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The Holy Quran translation of Bohuslavsky D.N. About the Turkish edition of the Koran in translation D

QUESTION: Assalamualaikum dear brother!

You wrote a lot about Shamil, at first I didn’t like it, I didn’t like your attacks on a respected and authoritative imam. I thought you were crazy. But then, after reading your articles again, I realized that you did the right thing. Because until that moment no one even wanted to think that Shamil could make a mistake. And now we all know that he is also human and capable of mistakes. I have long dreamed of reading Shamil’s translation of the Koran. Now I don’t know if it’s worth it? M.

ANSWER: wa alaikum as salaam brother M!

I usually touch on topics that few people can answer and always tell the truth directly. Therefore, not everyone can immediately change their worldview. Unfortunately, you are not alone, there are many like you who blindly and fanatically believe any word of this lost person. He is usually followed by completely illiterate people who really do not understand anything about religious issues. Just the other day, at the request of one brother, I corrected some of Shamil’s mistakes -

I can’t say anything about Shamil’s translation of the Koran, but if you want to read it, I can’t dissuade you from doing so. I cannot impose my subjective opinion on you, but I can only offer my subjective opinion, as they say, people’s tastes are not the same, you decide for yourself. I previously wrote an article: “How Shaitan defeated Shamil Alyautdinov.” So, in my opinion, the current Shamil is not at all the same Shamil who was 5-6 years ago. Shamil was defeated by Shaitan, giving him a taste of money and popularity. Any God-fearing person, especially an imam who has his own website, is obliged to disseminate knowledge for free. According to the Sunnah, it is forbidden to take money for the transfer of knowledge!!! What is Shamil doing?! Shamil immediately offers all those who ask him questions to buy his books! He even sells the translation of the Koran - he put everything into business flow! I would never have thought of stooping so low - to Shamil’s level! Shamil, instead of earning rewards from Allah for transmitting knowledge, on the contrary, having listened to the shaitan, sells this knowledge. If this knowledge were correct, one could remain silent, but with his ignorance he misleads everyone. Therefore, imams like Shamil are worthless!

If I’m not mistaken, I wrote earlier that Shamil turned the translation of the Koran into chatter. Who can read this kind of chatter to the end?! Any person who wants to read a translation of the Koran, starting to read Shamil’s translation, will immediately put this book on the shelf; few people can cope with such a mockery of the Koran, and such a person will develop a persistent aversion to reading the Koran!

Here, for example, please read the translations of the same verse translated by Kuliev and Shamil, then compare for yourself:

Translation by Kuliev: “We created many jinn and people for Gehenna. They have hearts that do not understand, and eyes that do not see, and ears that do not hear. They are like cattle, but they are even more lost. It is they who are the careless ignoramuses” (7:179).

And this is the translation - chatology by Shamil Alyautdinov: “...They [who found themselves with nothing and suffered a complete collapse in eternity, during the period of conscious stay in the worldly monastery] had hearts that they did not understand [sensitivity, receptivity, responsiveness, generosity of soul, gentleness, compassion were not inherent them]; they had eyes with which they did not see (they did not want to take a closer look) [to see an alternative reality, in addition to the one to which they were already accustomed], and ears with which they did not hear (they did not want to listen) [new knowledge, instructions, edifications were often alien to them, They did not see them either in life, or in books, or in the oral instructions of other people, and they also did not listen. Many of them took everything from life, indiscriminately, and thought little about it]... They are inattentive (careless, careless) [with their incorrect attitude towards life they reached the highest levels in these unsightly qualities, or rather, the lowest. They could not, did not want, did not want to rise to something more than drinking, sleeping, absorbing food and uncontrollably increasing their wealth or apathetically inaction. The fear of remaining hungry and worldly gluttony deprived them of earthly well-being and eternal happiness. This is their choice, in it they were absolutely free]” (Holy Quran, 7:179) /2/.

And what can you say now that you have compared the two translations?! By the way, Shamil calls his translation a “theological translation of the Koran,” as if other translations were infidels or amateur! What a theological translation this is, this is the translation of a mentally ill person trying to prove to all of us his eloquence, chatter and erudition! Also below you can read Shamil’s self-praise about himself (in bold!):

“As the author of the Trillionaire Project, a believer and owner of an inquisitive mind , I’ll give a few more paragraphs useful information, in order to form a more solid foundation of a strong desire to awaken from sleep, transform and, for example, participate in the mentioned project (“Trillionaire”), starting to write, dream, magnetically attract your tomorrow today . So...".

Would a person in his right mind write such words about himself?! Allah warns us in the Qur'an that " no one knows what will happen to him tomorrow! And Shamil, with the help of infidel authors, invites Muslims to change their lives, become rich and successful. Allah said: “Say: “The unseen belongs to Allah alone.” (10:20). Even the Messenger (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) did not know the secret. The Almighty said: “ Say: “I do not tell you that the treasures of Allah are with me, and I do not know the unseen. I'm not telling you that I am an angel. I follow only what is revealed to me.” Say: “Are the blind and the seeing equal? Won't you think about it?" (6:50).

This verse is said specifically to people like Shamil:

« Indeed, many are deceived by their passions, not having knowledge" ( 6:119).

Allah Almighty said: “Whose speech is more beautiful than the speech of the one who calls to Allah, acts righteously and says: “Indeed, I am one of the Muslims”(41:33). And Shamil calls on all people, together with Muslims, to become “trillionaires” by reading books by infidel authors!

Shamil and people like him cannot understand that Allah, 50,000 years before the creation of the World, predetermined all our destinies, determined for each a share of his wealth: “There is not a single creature on earth for which Allah does not provide food. Allah knows their place of residence and place of storage (the womb or the grave). All this is written in clear Scripture." (11:6). Therefore, no matter how much you read the infidel books recommended by Shamil, no matter how much you walk on your head, no matter how much you walk backwards, you will not earn more or less than what Allah has ordained for us! Even such elementary concepts are beyond the power of Shamil’s mind, not to mention the complex issues of Sharia:

“Every misfortune that happens on earth and to yourselves is written in the Scripture even before We created it. Indeed, this is easy for Allah,” “We told about this so that you do not grieve over what you missed, and do not rejoice at what He has given you. Allah does not like any arrogant braggarts."(57:22,23).

Among the elements of the earth's ocean

Not to the wise, but to the Time for Judgment

I provide a translation of the Koran,

Hard work

Happy work.

I will not break anyone’s faith with the Koran,

There is no secret thought in my thoughts.

But let it descend into the seeking soul

Muslim verse by the radiance of the sky.

Then the living heart will cling to the heart,

The human circle will close tightly.

And the one who believes will say to the Gentile: “Wasted friend!

Trusted friend!

Forever friend!

Muslims have three highest oaths, which a person of even the lowest morality will not dare to break: “I swear by God!”, “I swear by the Prophet!”, “I swear by the Koran!” Awareness of the unfading value of the holy book, proclaimed to people through the mouth of the founder of Islam, has been passing from one Muslim generation to another for almost fourteen centuries. Revolutions flared up and died out, kingdoms rose and fell; New countries opened up to the gaze of humanity, the face of the earth changed - but the Koran lived and lives, an increasing number of hearts absorb its words into their depths, compare their everyday behavior with it. What secret made this shrine of Muslims eternally valuable to millions of people? In short, it is not a speculative, but a demonstrative statement of the idea of the existence of a single God; not abstract, but active preaching of life-giving goodness; a call to assimilate the preached truths, following not the path of unreasoning faith, but the path of knowledge, conviction, gained through sober reflection. To fully understand such provisions, the reader should turn to the suras (sermons) of the Koran themselves, which are fully set out below.

Later, my childhood, right up to the end of high school, was spent in the city of Pushkin’s “Shamakhan queen” - the Azerbaijani regional center of Shemakha, hidden in the southern foothills Caucasian ridge. Despite the Muslim environment, I did not see anyone holding the Koran in their hands - in the Soviet years the holy book was banned. Of course, the “Turkish” believers, as they were called then, secretly gathered in the only one of the city’s mosques, which the authorities had not yet managed to turn into some kind of warehouse, but, naturally, I was not allowed to go there. Nevertheless, the sharp features of the East were revealed to me, a teenager, almost every day. Here lies an ancient caravan route in the lower part of the city, which has now become the main street, along which rows of merchant shops stretch. On Fridays there is a noisy bazaar, in which peasants from nearby villages take part with their goods. At two ends of the main street there are mosques: the cathedral (Juma mosque) with a dried-up pool for ablution; “Sary Toprak” (Yellow Land) with a steeply risen minaret; another one is in a side street: the prayer building has turned into ruins, in the corner of the spacious courtyard there is a crypt with the ashes of the saint (“feast”). The window of the crypt is covered with bars, pieces of fabric are tied to the bars - a sign of worship. There are far more than one graves of especially revered Muslims in Shemakha; there are also in the upper city.

But... From afar, exclamations are heard: “Shakhsey Vakhsey!”, “Shakhsey Vakhsey!” These are Shia Muslims walking in a dense procession along the ancient street of the lower city; men, naked to the waist, beat themselves with chains on their shoulders or daggers on their foreheads and mournfully shout: “Shah (hero) Hussein!”, “Waikh (woe) Hussein!” This is how they mourn Imam Hussein the Martyr, who fell on the battlefield in the seventh century. Hussein was the son of the first of twelve Shiite imams, Ali ibn Abu Talib, and the grandson of the founder of Islam, Muhammad.

But... A quiet river meanders behind the lower town, and behind it rises steep mountain. In the middle of the slope there is a narrow path in which a stream of crystal water from a mountain spring has cut its channel. And at the top of the outstretched mountain there is a cemetery. The rows of graves stretch far away, above each there is a monument with mysterious Arabic inscriptions, thin ligature intricately weaves lace after lace. Among the graves are seven oval mausoleums, semicircular domes looking into the bottomless blue of the sky. Under the mountain, at some distance, there is another Muslim cemetery, behind the eastern exit from the city there is a third. And the fourth is located on the northwestern outskirts of Shamakhi. There is also a spring with spring water - the kind on the nearby city streets pour their transparent streams into dug grooves day and night. Behind the northern spring fountain, the foothills of the Caucasus Range begin. In the gorge above the river hang the remains of an ancient bridge - here was the first fortification, the beginning of Shamakhi, founded in the eighth century by the Arab military leader Shemmakh ibn Shuja.

My first contact with the Koran occurred under completely different circumstances. It happened in Leningrad, when, as a university student, I at one time worked as a librarian. Once our manager, wanting to free bookshelves from the “accumulated rubbish”, I threw a bunch of dusty books into the trash bin. On one of them flashed before my eyes arabic letters, and not long before that I entered the Arabic studies department. Therefore, when the manager left, I began to rummage through the last refuge of the “junk” and pulled out a stack of barely stapled pages. The first of them indicated in Latin the place and year of publication: “Rome, 1592”, followed by the name of the publisher: “Nicholas Panetius”, and the publication itself contained the Arabic text of the first twenty-two suras of the Koran with a parallel Latin translation.

I realized that a major bibliographic pearl had fallen into my hands. With timidity, natural for a beginning student, I called the “most” head of scientific Arabic studies in our country - Academician I. Yu. Krachkovsky, and told him about the find. Ignatius Yulianovich immediately invited me to come, carefully examined the pages brought and found a mention of them in the reference book. It turned out that the publisher Panetius, a prominent scientist of his century, planned to publish the entire Koran, accompanied by a Latin translation for the sake of enlightening contemporary Europeans. But personal funds were enough to print only twenty-two surahs out of one hundred and fourteen. The reference book expressed the idea that when the continuation of the publication failed due to lack of money, this happened through the efforts of the Catholic Church.

Thus, the discovery of ancient Koranic pages introduced me to the unforgettable Ignatius Yulianovich Krachkovsky, who later became my supervisor and corresponded with me for a long time. By his permission, the Roman edition of 1592 was kept in my papers for future research. On the night of February 11, 1938, I was arrested by NKVD soldiers, and Panetius’s work, along with my student books, was thrown into the wardrobe of the dorm room, closed, and sealed with a government seal. Subsequently, all these treasures were irretrievably lost.

That night, next to Panetius, a huge lithograph of a calligraphic manuscript of the Koran fell to the bottom of a cabinet. I bought this book in a used bookstore on Nevsky Prospekt and went with it to the university, where Krachkovsky taught classes on the analysis of Koranic texts.

Many years later, when I secretly came from exile to Leningrad to work on my Ph.D. dissertation, I acquired a tiny (3x4 cm) but complete copy of the Koran, equipped with a magnifying glass. Such little books are published in Egypt for Muslim pilgrims crossing from there to the holy cities of Islam. In connection with this acquisition of mine, one incident is memorable.

Finding myself, after all my prisons, camps and exiles, visiting my brother in the city of my childhood, Shemakha, I one day wrote an Arabic work at the table. And then a bank guard, an old Azerbaijani, Ali Najafov, came to his brother, who held the position of chief accountant of the State Bank Branch, on business. Azerbaijani Shia Muslims, adherents of one of the major varieties of Islam; about our visitor (he knew me as a boy) this could be said immediately, barely hearing his first and last name: Ali ibn Abu Talib - the first of twelve Shiite imams (high priests), Najef - one of the holy cities of Shiism. It remains to be said that in the East, respect for elders is very developed: when addressing them by name, they must add a word meaning “uncle”: if the name ends with a vowel, it is “dai”, if it ends with a consonant, it is “ami”. This is how a harmonious sound is achieved, a “sweet sound” that is loved by Asian peoples who are sensitive to poetry.

So, the brother and the old State Bank security guard talked about their official affairs. Then they came to my table.

Look, Ali-dai,” my brother said, pointing to my papers, “do you see what kind of book with a piece of glass lies next to it?” This is the Koran!

The old man bent down and took the tiny volume with a trembling hand. He put it to his heart, then brought it to his lips and kissed it. He applied it to his heart again and carefully put it in place. He didn’t say a word - his gestures said it all.

In the texts of the Koran below, the understanding of the fundamental words corresponds to that accepted in modern science, although it is controversial. The preservation of what is legitimized is caused by the desire not to introduce psychological disruption into the reader’s perception of oriental scientists, but only to present the sacred Book familiar to them in the most accurate form for today. Meanwhile, thinking about the Koran in the light of its history and the origin of individual words gives rise in a number of cases to doubts about the impeccability of generally accepted decisions.

If we move away from the ingrained habit in Russia of leaving many foreign designations without translation, then the name “Koran” in its Russian form will appear as “Reading” or, more precisely, “Reading”. The name of the sacred Book comes from the first word of the 96th (chronologically first) sura: “read in the name of God, your Lord...”, where the corresponding bismi rabbi caviar... Arabic original and led to the appearance of the name al-quran, Koran (ikra is an imperative mood, kuran is a nominal formation from the same root KR").

So. But where are the letters that are supposed to be read? Can answer; before the eyes of the Prophet Muhammad - these are speculative tables (alwah), which God revealed to him through the Archangel Gabriel. This explanation is understandable and natural, because they say about a thinker: “inspired from above.”

The only question then remains: was there a developed concept of reading in seventh-century Arabia? In other words, was it caused by everyday necessity? Deepening this question, one should think: what could the Arabs of that time read? “Well, for example, in the Meccan temple there were mu’allaqs - the seven best pre-Islamic poems...” But weren’t they invented later, at the time of the worldwide Arab conquests, when it was necessary to instill in the conquered peoples an idea of the antiquity of Arabian culture?.. So , could exist in a tribal society relatively low level the very verb “to read” in that high sense that permeates the words of the great Book of Islam?

It is curious that the special dictionary for the mentioned “pre-Islamic” poems and the Koran lists under the root “KR” in question as meaning not “read”, but something completely different.

The above leads to the idea that the name “Koran” is based on the almost identical Arabic root KRY, which, judging by the meaning of its derivative karya, “city” meant “to build”. Correspondences can be seen in the Turkic kur (mak) - “to build”, Persian kar (dan) - “to do”, Hindi kriti - “work”, kriya - “deed, work”. If we accept this idea, then “Koran” should be translated as “Wall. Barrier" in the sense that the revelations of the Muslim faith set out in the Holy Book lay an impassable line between the centuries of pre-Islamic Ignorance (al-jahi liya) and the time of Knowledge (al-yaqyn) about the existence of the One God. Let's think about it - slowly, carefully - again. “The Koran” is a Wall erected to firmly fence off the time of Ignorance about the existence of one God from the time of knowledge about Him, when Healing (al-Islam) came, to set a historical limit to the first and to give a starting point for the movement of the second. The old century has no way into the new - there is a wall in front of it. And the new century has no return to antiquity - the wall behind its back commands it to go only forward.

Oral during the life of Muhammad, enshrined in writing during the brief hour of the reign of his direct followers, the sacred Book-barrier repels attempts on the still weak state of Islam by the children of the age of Ignorance, exposing their unrighteous life; She teaches adherents of the teaching of healing new rules of public and personal behavior.

In this case, this wall is that “impenetrable barrier” (barzakh) between two seas, bitter and sweet, which is mentioned in the 25th sura of the Muslim shrine. The word barzakh has another meaning: the interval between death and the resurrection of a person for the Last Judgment.

In light of the above, the primary meaning of the word sura (chapter of the Koran) - “a row in a stone wall” is no longer “hanging in the air”, as it is now, but is logically justified. The stones of this series are individual verses representing revelations, signs of God's omnipotence.

Law for believers powerful weapon beating the sinful victims of Satan. This understanding of the meaning of the name “Koran” is consistent with the significant image of the bitter and sweet seas, separated by an impenetrable barrier (barzakh in Sura 25), and the fact that Arabia during the time of Muhammad knew legends about the peoples of Gog and Magog, fenced off from the inhabited world by a powerful deaf wall.

Developing the last remark, it must be said that much in the Koran, including images, was close to the Arabians as a reflection of the reality around them. First, the revelations are given in “pure Arabic” (Sura 26); the language of the prophet’s speeches, which breathed high poetry, in itself attracted the hearts of the people who were not indifferent to poetry (this indifference can be judged from the memoirs of O. I. Senkovsky, who traveled to early XIX centuries in the Arab East). Further, listening to the description of the night of Power on which the Quran was revealed

She is full of solemn peace until the morning dawn...

listeners mentally compared the blissful picture with memories of endless night battles between Arab tribes, when the fury of opponents and omnipresent anxiety reaped a bountiful harvest. Koranic images of paradise recalled the fragrant gardens and cool waters of the city of Taif, which arose in the Arabian desert like a mirage; descriptions of hell hit the face like a fiery wind rushing from the lifeless sands of the Arabian “Empty Quarter of the Peninsula,” ar-Rub al-Khali. Of course, like any high teaching, Islam, its Word - the collected, growing Koran in particles - had many enemies. But the power of the natural development of a healthy organism gradually crushes obstacles. Enemies may remain, but, capable of destroying the sprout, they are powerless against a mature opponent.

The transience of a teaching speaks of its falsity, eternity - of its truth. Islam, having passed through turbulent centuries, has acquired an undying life.

Brilliant experts are living people, so they are capable of making mistakes. If you do not follow the statements of teachers, but conduct independent research, then following the name “Quran” a number of words of the same circle of concepts reveal to us their true nature. The fact is that over time, this or that particle of language can change the meaning it contains - our work "Oroxology" gives numerous examples of this - but modern science usually takes the later meaning for the original. Strict judges of philological decisions - grammar, phono- and lexogenesis - oblige us to take their evidence into account and then we get the following identities representing the original meaning:

Islam is “healing” (of an individual human soul and of the entire people), that is, the transformation of the sick part of a person, society into a healthy one, therefore, the creation of an integral personality and an integral circle of people (people);

Muslim (Muslim) - “healer”. This means that, having accepted the religion of Islam, a person should try to introduce others to this faith;

Amir (emir) - “receiving orders.” Amir al-muminin, starting in the 60s of the 7th century, when the first Muslim dynasty arose (the Omayyads), began to be understood as the “commander of the faithful” (that is, the caliph). But thirty years earlier it is “receiving orders from the trusted” (that is, the closest companions of the late Prophet Muhammad) as the head of the Muslim community;

Khalifa (caliph, ruler of a Muslim state) - “that which is followed.” Guided by a council consisting of the first Muslims who bore on their shoulders the entire burden of the struggle for the triumph of Islam, the head of the community of Muhammad at first impersonally personifies the religious-power principle, which all the faithful must follow;

Dean - "court". It is in this sense that this word is used by the sura, which is placed in first place in the Koran (its name is “Opening the Book”, but in terms of the time of its pronunciation it is the forty-eighth). This understanding is supported through the Arabic madina (ma-din-a, Syriac pre-Arabic with assimilation mditta) - "city", literally "place of judgment" (carried out by a major or minor ruler in his capital). This also includes the Arabic hanif ad-din - “judging soundly.”

Penetration into the depths of the word allows us to restore authentic pages of history that have been erased under the influence of time or someone else’s hand.

The text of the Koran below will present vivid pictures:

vows -

I swear by those before whom the souls of the pure, the vile,

Who plucked hosts of souls from the bodies of the pious and the unfaithful,

Who, having completed the task, floats on the blue heights of heaven

And he takes human souls with him to heaven for Judgment!

I am the sky where the constellations tremble,

I swear, and Happy Day to all husbands and wives,

A witness from those who do not slander,

And to those of whom he testifies!

For an oath - Lucky Day and ten sacred nights,

And the night, where moments of darkness flow like a stream...

Day of Judgment -

When darkness falls on the sun, the stars in the sky darken,

And the mountains will move from their places when fear penetrates the hearts

And ten months in a row will be deprived of supervision

Camels of the wives' camp

and those who should be with them,

When the animals roar, gathering in a discordant crowd,

And the rebellious seas will flood the earth with a blind shaft

When the heavens fall apart, the stars' pearls scatter

And every sea, rising, will tear its shores apart,

There will be no pastures, villages and wild slums under the waters,

When the coffin rises from the remote dungeons behind the coffin.

heaven and hell -

Gehenna is a criminal ambush, it is not easy,

They will return to Judgment and will remain in Gehenna for centuries.

Neither coolness nor a breath of moisture will greet them there,

There they give you pus and bring you boiling water.

Calculation - according to merit: they did not wait for the Court

And the signs of the Lord were always considered lies

We wrote everything down and the words are closely recorded.

Taste it! We will only add punishment to you.

But there is an eternal place of salvation for the righteous:

Gardens, grape vines, which are countless,

There are full-breasted maidens swimming behind a couple

And a cup filled with sweet moisture is at the mouth.

Has the news reached you about the Irresistible, the Painful? -

There are countless traces of humiliation on the faces.

Tormented by effort, they burn in fire,

Their drink is hot moisture, doubly torment,

The thorny plant is given to them as food,

The eater does not get better and is tormented by hunger.

And - faces glow with happiness, there is no way to be like this in hell,

Satisfied with their work, in a sublime garden,

Where you don’t hear the noise, where there are no empty speeches.

A stream permeated with freshness flows in the garden.

There are bowls and seats - feasts are being prepared -

Pillows are laid out there, carpets are spread out

Those who consider the verses of the Qur'an to be the product of Muhammad's pretentious writing and later revisions should reflect on the very nature of human creativity. Not a single artist in the broad sense of the word - poet, painter, musician, sculptor, architect - creates without inspiration, which makes his work eternal. When an accomplishment is not spiritualized, but tortured or thoughtlessly cobbled together, it represents a handicraft that dies at the same time as its manufacturer or earlier. The twentieth century introduced many

examples of this. And no matter how hard the admirers of fragile transience try to place it next to eternity, to pass off base nonsense as lofty speech of the heart - their efforts are in vain, the judgment of time is strict.

The creator of true values must have a wealth of everyday observations and honesty of soul. But the main thing for him is inspiration. It visits a select few, a few among billions of human hearts, turning away from the vast majority. People grew up side by side, in the same conditions, and sometimes even descended from the same parents - but only one turned out to be a genius, the rest left nothing to the world - it’s not without reason that the word “genius” comes from the Arabic genie - “spirit hovering in the desert” "

"Inspiration". "Spirituality". Both are created by the word “spirit” that underlies them. It's about about the spirit of creativity. But what does it look, taste, feel like? This is impossible to imagine, and this is where the doubt begins: why do we think that our human science knows everything, or at least a lot? If that's all, the academies of sciences should be closed. If there is a lot, then this applies primarily to exact sciences with their smart devices, with their ships sailing at sky-high heights; As for the so-called humanities, their achievements are often at the level of knowledge of a medieval chronicler.

The spirit of creativity does not rise from underground, does not fly from the street into an open window, but descends, therefore, it is given from above. What is in this height, whose inexhaustibly generous, but also incorruptibly strict hand bestows waves of creative spirit on the chosen ones? The natural answer follows: inspiration is sent by the highest creative principle, which created the Universe with its plant and animal worlds. People call this beginning differently, but it is translated into Russian the same way: God. Phonogenetically, this name contains two concepts, greatness and mercy. That is, we are talking about the initial properties that, before others, marked the supreme principle in early human perception.

It is impossible to explain the origin of the creative spirit materialistically, and those who really seek the truth can be convinced of this by the above reasoning. The materialistic “theory of knowledge,” which its priests turn into an axiom, is necessarily limited and therefore cannot be considered strictly scientific. In the light of unbiased research, it is now rather of only historical interest.

So, spirituality, which, without at all trying to repeat the church definition, should be called the “descent of the holy spirit”, visits the elect: the creative principle of the Universe, as it were, associates them with itself, bestowing the happiness of creating eternal values. But the artist, whose diverse manifestations are mentioned above, still creates in a more or less closed world, determined by his creative curiosity. In contrast to him, another chosen one of inspiration - the prophet embraces with his heart and word everything that exists: history, nature, the world of human behavior and social relations”, the place of man in the Universe, the place of the Universe in man.

What has been said convinces us that the Arabian preacher Muhammad could rightfully consider the Koran - the highest miracle in his life, as he said - to be the creation of God. Indeed, the inspiration emanating from the supreme creative principle of the world prompted him with new and new thoughts, purified and strengthened his soul, and this allowed mortal man to leave people with the immortal - the holy book of the Koran and the doctrine of Islam - Healing.

On the pages of Washington Irving's "Life of Mahomet" one can see the following descriptions of the internal appearance of the Arabian prophet:

“Despite his triumph (after capturing Mecca - T. Sh.), he rejected all honors relating to him personally and did not appropriate royal power to himself. “Why are you trembling,” he said to the man who approached him with timid, unsteady steps, “what are you afraid of? I am not a king, but the son of a Quraysh woman (a woman from the Quraysh tribe - T. Sh.), who ate meat dried in the sun.”

From Muhammad’s address to the residents of Yathrib (Medina): “I heard that you were alarmed by the rumor of the death of your prophet: but did any prophet before me live forever, from which you could conclude that I will never leave you? Everything happens according to the will of God and has its end, which cannot be accelerated or avoided. I return to the One who sent me, and I address you with one last admonition: remain united, love, respect and support one another; help each other in faith, in firmness of faith and in pious deeds, only through them does a person achieve prosperity, everything else leads to destruction. I am leaving before you, but you will soon follow me. Death is everyone's destiny: no one should try to turn it away from me. I lived for your good, and for it I will die.”

“Mohammed could not stand external splendor, this object of vanity for limited minds; but the simplicity of his clothing was not artificial, it only expressed his real disdain for such trifles.”

“Military victories did not give rise to either pride or vanity in Mohammed. /.../ During the period of his greatest power, he maintained the same simplicity of manners and appearance as in the days when he had to experience all sorts of vicissitudes of fate. /.../ If he longed for world domination, it was the domination of faith. /.../

The wealth that rained down on him in the form of military tribute and booty was used for causes that contributed to the victory of faith and to help his poor followers, and often his personal treasury was depleted to the last penny. /... / After his death, Mohammed did not have a single gold dinar or a single silver dirham left.”

“No matter how much earthly admixture was found in Mohammed after worldly power fell into his hands, the early inclinations of his spirit always affected and elevated him above everything earthly.”

The internal, moral image of the inspired prophet of the Arabians strictly corresponded to the image of an impeccable Muslim depicted in the Koran;

This is not where virtue lies, and this is not what one can speak about,

So that you may turn your faces humbly towards the sunrise and sunset,

And virtue is faith in God and in the Day of the Last Judgment,

And into the Book, angels, prophets, always carrying the Truth,

And virtue is generosity, although you yourself desire good things,

Gifts to loved ones and wanderers and to everyone who is hungry and naked,

And virtue is prayer and purification with it,

And the fulfillment of vows, even after many days,

Then - patience in misfortune, in troubles, languid days

All those who have chosen are truthful and God-fearing.

One should also remember sura 93, addressed directly to Muhammad:

AND morning light, and I swear by the darkness of the night

You were wrong to think that I would turn away from you!

The Lord did not abandon you, he revived you for good,

And this is more beautiful than what you had yesterday.

Everything will come from the Creator to make you happy.

Was it not He who, seeing you as an orphan, sheltered you?

You wandered, but God led you to the righteous path

And you are made rich, and you can rest from troubles

So be high in soul, shelter the orphan,

Place the saving bread into the asking hand.

Having received his sight from the light and power of the Lord's love,

Announce the story of the Lord’s mercies to everyone.

The thoughts of books and the behavior of the people who proclaimed them to the world do not always coincide. The case under consideration is one of the happy exceptions, not too frequent.

The mysterious letters at the beginning of some chapters of the Koran cannot indicate the names of those whose memories made it possible to finally record the verses of the Koranic surahs. This possibility is sometimes allowed in science, but placing ordinary names next to sacred words would be considered blasphemy. The random set of letters shows that the corresponding incomprehensible sounds were pronounced by Muhammad in order to attract the attention of heterogeneous listeners to the subsequent presentation. Mysterious sounds created an atmosphere of superstitious fear and admiration for what was being said, which concealed “what we do not know.”

An angry cry that opens Sura 111:

Abu Lahab's hands withered, he himself did not escape from the torment!

reminds of the Arabs’ indifference to paired objects, which they usually combine into a common word, such as “Two Easts” - the places where the sun rises in summer and winter, “Two tributaries” - the Tigris and Euphrates, “Two Moons” - the sun and the moon. Of the two hands, one executes, and the other rewards, therefore, when a sinner who has plunged himself into hell has his hands burned, there is nothing to expect from him, either good or bad, and that’s when he perished! This understanding gives

the ability to correctly translate the expression “stood between his hands,” which is often rendered as “stood in front of him.” The meaning here is deeper: he stood up, allowing the person standing opposite to extend the hand of evil or the hand of good to him.

The fact that, contrary to the rules of Arabic writing, the Koran is vowelized (that is, it has short vowels in its letters), indicates the desire of the early rulers of the Muslim state to exclude the possibility of arbitrary interpretation of revelations, which could be dangerous for the purity of original Islam. It must be borne in mind that during Muhammad's lifetime the Qur'anic suras had not yet been collected together. For the first time complete collection appeared under the third successor of the prophet - Caliph Osman (644-656), but consistent collection began under his two predecessors Abu Bekr (632-634) and Omar (634-644). Strong motivating reason the death of many Koran experts occurred in the battles against the false prophet Musaylima: they heard Muhammad and remembered his word, their death created the threat of irreparable loss of the sacred texts. Focused attention, the use of surviving records and memories of the older generation made it possible to publish a complete collection of sermons of the Koran.

Since an unspoken letter is fraught with discrepancies, doesn’t it follow that ancient Eastern writings (even if you believe these monuments) are not capable of giving contemporary society an accurate idea of what happened and how it happened? Here, along with a not entirely correct understanding of events, there may be completely incorrect conclusions. In comparison, the now accepted reading of the two Egyptian names as "Akhnayot" and "Jade" instead of the more recently used "Akhenaton" and "Nefertiti" may seem to be merely a correction of minor distortions, although the sudden change of a well-established reading speaks volumes in itself.

One of the main duties of a Muslim “is giving alms. “Everything that a person has,” Islam argues, “he received from God; therefore a person must share with others like himself.” In Arabic, “alms” is zakat, the original meaning of this word is “purification”. The Hebrew correspondence is presented in the form of tzedakah, and this is especially curious because in both of the given Semitic words K is equally involved - “the sound of purity” (cf. Indian nakka - Russian “naked”, Italian netto, etc.), which is discussed in detail in our work on oroxology (East-Western philology).

A special place in the Koran is occupied by the story of Abraham (Ibrahim) as the ancient herald of monotheism, who opposed his conviction to faith own father and native tribe. The designations hanif - “faithful” and khalil Allah - “friend of God” are applied to Abraham; in Islam he is considered the first builder of the Kaaba and the first organizer of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. His son Ishmael is regarded as the progenitor of the northern Arabs.

The thoughts of the Koran, especially those that called for monotheism already in the new historical time of the seventh century, gradually united a growing number of adherents around Islam. This growth was accompanied by great difficulties; consistent movement was dangerously slowed down more than once. Pagan Arabia stubbornly resisted - but the natural line was clearly visible! the concept of one God should, through healing (Islam), that is, making the whole, lead to the creation of a whole (not fragmented by sins) human soul, and hence - a single people. In the already mentioned book by V. Irving “The Life of Mohammed” it is said: “Mohammed /.../ united into one nation and thus prepared for external conquest all the separated tribes, which until now had only been dangerous to each other and, due to their disunity , are completely powerless in relation to the rest of the world.” And further: “these recently disunited, barbaric and warlike tribes, now gathered as brothers and inspired general feeling religious zeal."

During the Arab conquests, the number of Muslims consistently increased mainly due to the conquered population of neighboring countries. Along with this, the Turks did not immediately accept Islam, if we leave aside the bodyguards at the Baghdad court who appeared during the reign of the first Abbasids. In the lands of Central Asia, the neighbors of the Uyghurs - the Karluks and Oguzes - became Muslims in the tenth century; but the Islamization of the Turks reached its peak in the next century, when, having captured Khorasan (1040), the Turkic Seljuk dynasty conquered Iran, then Baghdad fell at the feet of the military leader Toghrul (1055). After this, the victory over the army of the Byzantine emperor Roman Diogenes (1071) granted the Central Asian conquerors - the Turkic-speaking sons of Islam - power over all of Asia Minor. Conquering one part of the Arab Caliphate after another, the Turks themselves accepted the Muslim faith and became its defenders on the battlefields. This is how the power of the Koranic word manifested itself.

The example of the Latin edition of the Koran from 1592 mentioned above shows how early Europe became interested in the holy Book of Islam. Of course, the experience of Panetius did not remain an isolated case; attempts to acquaint generations of Christians with the Muslim shrine multiplied, and modern times have witnessed the translation of Koranic revelations into a number of Western languages. As for Russia, the eighteenth century, the “age of empresses,” is represented by Russian reproduction French translations, it was precisely such literature of questionable quality that served as the source of Pushkin’s “Imitations of the Koran.” However, in the next century, reproductions were replaced by direct translations from the Arabic original, made by G. S. Sablukov and, independently of him, D. N. Boguslavsky. The first of these figures, Chernyshevsky's teacher at the Saratov gymnasium, later became a professor at the Kazan Theological Academy; the second, the general, was known either as a Russian diplomat in Istanbul, or as a confidant of the St. Petersburg Court, assigned to the leader of the Caucasian resistance, Shamil, exiled to Kaluga. Sablukov's translation of the Koran is now significantly outdated. There are many inaccuracies and even major errors noted in Boguslavsky’s work. It mainly seeks to give an idea of how the Koran was understood in later Muslim circles, especially Turkish ones. But a translation that calls itself scientific must stand above personal assessments and prejudices; it must proceed from an impartial study of accumulated data.

If in the nineteenth century works on Islamic studies experienced a noticeable theological influence, then in the twentieth century politics invaded the scientific pages, killing the living word and sometimes even common sense. In the early 1930s, a “discussion” was started on the topic “did Muhammad exist?”, The thoughtful speeches of its participants were published in the magazine “Militant Atheist.” Distracting from subsequent discussions and looking at the root, one could pose the questions: why could not the prophet Muhammad exist in Arabia? Why, in order to refute a creed, it is necessary to deny the birth of its preacher, its teacher.” Politics and certain individuals who count on personal advancement in life under its sails do not want to answer uncomfortable questions that they did not suspect. Let us answer for them: it is much more difficult to prove the inconsistency of a world religion than to declare its founder an invention. Therefore, even in the second half of the century (1961), the Russian explanation of the translation of the book by the French Islamic scholar speaks of the “mythical Jesus Christ.”

The Moscow preface to this book (“A. Masse. Islam”) contains a number of provisions that may make you smile. Here they are: “in the USSR, Islam, which, like all other religions in this country, is a dying relic of the past...”; “reactionary feudal groups that have not broken ties with the imperialist circles of the colonial powers use Islam as a means to disorient and intimidate the masses...”, “according to their methodology and scientific principles, prof. A. Masse is a typical idealist...” These are the sayings that a loyal scientist tied to the royal chariot is forced to show to the world; It’s hard to call him a scientist, even if they forced him to act with a timid soul, even if he sings in someone else’s voice. But is there really only one such submissive mind? Here is a whole book written in the appropriate spirit: “Academy of Sciences of the USSR, popular science series. L. I. Klimovich. Islam (essays). Moscow, 1962." Two expressions from this educational work - “the so-called world religions (Buddhism, Christianity, Islam)” and the “founder” of Islam” free us from the need for further analysis.

It is necessary to touch upon the inaccuracies in the explanation of particular issues - such errors are observed in the Russian notes to the mentioned translation of the French (A. Masset) work on Islam. Turan in a geographical sense cannot be considered a “vague and vague” name: it represents a natural parallel to the designation Iran - “Aryans” and in this capacity the name Turan should be understood as “Turks”; for this purpose, the Persian indicator of plurality - an (Iran, Turan) must be highlighted in both names. It goes on to say: “The Parthians are a people whose origin has not yet been clarified.”

However, the name of this people is associated with the Arabic faras - “horse”, and this makes us see the Parthians as one of the Aryan tribes - after all, it was the Aryans who developed the culture of horse breeding to such an extent that the Persian asp - “horse” was the source of the equivalent Greek ipp -os and the name “ Caspian". The French author himself did not avoid certain mistakes. Such key words of Muslim reality as “Islam”, “Caliph”, “Amir Almuminin” were explained inaccurately by him; their correct understanding was discussed above. It should be added that the Arabic word sura, denoting each of the 114 sermons of the Koran, did not originally mean “revelation,” as Prof. A. Masse, which meant “a row in a stone wall” (see above). The name "Chingiz" is not "mysterious"; it is associated not with the Mongolian ching - “strong”, but rather with the Turkic tan(g)ri - “supreme power, God” (Chuvash, tingir - “sky”), where, according to the law of Turkic phonogenesis, “r” is capable of turning into “z” "(Turkish deniz - "sea", cf. Russian "knight" from Turkic, batyr - "hero"; "k(o)nyaz" / "horse").

Now it remains to consider the extensive work, which has repeatedly, thanks to reprints, been reminiscent of itself in Russian oriental studies in recent decades. We are talking about the translation of the Koran performed by the late head of the St. Petersburg Arabic school I. Yu. Krachkovsky. A careful study and unbiased assessment of this work will make it possible to determine to what extent the poetic translation of the “Bible of Islam”, as Professor Masse puts it, the Koranic surahs, is justified.

In this translation of ours, one should not look for a word-by-word reproduction of the Arabic text: in relation to rhymed prose, such an action is impossible; one of the largest Russian translators, M. L. Lozinsky, likened such a task to “squaring a circle.” But every thought of the Koran is detailed, carefully and clearly conveyed in this book using the rich means of the Russian language.

However, before getting acquainted with the following translation in verse, you need to delve into the pages of the “Quran” (translation and commentary) belonging to I. Yu. Krachkovsky. Such consideration was carried out slowly, with a sufficient degree of thoughtfulness and responsibility, and here is what can now be said about this:

1. Published three times (Moscow - 1963, 1986, 1990), the newest Russian translation of the Koran, made by academician I. Yu. Krachkovsky, suffers from numerous errors. A comparison of Krachkovsky's text with the Arabic original revealed 505 cases of incorrect translation of individual verses, 184 cases of direct violation of the meaning. There is the use of neologisms (108 cases), unacceptable in the language of a medieval book, and provincialisms (33 cases), contraindicated for serious translation. Noteworthy is the negligence, at times reaching the point of outright sloppiness: for example, the Arabic “jinn” is translated either as “jinns” (Sura 41, verse 29), or as “genius” (Sura 41, verse 24). The entire translation bears the stamp of haste, which prevented the academician from checking his knowledge in dictionaries with particular care when preparing such an important manuscript.

This is not the place to examine the reasons for the noted errors. It should only be said that I. Yu. Krachkovsky himself is at least to blame; He did not offer the manuscript of the translation he completed for publication; does it represent everything? just rough notes from an Arabist, made for himself in preparation for classes with students. Krachkovsky is known to have said that in order to prepare a translation of the Koran for publication, he needed a year and a half, free from any other work, which was impossible in his position as the head of Arabic studies for the entire country. The first publication of the translation took place after the death of the academician; this publication and subsequent reprints were carried out by other persons who neglected both scientific truth and the honor of the late scientist.

2. Krachkovsky's translation is a prose presentation of the Koranic text. But the Koran cannot be translated into prose - this kills the nature of the great Book, its very spirit. When the rhymed prose of the Koran is translated into ordinary prose, the brightness, expressiveness, and prominence of the Koranic speech decrease. It must be remembered that poetry permeates the entire Arabian worldview (even in the field of astronomy), Arabic poetic art created examples of world significance, therefore, the play of Koranic harmonies shimmering with different colors was close to the listeners of the passionate Meccan preacher, no matter how heterogeneous the composition of these people was. The fact that the revelations of the holy book are expressed in a poetic way made their way into the heart easier Arab people, partial to elegant, but also strict poetry.

The poetic appearance of the Koran corresponds to the high moral content of all 114 sermons (surahs). To a European, this content may sometimes seem monotonous. However, in reality, the main book of Islam is richly saturated with images, and on the other hand, the repetitions encountered are easily explained by the influx of ever new listeners, for whom it was necessary to say what was said earlier to others.

The Russian translation of the Koran should be a book of poetry. The richness of the Russian language allows us to fully develop the images and teachings of the Koran in this book, to present the whole world of Koranic thoughts in flexible, lively speech. Moreover, in the translation below, the main condition was the accurate transmission of the content of the sacred pages. Unfortunately, a major researcher of Arabic writing, I. Yu. Krachkovsky, always translated the poems he encountered into “good prose” (as he put it) and this was a mistake - the living verse turned into a dead tissue that could not awaken any feelings in a foreign-language reader.

3. Krachkovsky translated the Koran literally - without regard to grammar, structure of language and the spirit of the text, mechanically substituting its Russian meaning for each Arabic word. As a result, stillborn pages arose that do not give a true idea of the world-historical work, whose word has lived on for about fourteen centuries.

Now it is not worth cluttering the presentation with numerous examples of violation of the simplest laws of the Russian language, and sometimes even common sense - the reader can easily find such examples in all the mentioned editions of Krachkovsky’s “Koran” (in the preface to the latter (1990) it is specifically stated that the translation is reproduced without changes). In particular, “knowing”, “seeing”, “hearing” make a dismal impression - after all, students are also taught: the Arabic participle in such cases is translated into the Russian indicative mood “knows”, “sees”, “hears”. Students are also aware of the change in meaning conveyed by the particle “bi-” (“s”): not “came”, but “brought.” Krachkovsky does not take this into account - this is the requirement of literalism. The thoughtlessness of the translation is often striking: for example, in the 15th verse of the 19th sura there is “resurrected alive” (is it possible to resurrect the dead?), although this is a common Arabic intensifying phrase, the second word is not translated, but here it is (“alive” , in Arabic "haiyan") is used in the original only for rhyme.

The translation of biblical names in Arabic rather than Russian forms (“Musa”, “Harun”, “Ibrahim”, etc. - instead of “Moses”, “Aaron”, “Abraham”) destroys the historical connection of the Koran with previous creations of the prophetic thought of mankind . This abnormality present in Krachkovsky’s translation is accompanied by frequent (42 cases) Arabization of the Russian text common nouns: instead of finding the corresponding meaning in Russian (which sometimes requires a lot of effort, but always leads to a positive result), the translator, an eminent scientist, follows the line of least resistance - he simply rewrites the difficult-to-translate Arabic word in Russian letters into his text, without caring whether he will understand whether his reader. Alas, this is a common academic technique that reliably distances the average person from a full understanding of any eastern monument.

“A literal translation is not an exact translation,” wrote I. Yu. Krachkovsky’s teacher, Academician V. R. Rosen; Unfortunately, the student did not heed the wise words of his mentor. The entire Russian text of the Koran in Krachkovsky’s translation clearly shows that nothing can be translated literally: despite the fact that human languages have a lot in common (which is not always taken into account), the difference in structure sometimes turns out to be very significant.

Mistakes await everyone who works. Krachkovsky was a great worker of Arabic studies. The errors he made often cause great bewilderment - however, the translation, while it was only in manuscript, remained the personal work of its creator. When other people, without bothering themselves with word-by-word verification with the Arabic original according to the rules of historical and philological acribia, published an imperfect work three times, one gets the impression that this was done in interests far from science. At the same time, it is difficult to get rid of doubts about the sufficient scientific qualifications of the later editors of the publication. All this is all the more sad because the Koran is not an ordinary story, of which there are many now, but a one-of-a-kind revelation, the study of which is associated with special scientific and political responsibility.

In the following poetic translation of the Koran, all sermons (suras) were arranged not in descending order of magnitude, as usual, but according to the time of their pronunciation. This created a clear picture of the movement of Quranic thought - its emergence and consistent development. This edition preserves the established (traditional) order.

The Arabic letters that appear in front of the text of some surahs are transmitted, in contrast to Krachkovsky's translation, with the corresponding Russian letters.

This work does not reproduce the comments compiled by Krachkovsky for his translation; firstly, they are contained in the three named printed publications("Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Institute of Asian Peoples (Institute of Oriental Studies). The Koran, translation and comments by I. Yu. Krachkovsky." Moscow, 1963 (1st ed.), 1986 (2nd ed.), 1990 (3rd ed.) e ed.); secondly, these commentaries in their current form do not bring serious benefit to those wishing to understand such a complex book as the Koran. What we have here, strictly speaking, are the academician’s rough notes for himself. A careful translation can in itself serve as a reliable commentary , but besides this there is also an extensive literature of a more general nature.

On title page An ancient (Kazan, 1863) Arabic-Russian dictionary bears the seal of the previous owner of the book: “Anti-Muslim Department of the Orenburg D[ecological] Seminary.”

Since 1873, the Kazan Theological Academy published the “Missionary Anti-Muslim Collection,” which until 1917 comprised a series of several dozen volumes.

Life has trampled all this shameful derogation, anti-scientific intolerance towards other people's beliefs: Islam has become one of the world religions. The poetic translation of the Koran presented on the following pages aims to make this Book the property of the inner world of every person, regardless of his beliefs.

With this in mind, I express my gratitude to Sheikh-ul-Islam, the Grand Mufti. To the Chairman of the Central Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Russia and European CIS countries, Talgat Tadzhuddin, whose review of my translation made it possible to publish this translation.

I highly appreciate the attitude towards my work on the part of R. R. Serazetdinov. whose significant financial assistance made this publication possible.

I sincerely thank Doctor of Technical Sciences V. G. Enikeev, chief specialist-expert R. Kh. Telyashov, Honored Worker of Culture Russian Federation A.R. Saitbagin for their kind efforts that helped this book to be published.

T. A. Shumovsky, doctor of historical science

The translation was approved by Sheikh-ul Islam, Supreme Mufti, Chairman of the Central Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Russia and European CIS countries Talgat Tajuddin.

For the same purposes, the publication of the Koran and its translations was accompanied by the sticking on it of various kinds of missionary and similar “labels”, which distorted and belittled not only the doctrine set forth in it, but also the people in whose language it was written.

In Russia, the publication of translations of the Koran began in the 18th century. The earliest of them was made by P. Postnikov from the French translation by A. du Rie and printed by order of Peter I in St. Petersburg in 1716. Later, in 1787, with funds allocated by Catherine II, the Arabic text of the Koran, prepared and annotated by Mullah Osman-Ismail, was published in St. Petersburg.

After the “Catherine” edition, the Koran was printed in several cities of Russia, including Kazan and Bakhchisarai; These publications were partially distributed in the countries of the Near and Middle East. But even after this, work on translations of the Koran continued to meet resistance from Muslim spiritual circles.

The first Russian translation of the Koran, made directly from Arabic, caused especially a lot of controversy and objections. His translator was the already mentioned prominent orientalist G.S. Sablukov, who taught in Saratov and then became a professor at the Theological Academy in Kazan. This circumstance, as well as the Orthodox polemical moments contained in the first edition of “Notes on the Translation of the Koran” (1879; second edition - Kazan, 1898; subsequent editions of this work remained unfinished and were not printed), published after the Koran (1878), as and some other works by Sablukov naturally attracted attention to this publication. The polemical speeches of Islamic preachers were not hindered by the fact that Sablukov’s translation was largely based on Muslim interpretations Koran. This is what, from a scientific point of view, remains the most weak side translation [It should be noted that, working on the translation of the Koran for many years, G.S. Sablukov achieved overall significant positive results. At the same time, he himself did not consider his translation to be flawless in everything. The most convenient of the editions of Sablukov’s translation is the third (Kazan, 1907), where the Arabic text of the Koran is given in parallel. Simultaneously with Sablukov and also directly from Arabic, D.N. translated the Koran into Russian. Boguslavsky (1826-1893), but this translation remained unpublished. According to academician V.R. Rosen, Boguslavsky’s translation “is distinguished by great merits and in general is not inferior to Sablukov’s translation” (Krachkovsky I.Yu. Translation of the Koran by D.N. Boguslavsky. - Soviet Oriental Studies, 1945, page 3, p. 300). However, most of the passages in Boguslavsky’s translation, cited by Academician Krachkovsky as erroneous, turned out to be correctly translated by Sablukov. A similar conclusion arises when comparing Sablukov’s translation with the “errors” in Krachkovsky’s unfinished translation of the Koran, named in the article by M.-N. O. Osmanova "The merits of the Russian translation of the Koran, made by academician I.Yu. Krachkovsky." Monuments of the history and literature of the East. The period of feudalism. Articles and messages. M., 1986, p. 193-194. However, other opinions about this unfinished translation are also known, in particular by T.A. Shumovsky. in his book “By the Sea of Arabic Studies. Through the Memory Pages of Unpublished Documents” (M., 1975, pp. 143-144).].

“For seventy years,” wrote academician I.Yu. Krachkovsky in “Essays on the History of Russian Arabic Studies,” first published in 1950, Sablukov’s translation, of course, has become significantly outdated, his main focus on understanding the text according to the late Muslim tradition is hardly correct, but it has not been replaced by another, and this alone speaks of how much work Sablukov performed not only for his era" [Krachkovsky I.Yu. Selected works. M., 1958, vol. 5, p. 128.]. Until recently, this translation, taking into account its shortcomings, was also used by the authors of Oriental studies and many Soviet Islamic studies, including this one.

At the moment, probably exactly Quran in translation Dmitry Nikolaevich Boguslavsky is the most exclusive and expensive publication that can still be “freely” purchased. If, cost does not play a special role. When you read about General Boguslavsky, you involuntarily ask the question: do we have similar military generals now? Capable, if not fluent in oriental languages and translating such complex Books, then at least leaving behind memoirs like General Vasily Potto? Since I myself come from a military family, and had to come into contact many times with both generals of the Soviet era and the post-Soviet era, painful doubts about this gnaw at me. I think that an even greater exclusive compared to this collector's edition is the combative, truly comprehensively educated general.

Publisher: Oriental Literature, St. Petersburg Oriental Studies, 1995
Box, 576 pp.
ISBN 5-85803-045-9, 5-02-017497-1
Circulation: 100 copies.
Format: 70x100/16

Deluxe collector's edition.
Issued in an edition of one hundred copies, each of which has its own number.
Hand-bound in calfskin, gold and silver embossed, patterned edge; in a calfskin case with similar embossing, in the style of the 19th century editions. The book is printed on high-quality Finnish paper, in two colors.

This publication is the first publication of a translation of the Koran and commentaries on it, made by the famous Russian diplomat, orientalist and major military figure, General D. N. Boguslavsky (1826-1893).
The publication also includes appendices: comments by D. N. Boguslavsky on the French translation of A. B. Biberstein-Kazimirsky, an article by I. Yu. Krachkovsky “Translation of the Koran by D. N. Boguslavsky,” an article by A. N. Weyraukh “Russian diplomat D. N. Boguslavsky - author of the translation of the Koran" and indexes.
The design of this publication (artists - L. S. Erman and E. L. Erman, materials selected by E. A. Rezvan) in its main elements is related to the traditional design of Muslim editions of the Koran. The nature of the translation and the content of the attached articles were approved by the imam-khatib of the St. Petersburg Cathedral Mosque, Sheikh Ja'far Nasibullovich Ponchaev.

The first Russian translation of the Koran from Arabic, made by General D.N., was published in St. Petersburg. Boguslavsky in 1871. According to some scientists, it has special artistic value. Although the translation was completed in 1871, it was not published until 1995. The world-famous Arabist, academician I. Yu. Krachkovsky (whose translation of the Koran was published posthumously in 1963) considered the publication of this translation an important task of Oriental studies. Boguslavsky's Koran lay for a century in the archives of the Academy of Sciences, unclaimed and unrecognized, until the famous Koranist E. A. Rezvan took up the fate of the manuscript, who took on the enormous work of preparing archival materials for publication.
The publication was prepared for almost five years and was published under a double imprint: the publishing company "Oriental Literature" RAS (Moscow) and the Center "Petersburg Oriental Studies" (St. Petersburg). Two of the country's most authoritative oriental publishing houses teamed up to publish the first Russian translation of the Koran. The book was published in the form in which General Boguslavsky could have seen it.

In 1996, at the first St. Petersburg Book competition, the Quran, translated by General Boguslavsky, was awarded an honorary diploma “For a unique edition.” Every year, the international magazine "Manuscripta Orientalia" publishes a list of owners of this publication who wish to be mentioned as owners of this rarity.
The book was not put on public sale and was distributed among VIPs and on order to the world's largest book centers.

The publication is currently almost completely sold out.
Among the owners of the Koran:
No. 10 - President of Tatarstan Mintimer Shaimiev
No. 13 - Director of the State Hermitage M. B. Piotrovsky, as well as members State Duma, prominent politicians and businessmen.

Dmitry Nikolaevich Boguslavsky(1826-1893) - general. Graduate of the Faculty of Oriental Languages of St. Petersburg University. In 1862-1870 - dragoman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Since 1870 - in the Russian diplomatic service in Istanbul. At this time he is engaged in translations works of art from Arabic, Tajik, Turkish into French and Russian.

After his capture, Shamil was officially taken care of and accompanied everywhere by D.N. Boguslavsky. Judging by his track record, he was involved in secret military agents, knew the East well and spoke many languages. Boguslavsky was born in 1826, came from the nobility of the Nizhny Novgorod province and was brought up in an artillery school. In 1849, he took part in the suppression of the Hungarian uprising, and later in the defense of Sevastopol and the siege of the Silistria fortress on the Danube. In 1855, he already served on special assignments at the General Staff of the Southern Army, and then as a senior adjutant under the duty general of the General Staff of the Governor of the Caucasus. Here Boguslavsky made an amazing career. For the successful completion of special assignments in 1859, he was promoted from captain directly to colonel, managed to graduate from the Faculty of Oriental Languages at St. Petersburg University and in 1861 was assigned to the Asian Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Boguslavsky’s special assignments included his stay under Shamil.

The example of the Latin edition of the Koran from 1592 mentioned above shows how early Europe became interested in the holy Book of Islam. Of course, the experience of Panetius did not remain an isolated case; attempts to acquaint generations of Christians with the Muslim shrine multiplied, and modern times have witnessed the translation of Koranic revelations into a number of Western languages. As for Russia, the eighteenth century, the “age of empresses,” is represented by Russian reproductions of French translations, and it was such literature of questionable quality that served as the source of Pushkin’s “Imitations of the Koran.” However, in the next century, reproductions were replaced by direct translations from the Arabic original, made by G. S. Sablukov and, independently of him, D. N. Boguslavsky. The first of these figures, Chernyshevsky's teacher at the Saratov gymnasium, later became a professor at the Kazan Theological Academy; the second, the general, was known either as a Russian diplomat in Istanbul, or as a confidant of the St. Petersburg Court, assigned to the leader of the Caucasian resistance, Shamil, exiled to Kaluga. Sablukov's translation of the Koran is now significantly outdated. There are many inaccuracies and even major errors noted in Boguslavsky’s work. It mainly seeks to give an idea of how the Koran was understood in later Muslim circles, especially Turkish ones. But a translation that calls itself scientific must stand above personal assessments and prejudices; it must proceed from an impartial study of accumulated data.

It is necessary to touch upon the inaccuracies in the explanation of particular issues - such errors are observed in the Russian notes to the mentioned translation of the French (A. Masset) work on Islam. Turan in a geographical sense cannot be considered a “vague and vague” name: it represents a natural parallel to the designation Iran - “Aryans” and in this capacity the name Turan should be understood as “Turks”; for this purpose, the Persian plurality indicator must be highlighted in both names - en(ir- en, tour en). It goes on to say: “The Parthians are a people whose origin has not yet been clarified.”

However, the name of this people is associated with Arabic faras- “horse”, and this makes us see the Parthians as one of the Aryan tribes - after all, it was the Aryans who developed the culture of horse breeding to such an extent that the Persian asp- “horse” was the source of the equivalent Greek ipp-os and the name “Caspian”. The French author himself did not avoid certain mistakes. Such key words of Muslim reality as “Islam”, “Caliph”, “Amir Almuminin” were explained inaccurately by him; their correct understanding was discussed above. It should be added that the Arabic word surah, denoting each of the 114 sermons of the Koran, did not originally mean “revelation,” as Prof. A. Masse, which meant “a row in a stone wall” (see above). The name "Chingiz" is not "mysterious"; it is not related to Mongolian ching- “strong”, but rather with Turkic tan(g)ri- “supreme power, God” (Chuvash, tingir- “sky”), where, according to the law of Turkic phonogenesis, “p” is capable of turning into “z” (Turkish. Denise- “sea”, cf. Russian "knight" from Turkic, hero- “hero”; "k(o)nyaz"/"horse").

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