English Translations of The Quran - Early Translations

Early Translations

  • The Alcoran of Mahomet, Translated out of Arabick into French. By the Sieur du Ryer, Lord of Malezair, and Resident for the French King, at ALEXANDRIA. And Newly Englished, for the satisfaction of all that desire to look into the Turkish Vanities London, Printed Anno Dom. 1649 The earliest known translation of the Qur'an into the English Language was The Alcoran of Mahomet in 1649 by Alexander Ross, chaplain to King Charles I. This, however, was a translation of the French translation L'Alcoran de Mahomet by the Sieur du Ryer, Lord of Malezair. L'Alcoran de Mahomet..
  • Koran, commonly called the Alcoran of Mohammed, tr. into English immediately from the original Arabic; with explanatory notes, taken from the most approved commentators. To which is prefixed a preliminary discourse by George Sale London; Printed by C. Ackers... 1734. The first scholarly translation of the Qur'an based primarily on the Latin translation of Louis Maracci (1698). George Sale's translation was to remain the most widely available English translation over the next 200 years, and is still in print today, with release of a recent 2009 edition.

The next major English translation of note was by John Rodwell, Rector of St. Ethelburga, London, released in 1861, entitled The Koran. It was soon followed in 1880 with a 2-Volume edition by E.H. Palmer, a Cambridge scholar, who was entrusted with the preparation of the new translation for Max Muller's Sacred Books of the East series.

Read more about this topic:  English Translations Of The Quran

Famous quotes containing the words early and/or translations:

    The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the alms-house as brightly as from the rich man’s abode; the snow melts before its door as early in the spring. I do not see but a quiet mind may live as contentedly there, and have as cheering thoughts, as in a palace.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    Woe to the world because of stumbling blocks! Occasions for stumbling are bound to come, but woe to the one by whom the stumbling block comes!
    Bible: New Testament, Matthew 18:7.

    Other translations use “temptations.”