A Glance at Dr. Haddad Adel’s Translation of the Quran

The exact history of the earliest Persian translations of the Quran remains unclear. Although it is reported that some verses were translated into Persian as early as the first Islamic century, the formal precedent for such efforts dates back to the Samanid era in the mid-fourth century AH, with the translation of al-Ṭabarī’s tafsīr under the order of Amīr Nūḥ al-Sāmānī and the endorsement of the scholars of Māwarāʾ al-Nahr. This initiative enabled Persian speakers to read and hear the word of God in their native tongue. With the advent of the fourteenth century AH, the art of translation departed from the older prose styles and entered a new phase, gaining a fresh character through the evolution of Persian prose, gradually moving from literal renderings toward comparative translations. Following the Islamic Revolution, Quranic translation experienced remarkable growth and attained a worthy stature; in recent decades in particular, scholars of Quranic studies have been able to convey God’s message from the source language to the target language without excess or deficiency. One translation that aligns well with systematic translation principles, breaking free from rigid Arabic grammatical constraints and adapting to the temperament and idiom of Persian, is Dr. Haddad Adel’s rendition of the Quran. This article, after briefly outlining the conditions and methods of Quranic translation, introduces and critiques this translation, comparing it with several other versions.