Muslim Translators and Translations of the Qur'an into English

Abstract

Until the 1940s, English translations of the Qur'an were (with the notable exception of translations by Indian Muslims early in the twentieth century) mostly undertaken by non-Muslims and viewed with some misgiving by most Muslim scholars. As late as 1929 the Egyptian al-Azhar, internationally regarded as the most prestigious Muslim organisation in the world, publically burnt a translation of the Qur'an, even though it had been translated by a Muslim. It was only well after the Second World War that the Egyptian authorities officially allowed the publication of a translation of the Qur'an. More recently, English translations by Muslims have proliferated and now flourish worldwide: as far as the number of Qur'an-translations is concerned, no other language is better represented. However, diverging English translations of the Qur'an have become more and more of a religious and political battleground. This article discusses the development of English from a ‘coloniser's language’ to an English ‘friendly to Islam’ – especially in India and Pakistan. It also sketches the impact of Christian missionary translations of the Qur'an into English and discusses the problems faced by scholars with regard to English as a powerful second language, specifically in terms of the King Fahd Complex for Printing the Holy Qur'an in Saudi Arabia, which has gradually taken prominence over Al-Azhar on the international stage since the 1980s.