. EQUALLY IMPORTANT IS HOW CONCEPTIONS OF TRANSLATION
AFFECT SENSITIVITIES TO QURʾAN TRANSLATION
QURʾAN TRANSLATION
11. EQUALLY IMPORTANT IS HOW CONCEPTIONS OF TRANSLATION
AFFECT SENSITIVITIES TO QURʾAN TRANSLATION
QURʾAN TRANSLATION
12. EQUALLY IMPORTANT IS HOW CONCEPTIONS OF TRANSLATION
AFFECT SENSITIVITIES TO QURʾAN TRANSLATION
QURʾAN TRANSLATION
“The Koran cannot be translated. That is the belief of
old-fashioned Sheykhs and the view of the present
writer.”
:: PICKTHALL, TRANSLATOR’S FOREWORD
13. Tracing understandings of translation
and textual authority is a crucial lens
ARGUMENT for understanding Muslim sensitivities
to Qurʾan translation
20TH CENTURY
FOCUS +
EGYPT S. ASIA
14. OUTLINE
TRANSLATION IN EGYPT
MODES OF READING
TRANSLATION IN SOUTH ASIA
CONCLUSION
15. OUTLINE
TRANSLATION IN EGYPT
MODES OF READING
TRANSLATION IN SOUTH ASIA
CONCLUSION
17. PUTTING SHĀKIR’S TEXT IN CONTEXT
Turkish Parliament abolishes the
MARCH 1924
Caliphate
ʿAli ʿAbd al-Rāziq put on trial for his
AUGUST 1925 book, Islam and the Foundations of
Governance
18. PUTTING SHĀKIR’S TEXT IN CONTEXT
Turkish Parliament abolishes the
MARCH 1924
Caliphate
ʿAli ʿAbd al-Rāziq put on trial for his
AUGUST 1925 book, Islam and the Foundations of
Governance
“[t]his Qurʾan in its Arabic syntax (naẓm) is the last
remnant from among the relics of Islamic civilization after
the Great War ripped apart Islamic lands and after the
Turkish Republic razed the throne of the great Caliphate”
:: M. SHĀKIR, 1925
19. SHĀKIR LOCATES HIS NOTION OF TRANSLATION IN
OPPOSITION TO THE PRACTICE OF COMMENTARY
“Commentary is one thing and translation
another. A translation replaces the original in
COMMENTARY VS.
every aspect (yaqūm maqām al-aṣl min kull
TRANSLATION
wajh), while this is not the case with
commentary.”
1 Islamic Intellectual Tradition
FOUNDATIONS
2 Law of the Nation State
20. SHAKIR’S VIEW ON TRANSLATION IN THE ISLAMIC
INTELLECTUAL TRADITION
“Translation (tarjama) is to convey everything which the source
text comprises, and it is impossible with regards to the Qurʾan.
Commentary (tafsīr), on the other hand, is to convey that which
[the commentator] understands from the source text.”
:: BADR AL-DĪN AL-ZARKASHĪ (D. 1392)
21. SHAKIR’S VIEW ON TRANSLATION IN MODERN LAW
“...a commentator on a statute of state law [qānūn] is able to
write what he wishes in his commentary, be it long or short....A
translator, on the other hand, must follow the statute itself
without adding or subtracting from it.”
:: M. SHĀKIR, AL-QAWL AL-FAṢL
22. SHAKIR’S PRIMARY CONCERN IS WITH THE TRANSLATION
REPLACING THE ORIGINAL
“[I]f you approach a verse from the Book of God, Most High, and
translate it as you translate legal statutes such that the
translation takes the place of the original…and replaces it in
ritual prayer [ṣalāt] and recitation [tilāwa] and [religious]
argumentation…as the official translation of legal statutes
replaces the original and takes its place for legal argumentation
and veneration, then…this is what the consensus of the scholars
of the Islam has decisively prohibited”
:: M. SHĀKIR, AL-QAWL AL-FAṢL
23. NOT EVERYONE AGREED WITH SHAKIR’S DISTINCTION
BETWEEN COMMENTARY AND TRANSLATION
“...there is no difference between the commentator and the
translator except that the former uses Arabic to explain the
meaning of a word and the later uses a foreign language.”
:: M. MARĀGHĪ, BAḤT FĪ TARJAMAT AL-QURʾĀN AL-KARĪM
“Translation: the transfer of meaning from one language to
another. Translation is unconditionally commentary.”
:: M. SHALTŪT, TARJAMAT AL-QURʾAN WA NUṢŪṢ AL-ʿULAMAʾ FĪ HĀ
24. WHICH DEFINITION OF TRANSLATION IS RELEVANT FOR THE
LEGAL RULING ON QURʾAN TRANSLATION?
“Even though translation (tarjama) in its linguistic meaning is
commentary (tafsīr) in another language, it has come to be
known as producing a text (al-kalam) in one language which fully
conveys a text in another and replaces it in that which is
intended by it”
:: I. JIBĀLĪ, AL-KALĀM FĪ TARJAMAT AL-QURʾĀN
25. WHICH DEFINITION OF TRANSLATION IS RELEVANT FOR THE
LEGAL RULING ON QURʾAN TRANSLATION? (2)
“Can a text which provides some of the meanings of the Qurʾan
and does not replace it in fulfilling all that is intended by it be
called a translation?”
“...people (al-nās) only know translation as that which fulfills all
that is intended by the original”
:: I. JIBĀLĪ, AL-KALĀM FĪ TARJAMAT AL-QURʾĀN
26. OUTLINE
TRANSLATION IN EGYPT
MODES OF READING
TRANSLATION IN SOUTH ASIA
CONCLUSION
27. SHAKIR’S PRIMARY CONCERN IS WITH THE RECITATION OF
TRANSLATION
“[I]f you approach a verse from the Book of God, Most High, and
translate it as you translate legal statutes such that the
translation takes the place of the original…and replaces it in
ritual prayer [ṣalāt] and recitation [tilāwa] and [religious]
argumentation…as the official translation of legal statutes
replaces the original and takes its place for legal argumentation
and veneration, then…this is what the consensus of the scholars
of the Islam has decisively prohibited”
:: M. SHĀKIR, AL-QAWL AL-FAṢL
28. READING PRACTICES IN THE ISLAMIC INTELLECTUAL
TRADITION
• recitation
TILĀWA • emphasizes the ritual (taʿabbudī) aspect of
reading
• reading for comprehension
MUṬĀLAʿA • “inspecting a thing well, in order to obtain
a knowledge of it” - Lane’s Lexicon
Muṭālaʿa is to study and understand what you are reading, while tilāwa is
recitation (qirāʾa) even if it is divorced from [understanding].” :: I. Jibālī
29.
30. SABRĪ DIFFERENTIATES BETWEEN THE PERMISSIBILITY OF
TRANSLATION FOR TILĀWA AND MUTĀLAʿA
“The difference between us and the proponents of translation, as
a whole, is that they call non-Arabs to translations which they
can recite [yatlūnahā] in prayer and otherwise just as the Qurʾan
is recited. We do not agree with them on this, even though we
permit translations which they [viz., the non-Arabs] can read for
comprehension [yuṭāliʿūnahā] just as one of us would read
[yuṭāliʿ] commentaries of the Qurʾan. We consider [such]
translations to be abbreviated commentaries.”
:: M. SABRĪ, MASAʾLAT TARJAMAT AL-QURʾĀN
31. OUTLINE
TRANSLATION IN EGYPT
MODES OF READING
TRANSLATION IN SOUTH ASIA
CONCLUSION
32. THE 19TH AND EARLY 20TH CENTURY SAW A BURST OF
QURʾAN TRANSLATION ACTIVITY IN SOUTH ASIA
“A pious man was blessed by a dream in which he saw Almighty
God. Seeing him speak Urdu, he inquired: "0 God, how did you
happen to pick up that language? You used to speak only in
Syriac or Hebrew or Arabic.” God replied: "From dealing with
Shah Rafi'u'd-Din and Shah Abdu l-Qādir and Thanawi and
Deobandi and Mirathi and Mirza Hairat and Deputy Nazir Ahmad, I
learned the language.”
:: ANON., QUOTED IN METCALF (1982)
Why the difference from Egypt?
33. NON-ARAB DYNAMICS OF THE REGION ARE NOT A
SUFFICIENT EXPLANATION
• During the late Ottoman period translations
were censored
TURKEY • During the early republic, translations
appeared amongst fierce controversy
“...the idea of vernacular commentaries that
did not even pretend to be ‘translations’ was
INDONESIA
highly controversial in the early decades of
this century....” -- J. Bowen (1998)
Argument: We need to examine how South Asian jurists
think about translation to understand the difference
34. MANY S. ASIAN JURISTS THINK OF QURʾAN TRANSLATION AS
A CLOSE RENDERING OF THE ORIGINAL TEXT
Passive
QURʾAN 2:4 7ْ9:َِ ( أ ُ?>ِلَ إBِC
َ َ
Transitive
THAT WHICH HAS BEEN REVEALED TO YOU
Active
SHAH ʿABD AL- ,2 34) 1! .53 ا),ا Intransitive
QĀDIR
THAT WHICH DESCENDED UPON YOU
Passive
THĀNAVĪ Transitive
!" #$% 1! آپ .# -,ف ا)(ری
THAT TO YOU HAS BEEN REVEALED
35. A POPULAR TEXTUAL LAYOUT OF SOUTH ASIAN TRANSLATION
SEEKS TO ACHIEVE WORD TO WORD MAPPING
THĀNAWĪ, ASHRAF ʿALĪ. 1934.
BAYĀN AL-QURʼĀN. LAHORE:
MAKTABAH-YI AL-ḤASAN.
36. A POPULAR TEXTUAL LAYOUT OF SOUTH ASIAN TRANSLATION
SEEKS TO ACHIEVE WORD TO WORD MAPPING
37. A POPULAR TEXTUAL LAYOUT OF SOUTH ASIAN TRANSLATION
SEEKS TO ACHIEVE WORD TO WORD MAPPING
38. HOWEVER, THERE IS LIMITED CONCERN ABOUT TRANSLATION
BEING HELD AS EQUIVALENT TO THE ORIGINAL
• In 1913, Thanavi issued a fatwa criticizing an Urdu only
translation
• After quoting passages from legal manuals on the need to
be in a state of ritual purity to touch a Qurʾan translation, he
states:
“It is certain that the general public will understand this
translation as not containing any part of the Qurʾan and they
will not make ritual ablutions (wuḍūʾ) in order to touch it”
:: THANAVI, 1913
39. STRIKING CONTRAST BETWEEN JIBALI’S & THANAWI’S
NOTIONS OF POPULAR PERCEPTIONS OF TRANSLATION
“...people (al-nās) only know translation as that which fulfills all
that is intended by the original”
:: I. JIBĀLĪ, AL-KALĀM FĪ TARJAMAT AL-QURʾĀN
VS
“It is certain that the general public will understand this
translation as not containing any part of the Qurʾan and they
will not make ritual ablutions (wuḍūʾ) in order to touch it.”
:: THANAVI, 1913
40. SOUTH ASIAN READERS DISTINGUISH BETWEEN RECITATION
OF THE QURʾAN AND READING OF TRANSLATION
•A certain ʿAbd al-Rahman from the district of Khīrī writes to the
renowned Braelvi jurist, Aḥmad Riḍā Khān in June 1916
• He asks about a man (potentially himself) who has been
reciting the Qurʾan after the morning prayer (fajr) for 18 years
• The
man does not understand Arabic, so he does not know the
meaning of what he recites
• “Should he look at the literal translation of the Noble Qurʾan in
Urdu or Persian and...recite [only] a quarter pare...or should he,
as is his habit, recite two pares daily?” Fatāwa Rizviyya 23/382
41. OUTLINE
TRANSLATION IN EGYPT
MODES OF READING
TRANSLATION IN SOUTH ASIA
CONCLUSION
42. KEY TAKEAWAYS
• Arguments against Qurʾan translation are typically rooted in
the idea of translation as the production of equivalence
• Recitation, not reading for comprehension, of Qurʾan
translations was a key concern driving early 20th century
opposition in Egypt
• South Asian jurists, while often favoring literal translations, did
not worry about lay practioners reciting translations
• South Asian readers themselves differentiate between
recitation of the original Arabic text and a reading of the
translation
44. SHAKIR IS DIRECTLY CRITICAL OF ʿALI’S TRANSLATION
“Why is that which is on the
upper part of the page
[called] a translation and
that which is at the bottom
[called] a commentary, when
both of them are [allegedly]
from the category of
commentary…, as they
claim?”
:: M. SHĀKIR, AL-QAWL AL-FAṢL
