Prof. Abdur Raheem Kidwai, Director, UGC Academic Staff College, Aligarh Muslim University has published his latest book “Translating the Untranslatable: A Critical Guide to 60 Translations of the Qur’ān”. The book published by Sarup and Sons, Delhi is a guide to readers how to select a suitable English translation of the Holy Qur’ān for study from a pile of many available in bookshops and libraries.
The remarkable work contains reviews on each of the 60 English translations carried out from 1649 to 2009 and identifies the ideological and sectarian affiliation, mindset, features, and strengths and weaknesses of each and every translator.
Professor Kidwai’s masterly work brings out the main contours of the misconceptions and misperceptions about the Qur’ān in the West, as reflected in most of the Orientalists’ translations of the Qur’ān, namely those by Ross, Sale, Rodwell, Palmer, Bell and Jones. The critical study of the English translations of Holy Qur’ān seeks to fill the gap in Qur’ān scholarship.