XI.— Editions and Translations of the Qurʾān

The Qurʾān was first printed in Arabic at Rome by Pagninus Brixiensis, Romæ, 1530, but it was either burned or remained unpublished. Since then the following editions of the Arabic text have appeared in Europe:— Al-Coranus, seu lex Islam i tic a , ., the Arabic text of the Qurʾān, published by A. Hinkelmann, Hamburg, 1649, 4to. Alcorani text us uni versus , ., the Arabic text with a Latin translation and numerous extracts from the principal commentaries, and preceded by a Prodromus, containing a “refutation” of the Qurʾān, by Maracci, Padua, 1698, folio. القران‎ , an annotated text of the Qurʾān, published by order and at the cost of the Empre Catherine II. of Ru ia, at St. Peters burgh in 1787, 1 vol. in folio. This edition was reprinted at St. Peters burgh in 1790, 1793, 1796, and 1798, and without any change at Kasan in 1803, 1809, and 1839. Another edition, in two vols . 4to, without notes, was published at Kasan, 1817, reprinted 1821 and 1843, and a third edition, in 6 vols. 8vo, at the same place, 1819. Corani text us arabic us , ., the first critical edition of the text, by G. Flügel, Leipzig, 1834, 4to. Second edition, 1842; third edition, 1869. Coranus arabice , ., revised republication of Flügel’s text, by G. M. Redslob, Leipzig, 1837, 8vo. Beidhawii com men tar i us in Coranum , ., the text of the Qurʾān with al-Baiẓāwī’s Commentary, by H. O. Fleisher, two vols. 4to, Leipzig, 1846. The Muḥammadans, so far from thinking the Qurʾān profaned by a translation, as some authors have written ( Marracci de Alcoran , p. 33), have taken care to have it translated into various languages, although these translations are always interline ary with the original text. Translations exist in Persian, Urdū, Pushto, Turkish, Javan, Malayan, and other languages, which have been made by Muḥammadans themselves. The first translation attempted by Europe ans was a Latin version translated by an English man, Robert of Retina, and a German, Hermann of Dalmatia. This translation, which was done at the request of Peter, Abbot of the Monastery of Clugny, A.D . 1143, remained hidden nearly 400 years till it was published at Basle, 1543, by Theodore Bibliander, and was afterwards rendered into Italian, German, and Dutch. The next translation in German was by Schweigger, at Nürnberg , in 1616. This was followed by the above-mentioned work of Maracci, consisting of the Qurʾān, in Arabic, with a Latin version with notes and refutations, A.D . 1698. The oldest French translation was done by M. Du Ryer (Paris, 1647). A Ru ian version appeared at St. Petersburg in 1776. M. Savary translated the Qurʾān into French in 1783. There have also been more recent French translations by Kasimirski (Paris, 1st ed. 1840, 2nd ed. 1841, 3rd ed. 1857). The first English Qurʾān was Alexander Ro ’s translation of Du Ryer’s French version (1649–1688). Sale’s well-known work first appeared in 1734, and has since pa ed through numerous editions. A translation by the Rev. J. M. Rodwell, with the Sūrahs arranged in chronological order, was printed in 1861 (2nd ed. 1876). Profe or Palmer, of Cambridge, translated the Qurʾān in 1880 (Oxford Pre ). A Roman-Urdū edition of the Qurʾān was published at Allah a bad in 1844, and a second and revised edition at Ludianah in 1876 (both these being a transliteration of ʿAbdu ʾl-Qādir’s well-known Urdū translation). The best known translations in German are those by Boysen, published in 1773, with an Introduction and notes, and again revised and corrected from the Arabic by G. Wahl in 1828, and another by Dr. L. Ullmann, which has pa ed through two editions (1840, 1853).