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POPULAR
COMMENTARIES AND TRANSLATIONS |
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Assoc.
Prof. Dr. Erdošan PAZARBAŽI |
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Turks, following the first period of their conversion to Islam, Turks began to translate the source of their religion, the Quran into their native language and Azerbaijani scholars participated in this effort. Before the Russian conquest of Azerbaijan, Azerbaijani scholars used to follow Ottoman commentators' style in their translations and commentaries. After Russian invasion, because of difficult living conditions and oppression, they were not able to produce any valuable work. Meantime, rich Russian sources, which cannot be described as objective, were the only sources from which to learn their religion. As a result of this, one can find only translations of the Quran into Russian from western languages, especially French, bearing no reference to the original text. They were not reliable translations. Among the Russian translations only two were made directly from the Quran in its Arabic form and can be considered as trustworthy. One of them was the translation of the famous Russian orientalist G. S. Sablukov, and the second was that of I. Y. Krackowski. Two commentaries of two Azerbaijani authors written in their native languages before the invasion of Russia exist. These two works were published and are important in showing the degree of progress in their times. They are: Mir Muhammed Kerim Aga's Kesfu'l-Hakāyik an Nuketi'l-Ayati ve'd-Dekayik, and Muhammed Hasan Mevlāzāde Sekevī's, Kitabu'l-Beyan fi Tefsiri'l-Kur'an. After Azerbaijan's independence, some efforts were made to translate the Quran into Azerbaijani language. We can mention Ziya Bunyadow and Vasim Memmedaliyev's joint work as an example. This was published in 1992 in Baku and in 1997 in Ankara and filled a gap in the field. More works are expected.
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