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ВЕСТН. МОСК. УН-ТА. СЕР. 13. ВОСТОКОВЕДЕНИЕ. 2013. № 4
S.A. Kirillina, M.S. Meyer
QUR'ANIC STUDIES IN RUSSIA: TRADITIONS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Данная публикация основывается на выступлении на 26-м Конгрессе Европейского союза арабистов и исламоведов, который прошел в Базеле (Швейцария) 12-16 сентября 2012 г. Конгресс прошел под девизом «Арабистика и исламоведение в Европе и за ее пределами». Публикация рассматривает основные этапы истории переводов Корана на русский язык и представляет панораму отечественного корановедения как неотъемлемой части арабистики и исламоведения.
Ключевые слова: Коран, исламоведение, корановедение, Россия.
This publication is based on the presentation made in the 26th Congress of the Union Européenne des Arabisants et Islamisants (UEAI) which took place in Basel, Switzerland in September 12-16, 2012. The motto of the congress was Arabic and Islamic Studies in Europe and Beyond. The publication is dealing with the major stages in the history of the translation of the Muslim scripture into Russian and reconstruction of the comprehensive panorama of Qur'anic studies as an essential part of Arabic and Islamic studies.
Key words: Qur'an, Islamic studies, Qur'anic studies, Russia.
The studies of the rich cultural and spiritual heritage of the Muslim world and the core of Islamic theological system—the Qur'an—are based in Russia on long-standing traditions, both Islamic and non-Islamic. These traditions were shaped by personal predilections, emotional preferences, religious orientations and ideological inclinations. Before proceeding with the overview of the studies of classical Islamic legacy in Russia, it is necessary to define its scope. In this article the main emphasis is on the academic tradition in the field of Qur'anic studies. In this paper we shell dwell on the general trends in Qur'anic studies and on those Russian scholars who made a notable contribution to the field.
Metaphorically speaking, the history of the study and translation of the Qur'an was moving with the tide of history of our motherland. For centuries the popular image of Islam was predetermined by the "Russian Orthodox perception of the world"1. Anyhow, the development of diplomatic relations between Muscovy2 and Ottoman Empire and the expansion
1 Romanov B. Travels to the Holy Land // Travels to the Holy Land. Memoirs of Russian Pilgrims and Travelers from the 12th to the 20th Century. Moscow, 1995. P. 4 (in Russian).
2 The Grand Principality of Moscow.
of the personal contacts established by pilgrims, merchants, clerics and the like along with the necessity of objective information about Islamic beliefs and customs stimulated a steady growth of the number of treatises on Islam. The first specialized work about the Qur'an appeared in Russia in 1683. It was dedicated to the Russian princes Peter (1672-1725), the future Tsar of Russia, and his brother Ioann3.
The history of the translation of the sacred book of Islam into Russian goes back to the era of Peter the Great (1682-1725, from 1721 — the first Emperor of Russia). By his direct order the first Russian translation of the Qur'an, done by Piotr Postnikov from the version of the French Orientalist André du Ryer4, saw the light in 17165.
During the reign of the Empress Catherine II (1762-1796) a tolerant attitude to those who professed Islam became one of the priorities of Russian internal policy. As a result, a complete Arabic text of the Qur'an was published in 1787 and distributed among Russian Muslims free of charge. Catherine II also issued an edict to build mosques at the expense of the state. Both initiatives were parts of the project which had a political and ideological content. According to the words of the Empress, it was implemented "not for improvement of Muhammedan religion's positions but to make [Muslim believers] fall for the bait"6. Despite the true pragmatic nature of the monarch's colonial project the so-called "St. Petersburg Qur'an" gained a tremendous cultural significance. It was reprinted several times and was highly praised by Western European scholars, the grand maitre of the French Oriental studies Silvestre de Sacy is among them. In the early 19th century multiple copies of this text were reprinted in Kazan. So, "St. Petersburg and Kazan Qur'ans" played an important role in the history of the printed Qur'an: they both set standards for the unification of the Qur'an until 1834 when the German Orientalist Gustav Flügel released a newly verified Qur'anic text.
From the epoch of Peter the Great till the beginning of the 1860s all the translations of the Qur'an were done from European languages. The translation of the writer Mikhail Verevkin (made in 1790) was based on the André du Ryer's work. The translation, done by the poet Aleksei Kolmakov in 1792, was created on the basis of the English translation of George Sale7.
3 Griaznevich P.A. The Qur'an in Russia (Studies, Translations and Publications) // Islam: Religion, Society and State. Moscow, 1984. P. 76-77 (in Russian).
4 Du Ryer A. L'Alcoran de Mahomet. Paris, 1647.
5 For details see Gusterin, Pavel. Piotr Postnikov and His Translation of the Qur'an. URL: http://islam-info.ru/koran/1582-petr-postnikov-i-ego-perevod-korana.html; Idem. Several Remarks on the Question of the Priority in the Translation of the Qur'an into Russian. URL: http://islam-info.ru/koran/page,1,1616-neskolko-zamechanij-po-voprosu-o-pervenstve-v.html (all in Russian).
6 Rezvan E.A. The Qur'an in Russia // Islam on the Territory of the Former Russian Empire. Dictionary. Issue 1. Moscow, 1998. P. 50 (in Russian).
7 Sale G. The Koran: Commonly Called the Alcoran of Mohammed. L., 1734.
The last in this row was the translation of K. Nikolaev (1864) who worked with the French translation of the famous Orientalist and diplomat Albin de Biberstein Kazimirski8. According to the renowned Russian Arabists Piotr Griaznevich and Vladimir Beliaev, these translations "played a positive role by giving to the Russian reader the opportunity of getting familiar with the main religious book of Muslims and helped to dispel absurd views and judgments regarding this literary monument"9.
The translation of Mikhail Verevkin (1732-1795) deserves special attention for two reasons: firstly, the obvious literary merits of the work (the Old Church Slavonic component of the translation led to the flowery eloquent style awaited by the reader of the holy book) and, secondly, its influence on the development of the Russian literature of the 19th century. This translation became the source of inspiration for Alexander Pushkin's true masterpiece — Imitations of the Qur'an, a poetic adaptation of fragments of thirty three suras in eight poems (1824)10. According to the authoritative opinion of Dmitrii Frolov, the leading expert on Qur'anic studies in today's Russia, Pushkin's artistic genius allowed him to demonstrate an extremely deep understanding of the very essence of the Qur'anic text concerning its lexical and stylistic richness as well as its theological and philosophical content. Imitations of the Qur'an, a real gem of Pushkin's literary legacy, attracted public interest to the holy book of Islam and many prominent Russian literary figures and philosophers derived inspiration from Pushkin's free interpretation of the Qur'anic concepts11. It's worth recollecting in this respect the speech of Feodor Dostoevskii on the inauguration of the monument to Pushkin in Moscow in 1880. Mentioning the Imitations of the Qur'an, he emotionally put a rhetorical question: "Is there not here a Mohammedan, is it not the very spirit of the Koran?"12
The second half of the 19th century was marked by a number of substantial achievements in the field under review. In 1858 Alexander Kazem-Bek (1802-1870) published a Full Concordance to the Qur'an13.
8 Biberstein-Kazimirski, Albert de. Le Koran: traduction nouvelle faite sur le text arabe. Paris, 1840.
9 Griaznevich P.A., Beliaev B.A. Introduction // The Qur'an / Transl. by I.Y. Krach-kovskii. Moscow, 1963. P. 4 (in Russian).
10 Pushkin A.S. Imitations of the Koran // Complete Set of Works in 6 vols. Vol. 1. Moscow, 1937. P. 467-474 (in Russian); [Pushkin A.S.]. Imitations of the Koran by Alexander Pushkin. Transl. by Ants Oras // The Sewanee Review. 1972. Vol. 80. № 2. P. 276-283.
11 For instance see Interaction of Cultures: the Qur'an in Russian Poetry // Compiled by J.A. Gavrilov, A.G. Shevchenko. Moscow, 2006 (in Russian).
12 Dostoevsky F. Celebration of Pushkin's Birth, June 8, 1880 // URL: http://www. speeches-usa.com/Transcripts/098_dostoevsky.html
13 Kazem-Bek M.A. The Full Concordance to the Qur'an. St. Petersburg, 1859. About Kazem-Bek see Rzaev A.K. Muhammed Ali M. Kazem-Bek. Moscow, 1989 (all in Russian).
It took him more than 25 years of painstaking work to finish it up. The Russian scholar of Azeri/Persian descent, Kazem-Bek successfully combined traditional Islamic learning with proficiency in European scholarship and his Concordance indicated that Russian Islamic studies had made an important breakthrough and finally attained the level of Oriental studies in Western Europe.
Observing the academic 'landscape' in Islamic studies of the second half of the 19th century, we cannot neglect the activities of the missionaries from Kazan — an official imperial center where the ideology of the Christian missionary movement was formulated and carried out into practice14. It is no accident that the first direct translation of the Qur'an into Russian was accomplished by Gordii Sablukov (1804-1880), the distinguished representative of the Kazan school of Islamic studies. Though his scholarly research on Islam bears visible traces of the missionary pathos, Sablukov wrote a number of monographic studies of Qur'anic themes, which, according to Ramil Valeev, the connoisseur of Sablukov's legacy, surpassed "the works of several other Islamisists-missionaries who intentionally selected doubted facts and biased interpretations of the events"15. But Sablukov achieved his fame for the translation of the Qur'an. It was published in 187716 and nowadays it is one of the most widespread Russian translations of the sacred book of Islam. Sablukov's translation predetermined the major vectors of the Qur'anic studies in Russia for the subsequent decades, mainly the analysis of the Muslim scripture as a foundation of the Islamic doctrine and law, as a primary monument of Islamic literature and culture and as a historical source.
There was another translation of the Qur'an from the original which was completed about the same time as Sablukov's translation, in the 1870s. It was made by General Dmitrii Boguslavskii (1826-1893), a dragoman of the Russian embassy in Istanbul. In the preface to his work he wrote: "I didn't intend to publish the translation. Living in the East I spent my spare time studying Islamic literature and I didn't seem to have noticed that the translation was mostly done"17.
The materials from the personal archive of Dmitrii Boguslavskii received a positive response from the key figures of Arabic studies Ignatii Krachkovskii (1883-1951) and Victor Rosen (1849-1908): they emphasized
14 For details see Valeev R.M. Oriental Studies in Kazan: Roots and Development (the 19th Century — 1920s). Kazan, 1998. P. 198-215 (in Russian).
15 Valeev R.M. From the History of the Oriental Studies in Kazan (the Second Half of the 19th Century): Gordii Semenovich Sablukov as an Expert on Turkology and Islam. Kazan, 1993. P. 60 (in Russian).
16 [Sablukov G.S.]. The Qur'an, Law-making Book of the Islamic Doctrine / Transl. by Gordii Sablukov. Kazan, 1877 (in Russian).
17 [Boguslavskii D.N.]. The Qur'an / Transl. by D.N. Boguslavskii. Istanbul, 2005. P. XIII (in Russian).
the accuracy of the translation and its high literally qualities. It was only published in 199518 in 100 copies as a collection deluxe edition with a hand-made calf book cover embossed by gold and silver in the similar lavishly adorned case. According to Internet resources, its price runs up to 300.000 rubles (an equivalent to 10 thousand dollars). To publishers' displeasure and to the joy of scholars this unaffordable edition was published in paperback and starting from 2001 its several pirate editions have been on sale in Istanbul bookshops. Since the original is not available to the public, we face the unsolved problem of Boguslavskii's translation which is related to the level of editing of the manuscript: in its published version the author's style looks too modern as compared with the 'old-fashioned' language of Sablukov's translation. Anyhow, without access to the manuscript all our assumptions are more than shaky.
In the late 19th — early 20th centuries a major contribution to the Qur'anic studies was made by a cohort of specialists who were destined to bring the field of Islamic studies in line with the high standards set by European Orientalists. One of them was Vladimir Girgas (1835-1887), an expert on philology, one of the founders of a new school of Arabic studies in Russia. In Russian academic milieu Vladimir Girgas is remembered primarily as the author of the Arabic-Russian Dictionary for the Qur'an which was published in Kazan in 1881 and which soon became a bibliographical rarity. The second long-awaited edition of this specialized Qur'anic dictionary appeared in 200619 and was reprinted in 2010.
Collections of valuable Qur'anic manuscripts, amassed in Russian libraries, were thoroughly studied by above-mentioned Victor Rosen who launched Oriental educational programs in St. Petersburg University. As an eminent teacher Rosen raised a whole generation of first-rank scholars of international repute including those who were engaged in a serious investigation of the Qur'an and related issues. The group of his pupils embraced the "stars" of the Russian academia including prominent academics Ignatii Krachkovskii and Vasilii Barthold (1869-1930) as well as an expert on Arabic paleography Alexei Shebunin (1867-1937) who formulated the idea of necessity of systematic analysis and description of the early Qur'anic copies20. According to Vasilii Barthold, Rosen's "attitude towards different branches of the Russian Orientalism was predetermined
18 [Boguslavskii D.N.]. The Qur'an / Transl. by D.N. Boguslavskii. St. Petersburg, 1995 (in Russian).
19 Girgas V.F. Arabic-Russian Dictionary for the Qur'an and Hadiths. Moscow; St. Petersburg, 2006 (in Russian).
20 Shebunin A.N. Copy of the Qur'an in Kufic Script from the St. Petersburg Imperial Public Library // Proceedings of the Oriental Department of the Russian Archeological Society. St. Petersburg, 1891. Vol. VI; Idem. Copy of the Qur'an in Kufic Script from the Khedive Library in Cairo // Ibid. 1901. Vol. XIV (in Russian).
by his approach to the Russian Oriental studies as one of the important factors of the Russian culture"21.
There was hardly any aspect of Islamic studies that escaped the attention of academician Agafangel Krymskii (1871-1942), the multilingual specialist on Oriental cultures, the man of a sharp pen, cynical character and fantastic talent. His encyclopedic command of the field of knowledge and his expertise was equal to the task of producing notable studies of Qur'anic themes. Krymskii devoted two issues of university lectures to the Muslim scripture, as well as contributions to encyclopedias and substantial fragments of his larger works. He also published an annotated translation of selected suras22.
Speaking about the importance of the Qur'an for scholars, Krymskii stressed the significance of the sacred book of Islam as "a fundamental and most reliable source of true ideas of Islam"23. In his judgment, one can understand the greatness of this outstanding monument of the Arab, Islamic and world culture only by entering the spirit of the epoch it was created in. However, Krymskii's analysis reflects his eurocentrist approach to the issue and several of his remarks sound somewhat on the extreme side. For instance, the scholar was of a low and biased opinion of the Qur'anic language. In Krymskii's judgment, the Qur'anic rhymed prose — saj'—expressed a thought by "a group of off-hand short phrases with identical rhyme"24. Moreover, he compared saj' with the monotonous folk songs of popular Ukrainian singers — kobzars, often blind Kazaks who accompanied their performances by local stringed instruments — kobza or bandura25. Even so, the value of Krymskii's works is still remarkable. The post-revolutionary period of Krymskii's academic career was as much productive as his previous one. But, unfortunately, the unprecedented ideological pressure under the Soviet regime forced
21 Bartold V.V. Baron V.R. Rosen and the Russian Provincial Orientalism // Works in 9 vols. Vol. 9. Works on the History of Oriental Studies. Moscow, 1977. P. 589 (in Russian).
22 See KrymskiiA.E. Islam and Its Future. The Past of Islam, Current State of Muslim Peoples, Their Intelligence and Their Attitude towards European Civilization. Moscow, 1899; Idem. Lectures on the Qur'an. Issue I. Suras of the Earliest Period. Translation with Explanations. Moscow, 1902; Idem. History of Islam. Author's Assays, Reworked Materials and Complemented Translations from Dozy and Goldziher. Pt. 1-2. Second edition. Moscow, 1904; Idem. Suras of the Earliest Period (Translation with Explanations). Lectures on the Qur'an Presented in 1905 / Supplement to the History of Islam. Moscow, 1905. For details of Krymskii's studies of Islamic topics see Gurnitskii K.I. Agafangel Efimovich Krymskii. Moscow, 1980. P. 81-83, 118-122 (all in Russian).
23 Krymskii A.E. The History of Arabs and the Arabic Secular and Religious Literature (the Qur'an, Fiqh, Sunna, etc.). Part 2. Moscow, 1912. P. 164 (in Russian).
24 Krymskii A.E. The History of Arabs and the Arabic Secular and Religious Literature. Part 1. Moscow, 1911. P. 180 (in Russian).
25 Ibid.
him to abandon Qur'anic studies and he never came back to them. The scholar did not survive the Second World War and died in 1942.
After the establishment of the Soviet power the specialists on Islam fell upon evil days. From that time on until the beginning of Gorbachev's perestroika in the late 1980s the scholarly landscape was completely dominated by Marxist-Leninist ideology. In the late 1920s the new authorities waged a powerful anti-religious campaign aimed at converting Russia's Muslims into obedient atheists. Soon after those disastrous events, in the 1930s and 1940s the Soviet academic community and mass media were involved in a heated yet fruitless discussion of the class nature of Islam and its social origins. A scathing attack was launched on those specialists on Islam who "shared fallacious theoretical approaches", "professed alien political views", "bowed to the wishes of the fire-breathing dragon — monster of the world imperialism" and "followed the way of the Islamic theology and the ideology of Western European missionaries"26. Two barren ideas were generated in the framework of these academic debates: the first one was the assumption that the Qur'an was the result of a collective authorship and the second one was a ridiculous hypothesis that the sacred book of Islam appeared in the 10th — 11th centuries and was only written down in the 14th century during the reign of the Ottoman Sultan Uthman I (1281 — c. 1324).
Very often publications of those days were full of glaring blunders and marked by lack of knowledge of primary sources and disrespect for historical facts. They contrasted sharply with the solid works of the Orientalists-veterans such as Vasilii Barthold who "demonstrated the highest degree of tolerance and objectivity rare in those days"27. He widely used the Muslim scripture as a historical source in some of his insightful works, among them are his brilliant essays Islam (1918), The Qur'an and the Sea (1925) and About Muhammad (1939)28.
The Qur'an as a historical source attracted attention of the gifted scholar Kseniia Kashtaliova (1897-1938). In the late 1930s she published several articles on the Qur'anic terminology and was on the way to write a PhD thesis on the topic. But the fate decreed otherwise. Her article Pushkin's Imitations of the Koran and Their Source29 was harshly criticized
26 Pochta J.M. Revolutionary Russia and Muslim World (Islamic Studies in the Soviet Union in the 1920s — 1930s) // Orient. 1993. № 4. P. 88, 84, 89 (in Russian).
27 Arapov D.J. The System of the State Regulation of Islam in the Russian Empire (the Last Three Decades of the 18th Century — the Beginning of the 20th Century). Moscow, 2004. P. 21 (in Russian).
28 Bartold V.V. Islam // Works in 9 vols. Vol. 6. Works on the History of Islam and Arab Caliphate. Moscow, 1966. P. 81-139; Idem. The Qur'an and the Sea // Ibid. P. 544-548; Idem. <About Muhammad> // Ibid. P. 630-647 (in Russian).
29 Kashtaliova K.S. Pushkin's Imitations of the Koran and Their Source // Proceedings of the Cabinet of the Orient. 1930. № 5 (in Russian).
as "ideologically immature". She was ousted from the University and her promising career came to an abrupt end30.
The major achievements in the field of the Qur'anic studies in the Soviet period were connected with the name of one of the patriarchs of the Russian Arabic and Islamic studies academician Ignatii Krachkovskii who applied a pioneer approach to the translation of the Qur'an which he primarily regarded as a literary monument of a concrete epoch and social setting. Anna Dolinina, the renowned Russian Arabist and biographer of Krachkovskii, revealed dramatic details of the long history of this translation. In her book, which is dedicated to her teacher and bears a meaningful title A Slave of the Duty she writes: "Anti-religious pressure inevitably affected the research in the field of Islamic literature: the translation of the Qur'an, which was started in 1921, was completed [as a rough draft] in the summer of 1928 and ... was tabled for later without a final editing"31. And afterwards Dolinina exclaims: "If only it had been done at that time! If only it had been accurately edited by the author and provided with extensive commentaries!"32 But it wouldn't happen. In the course of time Krachkovskii's academic life became a nightmare: he was constantly accused of all thinkable and unthinkable ideological inclinations, as well as "a deadly sin of cosmopolitism", "surrendering to the corrupting influence of the West" and "a willful disregard of MarxistLeninist ideology". Under such nasty circumstances the scholar had never been able to polish his translation, let alone its publication.
The printed version of the translation, which only saw the light of the day in 196333, 12 years after the death of the scholar, is based on archival records. It is not free from errors and sometimes it is just a word-for-word translation. Nonetheless, according to the reputable Russian Arabist Pi-otr Griaznevich, the editor of its posthumous publication, and his pupil Efim Rezvan, "in its approach to the text and its philological accuracy, Krachkovskii's work surpasses not only all Russian, but many European translations"34. Krachkovskii's translation is praised highly both by the Russian academic milieu and the Muslim community. According to the newspaper the Islam Minbare, "nowadays . the outstanding value of the scholarly legacy of Ignatii Krachkovskii is becoming more and more evident. He was the first who revealed to the Russian-speaking readers,
30 About Kseniia Kashtaliova see Dolinina A.A. A Slave of the Duty. St. Petersburg, 1994. P. 281-282; Rezvan E.A. The Qur'an and Its World. St. Petersburg, 2001. P. 58-59 (all in Russian).
31 Dolinina A.A. A Slave of the Duty. P. 235.
32 Ibid.
33 [Krachkovskii I.Y.]. The Qur'an / Transl. by I.Y. Krachkovskii. Moscow, 1963 (in Russian).
34 Griaznevich P.A. The Qur'an in Russia. P. 82; Rezvan E.A. The Qur'an and Its World. P. 44; Idem. The Qur'an and Its World: VIII/2; West-Östlichen Divans (The Qur'an in Russia) // Manuscripta Orientalia. 1999. Vol. 5. № 1. P. 52.
including Muslims, the text of the Qur'an and the objective and unprejudiced history of Muslim culture"35.
The long-running anti-Islamic saga, which in those days seemed to be endless, was brought to an end by perestroika and disintegration of the Soviet Union. It all paved the way to the radical socio-political transformation and liberalization of the ideological atmosphere in Russia. The translations of the Qur'an, which appeared in the post-perestroika period, were carried out both by highly skilled specialists and incompetent dilettantes. The scholars engaged in Islamic studies strongly disapproved of the poetic translation done by Valeria (Iman) Porokhova in 199336. The lack of required professional skills and knowledge of Arabic (her work is based on the word-for-word translation into Russian) didn't affect the commercial success of her translation which crowded the bookshops shelves and became very popular with the reader. A big fuss over it was triggered by a gush of panegyrical reviews (most likely in many cases they were arranged and sponsored by persons concerned in gaining profit) and rumors about its so-called "canonization" which had been spread in mass media in advance37. Its third edition was released in Abu Dhabi in 1997, and it provoked such a level of public outrage in the Emirates that the Dar al-awqaf (Ministry of waqfs) of Dubai established an international committee for evaluation of this translation and this commission called for its ban. But it wouldn't help. According to an apt observation of Efim Rezvan, the translation of Porokhova "exemplifies the synthesis of highly successful management and more than unsatisfying fulfillment of an extremely complicated scholarly task"38.
Another attempt to create a poetic translation was made by Theodor Shumovskii39. It was published in 1995 and caused a controversial reaction within the academia. In the preface to his translation Shumovskii declared that the translation of the Qur'an in poetic form is the only way to express its true spirit and that the prosaic translation "kills the very essence of the great Book"40. However, his own translation turned out to be an endless row of unbearably monotonous rhymed couplets.
35 Emel'ianov, Ismail-Valerii. 125th Anniversary of the Translator of the Qur'an // Islam Minbare. 2008. № 2 (in Russian).
36 [Porokhova V.]. The Qur'an / Transl. by Valeria Porokhova. Moscow, 1993 (in Russian).
37 For details see Ushakov V.D. Which Translation of the Qur'an Do We Need — "Canonical" or Scientific? // The Qur'an in Russia (Based on the Materials of the Round Table The Holy Qur 'an in Russia: Spiritual Legacy and Historical Fate). Moscow, 1997 (in Russian).
38 Rezvan E.A. The Qur'an and Its World. P. 449.
39 [Shumovskii T.A.]. The Qur'an. The Holy Book of Muslims / Transl. by T.A. Shu-movskii. Moscow, 1995 (in Russian).
40 Shumovskii T.A. Speaking about the Qur'an // The Holy Qur'an. Pages of Eternal Thoughts / Poetic translation by Theodor Shumovskii. St. Petersburg, 2000. P. 19 (in Russian).
An important step in the translation of the sacred book of Islam was made by Magomed-Nuri Osmanov. His translation, based on multiple, largely Persian tafsirs, appeared in 199541 and in 2002 Osmanov was awarded the State Prize of the Russian Federation for the second significantly enlarged and reworked edition.
The Qur'an became the focal point of research undertaken by the Moscow linguist Viktor Ushakov. His monographic study of the Qur'anic phraseology42 was followed by the publication of the translation of selected suras in the rhymed prose43. It was supplemented by commentaries based on the Tafsir of al-Tabari and Tafsir al-Jalalain as well as Russian studies of the Islamic scripture. Discussing basic principles of this translation, quite a number of Russian experts on classical Islam opposed the author's decision to write all biblical names in the Judaic-Christian tradition (Abraham instead of Ibrahim and the like). In their opinion, it affected the authenticity of the text.
The 1990s and the first decade of the 21st century became the most fruitful period regarding new translations of the Islamic scripture. Shortly before death on the verge of the 21st century a well-known Russian Arabist philologist Betsi Shidfar (1928-1993) completed her translation of the Qur'an44. This work is worth mentioning at least because in the period under review it became the sole translation which was undertaken by an experienced translator of the masterpieces of Arabic medieval prose and poetry. Speaking about this work, the aforementioned St. Petersburg Professor Anna Dolinina pointed out: "[Betsi Shidfar] managed to reflect the artistic form, rhythm and rhyme of the Qur'an in an adequate and delicate manner"45.
In recent years Russian readers have become familiar with new translations. Two of them appeared at the beginning of the 21st century. The translation of El'mir Kuliev46 was welcomed by the Islamic community and evoked a vivid interest of the scholars by its accuracy and fine literary quality. Kuliev has a great regard for his forerunners. He wrote in the preface to the third edition of his translation (Moscow, 2004): "The transla-
41 [Osmanov M.-N.O.]. The Qur'an / Transl. by M.-N.O. Osmanov. Moscow, 1995 (in Russian).
42 Ushakov V.D. Qur'anic Phraseology (an Attempt of Comparison of the Phrases from the Qur'an and Arabic Classical Language). Moscow, 1996 (in Russian).
43 [Ushakov V.D.]. The Qur'an. Suras 1, 16-19, 35, 36 / Transl., introductory article and commentaries of V.D. Ushakov. Moscow, 1998. He published the translation of several suras in the academic periodical Vostok (Oriens): Sura 20. Ta-Ha // Vostok (Oriens). 2000. № 4; Sura 21. The Prophets // Ibid. 2002. № 1; Sura 22. Hajj // Ibid. 2002. № 5 (all in Russian).
44 [Shidfar B.]. The Qur'an / Transl. by B. Shidfar. Moscow, 2003 (in Russian).
45 Dolinina A.A. The Present-day Translation of the Qur'an Made for General Audience Should Take into Account Tafsirs // URL: http://www.islamrf.ru/news/culture/ history/12655/ (in Russian).
46 [KulievE.R.]. The Qur'an / Transl. by E.R. Kuliev. Moscow, 2002 (in Russian).
tions of D.N. Boguslavskii, I.Y. Krachkovskii and M.-N.O. Osmanov are masterpieces of the world Oriental studies and an invaluable contribution of Russian and Soviet scholars to the development of the Islamic studies in Russia... Working on my translation, I tried to take into account the notable achievements of my predecessors".
An entirely opposite reaction was caused by the translation made by Alim Gafurov47. After its completion he produced a series of insulting anti-Islamic articles which led to a public scandal. He began most of his slanderous pieces of writing with the phrase: "I am the translator of the Qur'an..."
The recent translation at our disposal is the work of two scholars from the Moscow Institute of Oriental Studies Raisa Sharipova and Ural Sharipov48. A mere glance at it reveals the translators' underlying intention to make the text 'readable' and intelligible to a broader reader.
However, despite a considerable increase in the number of translations of the Qur'an into Russian, Krachkovskii's translation is still the one which is predominantly used by the majority of Russian scholars engaged in Islamic studies. In the meantime, it is obvious that the idea of Krachkovskii to prepare a philologically accurate academic translation with comprehensive commentaries and reference materials is on the agenda of the Russian academia.
After the survey of translations of the Qur'an, it is necessary to mention what has been done in Russia in the field of the Qur'anic studies. In the second half of the 20th century St. Petersburg was undeniably the country's flagship in this field. In the early 1980s Russian Islamisists supported the call of St. Petersburg Professor Piotr Griaznevich (1929-1997) to proceed with the contextual and diachronic analysis of the Qur'anic vocabulary by comparing it with both the general Semitic lexicon and the linguistic material concerning the pre-Islamic and early Islamic Arabia. It should be noted that this specific approach appeared to be one of the most promising approaches to the Islamic scripture as a historical source49.
Challenged by this difficult task, St. Petesburgh Orientalist Il'ia Shifman carried out a number of researches on the interconnection of the Qur'anic mythologems with the general Semitic spiritual legacy50. For his colleague, the famous Arabist historian Oleg Bol'shakov, the Qur'an became one of the basic sources of the first volume of his fundamental
47 [Gafurov A.G.]. The Qur'an / Transl. by A.G. Gafurov. Moscow, 2000 (in Russian).
48 [Sharipov U.Z., Sharipova R.M.]. The Qur'an / Transl. by U.Z. Sharipov, R.M. Sharipova. Moscow, 2009 (in Russian).
49 Rezvan E.A. The Qur'an and Its World: V. Language, the Unconscious and the "Real World" // Manuscripta Orientalia. 1998. Vol. 4. № 1. P. 28.
50 Shifman I.Sh. About the Certain Regulations of the Early Islam // Islam: Religion, Society and State. Moscow, 1984; Idem. Historical Roots of the Qur'anic Image of Allah // Problems of the Arab Culture. Moscow, 1987 (all in Russian).
work History of the Caliphate51 which is focused on the birth and the formative period of Islam.
The Qur'an as a historical source became an object of study for the renowned Arabist Professor Mikhail Piotrovskii. The innovative approach which he applies in his book The Historical Legends of Qur'an52 rests on the close examination of the place of historical legends in the Holy Islamic scripture and their interrelation with the local cultural environment. A special emphasis on the 'Arabian' legends is made as they contain unique information which sheds the light on the history of pre-Islamic Arabia.
Many creative ideas of the above-mentioned Piotr Griaznevich have been masterfully implemented by Efim Rezvan in the series of articles on the terminology of the Qur'an and its specificity as a historical source and cultural monument53. In 1991 Efim Rezvan published a relatively short historiographical essay Qur'an and Qur'anic studies54 which in 10 years grew into an extensive monograph The Qur'an and Its World. This thoroughly documented and up-to-date book goes into many particular aspects of its truly broad theme including the role and the place of the Qur'an in Muslim society and the history of the study of this text both in the Muslim East and in Europe. In 2004 Rezvan published a detailed study of the noteworthy Qur'anic manuscript of the 8th century55. The attached CD-ROM contains the facsimile of the text and the documentary Search for the Qur'an of Uthman. It is worth mentioning in passing that in 2006 this manuscript was engraved on the plates of pure gold and pompously revealed to the public. The price for the set of 162 plates, according to various Internet sources, fluctuated between 6 and 9 million dollars. In spite of a massive advertizing campaign "the Golden Qur'an" project caused a contradictory public reaction and ended up as a complete commercial flop.
51 Bol'shakov O.G. History of the Caliphate. Vol. 1. Islam in Arabia, 570-633. Moscow, 1989 (in Russian).
52 Piotrovskii M.B. The Historical Legends of Qur'an. Moscow, 1991(in Russian).
53 Rezvan E.A. Adam and Banu Adam in the Qur'an (on the History of the Definitions "First Human Being" and "Humanity") // Islam: Religion, Society and State. Moscow, 1984; Idem. The term Daraja in the Qur'an (on the Problem of Social Stratification of the Settled Population in the Inner Arabia on the Verge of the 6th and 7th Century) // SocioPolitical Ideas in Islam: History and Current State. Moscow, 1984; Idem. The Qur'an and Pre-Islamic Culture (Problem of the Research Methods) // Islam: Religion, Society and State. Moscow, 1984; Idem. Studies on the Terminology of the Qur'an: Sura,'Abd('Abid, 'Ibad) Allah; Umma — 16:121/12 // Problems of the Arab Culture. Moscow, 1987; Idem. Ethical Conceptions and Etiquette in the Qur'an // Etiquette of Peoples of Western Asia. Moscow, 1988 (all in Russian).
54 Rezvan E.A. The Qur'an and Qur'anic Studies // Islam. Historiographical Assays. Moscow, 1991 (in Russian).
55 Rezvan E.A. Mushaf of 'Uthman'. St. Petersburg, 2004 (in Russian).
The teaching of subjects related to Islam created an increasing demand for respective reference manuals and handbooks. It is worth mentioning in this respect the useful teaching aids prepared by St. Petersburg colleagues at various times. Among them are Chrestomathy on Islam, compiled by Stanislav Prozorov (its second section is dedicated to the Qur'an and its commentaries), as well as Rezvan's text book The Qur'an and Its Exegesis and a reader Persian Qur'anic Exegesis made by Firiuza Abdullaeva56 (both books familiarize undergraduate students with the perceptions of the sacred book of Islam in different historical periods and in various ethnocultural surroundings).
It should also be pointed out that Moscow scholars have contributed much to the field under review. Above-mentioned Viktor Ushakov, an expert on the Qur'anic phraseology, represents the Moscow school of Islamic studies. In the Moscow Institute of Oriental Studies works the scholar of Arabic descent Tawfiq Ibrahim. Along with Natalia Efremova he wrote the Companion to the Qur'an51 (it is devoted to the Islamic doctrinal foundations — the belief in God, angels, prophets and the Judgment Day) and thereafter he published a book On the Way to the Qur'anic Tolerance58. The latter encompasses the reworked versions of his articles which were previously published in the academic journal Oriens under the general heading "Onwards to the Qur'anic Islam".
An important trend in the Islamic studies in Russia today is related to the revival of the profound Russian tradition of Qur'anic studies with a special stress on the philological exegesis and the structure of the Muslim holy book. A step forward in this branch of research was made by Professor of the Institute of Asian and African Studies (Moscow State University) Dmitrii Frolov59. Speaking about his recent publications, we
56 Chrestomathy on Islam / Compiled by S.M. Prozorov. Moscow, 1994; Rezvan E.A. The Qur'an and Its Exegesis (Texts, Translations, Commentaries). St. Petersburg, 2002; Abdullaeva F.I. Persian Exegesis of the Qur'an (Texts, Translations, Commentaries). St. Petersburg, 2000 (all in Russian).
57 Ibrahim T.K., Efremova N.V. Companion to the Qur'an: the Faith // Rezvan E.A. The Qur'an and Its World. St. Petersburg, 2001 (in Russian).
58 Ibrahim T. On the Way to the Qur'anic Tolerance. Nizni Novgorod, 2007 (in Russian).
59 FrolovD.V. Ibn al-Nadim on the History of Qur'anic Exegesis // Wiener Zeitschrift fur die Kunde des Morgenlandes. 1997. Vol. 87; Idem. The Notion of Stone in the Qur'an // Proceedings of the Arabic and Islamic Sections of the 35th International Congress of Asian and North African Studies (ICANAS). Budapest, 1999; Idem. Medieval Muslim Discussion about the Order of Suras and Its Relevance to the Study of the Composition of the Qur'an // Vestnik Moskovskogo universiteta. Series 13. Vostokovedenie. 2001. № 1; Idem. The Problem of the "Seven Long" Suras // Studies in Arabic and Islam. Proceedings of the 19th Congress of the Union Européenne des Arabisants et Islamisants (UEAI), Halle 1998. Leuven, 2002; Idem. Two in One and One in Two: An Observation on the Composition of the Qur'anic Text // Sirat Al-Gahiz. Volume in Honour of Krystyna Skarzynska-Bohenska and Danuta Madeyska. Warszawa, 2011; Idem. The Role of Prayers in the Composition of the Qur'an // Sources and Approaches across Disciplines in Near Eastern Studies. Pro-
should mention in the first place the extensive commentaries on the first 10 suras (78-87) of the most commonly referred and memorized 30th section the Qur'an known as juz' ''Amma60. These commentaries are based on a wide range of medieval tafsirs including the works Muhammad al-Tabari (839-923), Ismail ibn Kathir (1301-1373), Abu al-Qasim al-Zamakhshari (d. in 1144) and Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti (c. 1445-1505). The annotated translation of the famous treatise of the latter, Al-Itqanfi 'ulum al-Qur'an (The Perfect Guide to the Sciences of the Qur'an), has become a goal of the project launched by Professor Frolov. It is carried out stage-by-stage by a group of specialists from the Department of Arabic Philology at the Institute of Asian and African Studies. Six released issues of the translation cover half of the treatise61.
The head of the aforementioned department, Professor Frolov, is a caring teacher who sparks students' interest in the Qur'anic studies (his lecture course on the Qur'an is extremely popular) and who has raised a group of talented disciples. One of them, Adelia Gainutdinova, has produced a book Images of the Prophets in the Qur'an62 (this research vividly shows how the idea of prophethood became an essential part of the Arab and Islamic culture) and another, Tatiana Nalich, has published a book Angels and Other Supernatural Creatures in Islam63 which is largely based on the material of the Islamic scripture.
In the end, two remarkable accomplishments of our Institute colleagues should also be pointed out. In 2007 the experienced teacher of Arabic Gulchara Aganina defended the PhD thesis on the orthoepy and recitation (tajwid) of the Qur'an which will be published soon. Vladimir Lebedev has produced a three-volume textbook Learn to Read the Qur'an in Arabic which has gone through three editions64 and become a sort of bestseller. It was followed by another language manual Reading Hadiths in Arabic which is addressed, according to the author, "to those who perceive Arabic as a means of cultural and religious communication and one of the few 'prophetic' languages"65.
ceedings of the 24th Congress UEAI, Leipzig, 2008. Leuven, 2013. Professor Frolov also made substantial contributions to the authoritative Encyclopaedia of the Qur 'an (5 vols. Leiden, 2001-2006).
60 Frolov D.V. Commentary on the Qur'an. 30th Juz'. Vol. 1. Suras 78-87. Moscow, 2011 (in Russian).
61 Al-Suyuti, Jalal al-Din. The Perfect Guide to the Sciences of the Qur'an / Under the general editorship of D.V. Frolov. Issues 1-6. Moscow, 2000-2011 (in Russian).
62 GainutdinovaA.R. Images of the Prophets in the Qur'an. Moscow, 2002 (in Russian).
63 Nalich T.S. Angels and Other Supernatural Creatures in Islam. Moscow, 2009 (in Russian).
64 Lebedev V.V. Learn to Read the Qur'an in Arabic. Pt. 1-3. Third edition. Moscow, 2007 (in Russian).
65 Lebedev V.V. Reading Hadiths in Arabic. Moscow, 2006. P. 4 (First edition — Moscow, 1999) (in Russian).
All in all, despite the notorious financial difficulties and a heavy teaching load the Russian scholars specializing in the field of Qur'anic studies are not losing a realistic vision of the future of their discipline which further progress requires a search for new methodological approaches, broad exchange of experience and knowledge with foreign colleagues and also preservation and continuation of the rich traditions of Russian Oriental science.
In conclusion it is necessary to get back to the tremendous significance of the Qur'an as an outstanding literary monument and those myriads of facets of the research prism through which scholars look at the world of the sacred book of Islam. "The spiritual milk of the Qur'an" which nourishes the mankind (borrowing this figurative expression from the Russian philosopher Vladimir Soloviev)66 continues to nourish a chain of generations of Russian Islamicists. Alexander Pushkin was strikingly far-seeing when he composed the following stirring and persuasive verses:
Pray to the Mighty, the Creator: He rules the winds, He guides the rains To thirsty lands. No might is greater: His trees give shade to burning plains.
His mind is merciful; we owe Him Mohammed and this Koran's gift. Oh may we see the light to know Him And may the mists that blind us, lift.67
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Сведения об авторах: Кириллина Светлана Алексеевна, докт. ист. наук, профессор кафедры истории стран Ближнего и Среднего Востока ИСАА МГУ имени М.В. Ломоносова. E-mail: sakir@iaas.msu.ru; Мейер Михаил Серафимович, докт. ист. наук, профессор, зав. кафедрой истории стран Ближнего и Среднего Востока ИСАА МГУ имени М.В. Ломоносова. E-mail: office@iaas.msu.ru
