Periodic Reporting for period 2 - GloQur (The Global Qur’an. Shared Traditions, Imperial Languages and Transnational Actors)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2021-11-01 al 2023-04-30
GloQur focusses on the transnational dimensions of modern Muslim Qur’an translations. We contend that, since the early twentieth century, Qur’an translations have emerged as a central medium through which Muslims across the globe approach their faith. They have been produced in nearly all languages read by Muslims, by a variety of individual and institutional actors who often react to impulses and disseminate their works across nation-state borders. Qur’an translations have genealogies that may include biblical translations, Orientalist Qur’an translations, and premodern as well as modern Muslim Qur’anic commentaries. They are also situated in interreligious and intrareligious debates and polemics, and translators’ choices can contribute to understanding the power dynamics within these fields.
GloQur aims to shed light on the genealogies and power fields that define Muslim Qur’an translations, and thereby to gain insight into the global dynamics of modern and contemporary Islam. We focus on three major transnational dimensions of Muslim Qur’an translation, which are interdependent. First, we examine transnational governmental and non-governmental actors in the field as well as the translations produced by them, including the efforts of Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qadafy’s Libya, Iran, the Ahmadiyya movements, Salafi groups and contemporary missionary publishers. Second, we strive to transcend the simple dichotomy between Arabic and ‘vernacular’ languages by analyzing, from a historical perspective, the complex centre-periphery structures created by the spread of European imperial languages such as English, French, Russian and Dutch. Third, we study the negotiation and reconstruction of a shared exegetical heritage in various linguistic, social and ideological settings.
We are interested in the conditions in which translations were and still are commissioned and produced, the literary history and ideological backdrop of translations, the translators’ decisions as they become manifest in the texts and their use by local audiences. We also seek to shed light on the linguistic, cultural and religious significance that is attributed to them and on the processes through which specific translations are elevated to a position of authority. GloQur thus bridges the gap between philological, historical and anthropological approaches to modern and contemporary Muslim engagement with the Qur’an.
GloQur aims to shed light on the genealogies and power fields that define Muslim Qur’an translations, and thereby to gain insight into the global dynamics of modern and contemporary Islam. We focus on three major transnational dimensions of Muslim Qur’an translation, which are interdependent. First, we examine transnational governmental and non-governmental actors in the field as well as the translations produced by them, including the efforts of Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qadafy’s Libya, Iran, the Ahmadiyya movements, Salafi groups and contemporary missionary publishers. Second, we strive to transcend the simple dichotomy between Arabic and ‘vernacular’ languages by analyzing, from a historical perspective, the complex centre-periphery structures created by the spread of European imperial languages such as English, French, Russian and Dutch. Third, we study the negotiation and reconstruction of a shared exegetical heritage in various linguistic, social and ideological settings.
We are interested in the conditions in which translations were and still are commissioned and produced, the literary history and ideological backdrop of translations, the translators’ decisions as they become manifest in the texts and their use by local audiences. We also seek to shed light on the linguistic, cultural and religious significance that is attributed to them and on the processes through which specific translations are elevated to a position of authority. GloQur thus bridges the gap between philological, historical and anthropological approaches to modern and contemporary Muslim engagement with the Qur’an.
Between May 2020 and December 2022, we have achieved high public visibility for a project that, for the first time, defined the history of modern Muslim Qur’an translation as an independent field of study. We have produced a significant research output and connected scholars worldwide through scientific events. Our feature “Qur’an translation of the week,” published on our blog and social media, has covered Qur’an translations in dozens of languages from the eighteenth to the twenty-first century. Combined with our online events and two in-person workshops, we were the first research project to create a framework for a global understanding of Muslim Qur’an translation and gain a sufficient perspective on its topography and chronology. We have produced a number of important publications that theorize the field and, for the first time, delineate its contours and sources comprehensively.
Through our work, we have gained major insights into largely uncharted phenomena, some of which contribute to shifting the general perception of Muslim centres, peripheries and networks in the modern world. We found that the decisive role of developments in British India in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries with regard to the appropriation of European models and languages, as well as the concept of ‘daʿwa’ (the call for Islam) among non-Muslims, can hardly be overstated. It does not only extend to the English-speaking context, where it had been acknowledged before, but goes far beyond it, leaving a global imprint from Indonesia to France. In this context, it is particularly the Ahmadiyya movement that inscribed itself in the genealogy of modern Qur’an translation; this even pertains to their formal and stylistic features. The role of the two branches of the Ahmadiyya movement is often downplayed or ignored because they are generally branded as heretics or unbelievers by other Muslims, but this belies their historical influence.
We have furthermore acquired an understanding of the importance of multilingual fields and the factors that affect the choice of language therein. Language choices are fundamentally shaped by the emergence of nation states that often resulted in the marginalisation of local vernaculars, but sometimes also in their performative recovery and promotion. We were particularly interested in migrants and exiles who played an important role in various contexts, including the Soviet era and the Indonesian diaspora in the Netherlands. Going beyond an exclusive focus on translators, our work on publishers and editors has been ground-breaking for the study of Qur’an translations.
Through our work, we have gained major insights into largely uncharted phenomena, some of which contribute to shifting the general perception of Muslim centres, peripheries and networks in the modern world. We found that the decisive role of developments in British India in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries with regard to the appropriation of European models and languages, as well as the concept of ‘daʿwa’ (the call for Islam) among non-Muslims, can hardly be overstated. It does not only extend to the English-speaking context, where it had been acknowledged before, but goes far beyond it, leaving a global imprint from Indonesia to France. In this context, it is particularly the Ahmadiyya movement that inscribed itself in the genealogy of modern Qur’an translation; this even pertains to their formal and stylistic features. The role of the two branches of the Ahmadiyya movement is often downplayed or ignored because they are generally branded as heretics or unbelievers by other Muslims, but this belies their historical influence.
We have furthermore acquired an understanding of the importance of multilingual fields and the factors that affect the choice of language therein. Language choices are fundamentally shaped by the emergence of nation states that often resulted in the marginalisation of local vernaculars, but sometimes also in their performative recovery and promotion. We were particularly interested in migrants and exiles who played an important role in various contexts, including the Soviet era and the Indonesian diaspora in the Netherlands. Going beyond an exclusive focus on translators, our work on publishers and editors has been ground-breaking for the study of Qur’an translations.
GloQur is the first project to define the modern history of Muslim Qur’an translation as a field of study and tackle it in a global perspective, beyond the English-speaking world to which previous studies have largely been limited. We believe that our work on languages other than English ultimately helps to better understand the emergence and development of English Qur’an translation, too. For example, by contrasting the modern history of French Qur’an translation with its equivalent in English, we are coming to understand what enabled the astounding success and impact of English Qur’an translations. And by examining the history of translations into languages such as Dutch, Indonesian, Afrikaans and Russian, we could show the place of English translations in global genealogies. Moreover, through including case studies on regions of the British Empire outside South Asia, such as Cyprus, we are able to shed light on the intersections of ascending and dying empires, the latter including the Ottoman and the Mughal Empire.
Empires and nation states constituted structures within which Muslim translators operated, but we also paid attention to these translators' agency. Going beyond the study of translators, we also focus on the decisive role of publishers and editors in adapting translations to changing requirements, whether it concerns Cold War Germany or the infamous Hilali-Khan translation that is commonly associated with Saudi Arabia but has a far more complex publication history than is commonly known.
Related to this last point, one of the major and ground-breaking contributions of GloQur is the first-ever systematic study of nation-state actors such as the King Fahd Qur’an Printing Complex in Medina that have, at best, been mentioned but not explored in previous publications. By the end of this project, we will have produced a history of Saudi public and private efforts at translating the Qur’an that goes significantly beyond the King Fahd Complex, illuminating both the Complex’s prehistory, especially related to the Muslim World League, and the hitherto unacknowledged role played by Qadafy’s Libya. The fact that Libya systematically produced Qur’an translations, an activity to which the Saudi government felt compelled to react, was among the unexpected findings of our research.
Finally, we are breaking new ground in the study of readers and users of Qur’an translations and the factors that shape their choices in multilingual environments shaped by migration, language policies, and conversion to Islam.
Empires and nation states constituted structures within which Muslim translators operated, but we also paid attention to these translators' agency. Going beyond the study of translators, we also focus on the decisive role of publishers and editors in adapting translations to changing requirements, whether it concerns Cold War Germany or the infamous Hilali-Khan translation that is commonly associated with Saudi Arabia but has a far more complex publication history than is commonly known.
Related to this last point, one of the major and ground-breaking contributions of GloQur is the first-ever systematic study of nation-state actors such as the King Fahd Qur’an Printing Complex in Medina that have, at best, been mentioned but not explored in previous publications. By the end of this project, we will have produced a history of Saudi public and private efforts at translating the Qur’an that goes significantly beyond the King Fahd Complex, illuminating both the Complex’s prehistory, especially related to the Muslim World League, and the hitherto unacknowledged role played by Qadafy’s Libya. The fact that Libya systematically produced Qur’an translations, an activity to which the Saudi government felt compelled to react, was among the unexpected findings of our research.
Finally, we are breaking new ground in the study of readers and users of Qur’an translations and the factors that shape their choices in multilingual environments shaped by migration, language policies, and conversion to Islam.