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Pickthall's Translation of the Quran (1930)
The English on this site is Marmaduke Pickthall’s 1930 translation, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran: formal, close to the Arabic, and in the public domain.
What is the Pickthall translation of the Quran?
It is the English translation by Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall, an English novelist who became a Muslim in 1917. He produced it while working in Hyderabad and published it in 1930 as The Meaning of the Glorious Koran: An Explanatory Translation. It is a close, literal rendering in formal, biblical-sounding English, with few notes. Pickthall died in 1936 and the translation is now in the public domain, which is why this site can reproduce it in full.
Who Pickthall was
Marmaduke Pickthall was born in London in 1875 and made his name as a novelist of the Near East before the First World War. He declared his conversion to Islam in November 1917 and spent much of the 1920s in India, in the service of the Nizam of Hyderabad, where the translation was made. He died in 1936.
Why it is called “The Meaning”
Pickthall did not call his book a translation of the Quran but of its meaning. In his preface he held that the Quran itself cannot be translated, and that an English version can only convey its meaning, not reproduce the Arabic. Many translators since have used the same framing in their titles.
What the English is like
The style is formal and old-fashioned even for 1930, modelled on the English of the King James Bible: thee and thou, verbs ending in -eth, and frequent use of Lo! to open a sentence. Surah 112 reads: “Say: He is Allah, the One! Allah, the eternally Besought of all! He begetteth not nor was begotten. And there is none comparable unto Him.” The translation stays close to the order of the Arabic and adds few explanatory words.
Pickthall, Yusuf Ali and Sahih International
Abdullah Yusuf Ali's translation, published from 1934, is similar in period and style but carries an extensive commentary in footnotes. Sahih International, published in 1997, is in modern English and adds bracketed words to make implied meanings explicit. This site does not rank translations; it uses Pickthall because the text can be reproduced in full under a public-domain status, and every verse is shown with the Arabic beside it.
Common questions
When was Pickthall's translation published?
In 1930, as The Meaning of the Glorious Koran: An Explanatory Translation.
Is Pickthall's translation in the public domain?
Yes. Pickthall died in 1936, and the translation is in the public domain, which is why this site and many others can reproduce it in full.
Why does it say Koran?
Koran was the usual English spelling in 1930. Modern editions of the translation often use Quran or Qur'an in their titles, but the text is the same.
Was Pickthall a Muslim?
Yes. He declared his conversion to Islam in London in November 1917, more than a decade before the translation was published.
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