Book Review: Der Koran neu übertragen von Hartmut Bobzin

Since the emergence of the first full translation of the meanings of the Qur’an into any Western language by the Englishman Robert of Ketton (fl. 1136-57) at the instance Peter the Venerable (d. 1156), there has been no shortage of efforts in the translation enterprise up till today, the title under review is one of the latest. Bobzin’s familiarity with, and interest in, the history of Qur’an translations puts him in a good stead to improve on the tradition for which this effort has come as an outstanding illustration.1 The question which may then arise will be whether we really need a new German or indeed another translation into any European language now. One obvious answer by anyone who subscribes to dynamism of epistemological and hermeneutical perspectives is that there can never be a surfeit of interpretations of sacred, foundational, religious scriptures, especially the Qur’an which commands such a remarkable reverence among Muslims for its devotional and legalistic values, among others. By the last quarter of the 20th century, the disquiet that was engendered by the visceral Lüling-Luxenberg discourse on the textual profile of the Qur’an and their revisionist, if not distortionist, translation of some of its idioms, verses, and phenomena elicited some concern in the Western, particularly, German scholarly tradition in Qur’anic studies, and the current effort by Bobzin can be seen as a relevant and positive contribution towards correcting, through the catalytic instrument of translation, some of the misgivings hitherto provoked by the controversial postulations on the texts and contexts of the Qur’an.