Another translation question, about the Koran

Cafe Society
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Currently there is a thread on the best translation of The Count of Monte Cristo. I didn’t want to hijack it with a question about translations of another work.

That is the Koran. Not long ago I was in Barnes and Noble, and in the religion section I saw copies of the Koran. Some had commentary. There were at least half a dozen different editions and translators.

I’ve read portions of the Koran, a long time ago but don’t remember who’d translated it into English. So, does anyone here have recommendations for reading it? I’d like to know something about the background of whoever had done it, their scholarly credits and so on. I’d prefer modern English. Kind of like, with the Bible, prefering the New Revised Standard Version to the King James.

I figure someone on a board like this will be able to help!:smiley:

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I don’t have a personal favorite, but one thing to keep in mind is that many versions will call themselves something like “Interpretation of the Qur’an” or “Meaning of the Holy Qur’an”. It is a common (universal?) Islamic belief that the Qur’an can only be in Arabic and that translations of the language are actually commentaries or interpretations and are not The Real Qur’an ™. Almost every version that you’ll see will include Arabic text - this is the actual Qur’an.