About the translation of the Koran into Ukrainian
In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Merciful. The first translation of the Holy Book of Muslims, the Koran, into Ukrainian was made in 1913 by Lviv translator Oleksandr Lysinetskyi (Abranchak). The original translation by O. Lysinetsky was typed in Latin type on a typewriter and consists of 1,147 pages. The author never managed to publish this text, and now its only copy is kept in the manuscripts department of the Lviv National Scientific Library of Ukraine named after V. Stefanyk together with other documents of the Scientific Society named after T. Shevchenko.
In the 20s of the 20th century, the famous Ukrainian orientalist Agatangel Krymskyi translated some passages from the Koran into Ukrainian and included them in his studies on Islam. But still, despite his deep, one might even argue, comprehensive interest in Islam and thorough knowledge of the Arabic language, the scientist did not set himself the goal of a complete translation of the Koran.
In the early 90s of the 20th century, a poetic translation from Arabic of the oldest surahs of the Meccan period of the Prophet Muhammad’s activity was performed by the Ukrainian orientalist from Lviv, Yarema Polotniuk. It was published in the magazine of foreign literature “Vsesvit”.
A well-known Ukrainian orientalist and researcher of Islam, professor Valery Rybalkin, made a significant contribution to the translation of the Koran into Ukrainian. He translated from the Arabic sura, which he published both as a separate book and published in the pages of the magazine “Eastern World”. All these translations, despite their solid scientific basis and high artistic value, were incomplete, published in small editions in specialized journals, so for
the Qur’an was still not fully accessible to the ordinary Ukrainian reader.
In 2010, the first complete edition of the translation of the meanings of the Koran into Ukrainian was finally published, the author of which is the famous Soviet, Ukrainian, and Russian poet, writer, translator, and journalist Valery Basirov. Valery Basirov lived in the Crimea, very famous not only on the peninsula, but also in other regions of Ukraine. In 2011 and 2013, three more
revision of the meaning of the Koran in the translation of V. Basirov.
In 2013, the second complete edition of the translation of the Koran into Ukrainian appeared. Its author is Mykhailo Yakubovych, a Ukrainian orientalist from the Ostroh Academy. The first edition (2013) was published at the King Fahd Center in Medina (Saudi Arabia).
In 2019, a new full, meaningful translation of the Koran into Ukrainian appeared, this translation was made under my guidance. This is a new semantic translation of the Koran in Ukrainian. Four translators worked on it together with me and under my supervision, that is, it is a joint and collective work. Also, three letter editors and two proofreaders worked on this publication. The first feature of this translation is that it is a collective work. At the same time, all responsibility for it lies with me, as a theologian, a specialist in the classical Arabic language and the head of a group of translators and editors. Our success is shared, and the responsibility is mine alone. The second feature of this translation is that, according to the hadith of Imam Jafar Sadiq, the sentence “Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim” (“In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Merciful”) at the beginning of the first sura is an independent verse, and at the beginning of 112 suras it is cited as the beginning of the first verse. Another feature is that, in order to give the reader a more accurate idea of what is stated in the Holy Book, along with the translation from the Arabic original, we used the translations of the Qur’an into Persian by Elahi Gomshei, Makarem Shirazi, the translation into Turkish by Abdulbagi Gulpinar, Yashar Nuri Ozturk, and also translated into Russian by Valerii-Iman Porokhova and Magomed-Nuri Osmanov. Our goal was not just to translate the text of the Holy Book verbatim, but to make it understandable and accessible to the modern reader. Work on this translation of the Koran into Ukrainian continued from the beginning of 2019 to the beginning of 2021. We do not rule out that you will find errors and inaccuracies in the current edition, and we apologize in advance for them. Therefore, to begin with, we printed signal copies, and before each reprint this translation will be re-edited, we will continue to improve the text and work on correcting errors that experts and authoritative Islamic scholars will point out to us. May Allah forgive us and accept this work from us. Wassalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh
Namik Babakhanov