The present publication resulted from IRCICA’s research project aimed at documenting the history of the dissemination of the Holy Qur’an by its copies, exegeses and translations. It covers the translations that were published all over the world from the invention of the printing press in Europe up to the year 2015 inclusive. It is an enlarged edition of IRCICA’s first bibliography published in 1986 which recorded the translations printed until 1980.
Under the main research project, the studies on translations are organized in two sections, for printed translations and manuscript translations respectively. Studies and collection of data on printed translations is a continual work. Concerning translations in manuscript form, three bibliographies were published, covering the manuscripts in all known collections under the titles World Bibliography of Translations of the Holy Quran in Manuscript Form: Volume I, Translations and Exegeses in All Languages Except Turkish, Persian and Urdu (2000); Volume II, Translations and Exegeses in Urdu, prepared with the Introduction by Dr. Ahmad Khan, Director of the Centre for Preservation of Arabic Manuscripts, Islamabad, Pakistan (2009); Volume III, Translations and Exegeses in Turkish (2016).
Copies and translations of the holy books and religious literature started to be printed in Europe soon after the discovery of printing techniques. For several centuries, many translations published in the Western world contained various biases and inaccuracies. In the Muslim world, religious publishing was not started until the early 19th century, as a precaution against eventual misprints. The first translation printed in a language of the Muslim world was the Urdu translation published in 1803. The publications continue to increase with new translations in various languages and dialects and reprints of existing ones.
