World Bibliography of Translations of the Holy Quran in Manuscript Form-II
One of the Centre’s major research programs, titled “Studies on copies and translations of the Holy Quran” is aimed at recording the translations and exegeses/ commentaries of the Quran published in various languages of the world in printed or manuscript form. To this aim the Centre compiles comprehensive bibliographies. The first book resulting from these studies was the world bibliography of printed translations published in 1986. A revised and updated edition to cover the translations printed until the present. A parallel research has been conducted on translations existing in manuscript form. This work is yielding four bibliographies: one for each of the Turkish, Persian, and Urdu languages, in which the translations are most numerous, and one bibliography, which was the first published, covering the translations in all languages excluding these three. The latter appeared in 2000, with an Introduction that reviews the history of development of Quran translations in general and manuscript translations in particular with regard to some major languages of the Muslim world. The future volumes, in preparation, will cover the translations in Turkish and in Persian.
The present, second volume in the series and the first to be published among those for each of the said three languages is devoted to translations in the Urdu language. It has been compiled by Dr. Ahmad Khan, a leading expert of manuscript studies in Pakistan and Director of the Centre for the Protection of Arabic Manuscripts, Islamabad, Pakistan. While compiling the bibliography, Dr. Khan did not content himself with collecting the data contained in available catalogues, but visited the various libraries where the works are preserved and obtained the necessary information first hand. Moreover, his Introduction to this volume is a valuable study which surveys and examines various aspects of the translations and exegeses of the Quran in Urdu language. Urdu language played an important role in the development of Quran translations. The comprehensive volume, combined with the information on printed translations in Urdu language contained in IRCICA’s 1986 bibliography, it will reflect the overall contribution of Urdu language to translations of the Holy Quran.
