A Classification Trial on Contemporary Turkish Qur’an Translations

Today, people’s interest in the Qur’an is directly reflected in the number of the Qur’an’s translation that are being done. Further, in addition to the existing Turkish translations of the Qur’an, more of the genre are being done regularly. Some of the Qur’an translators refer to auxiliary elements, such as explanations, footnotes, a dictionary, or parentheses, to better convey the Qur’an’s message, while others prepare translations as per the order or subjects. A translation of the Qur’an is influenced by the others in the same genre; however, innovative translations attract the reader’s attention, and some translations might be regarded as a source for the subsequent ones. From the perspective of Turkey, the following are the various reasons behind the translations of the Qur’an gaining momentum: (1) The nationalism movement has led to an increase in the number of translations. (2) The Qur’an is not an exclusive right of language experts; everyone has the right to access and understand it. Hence, there has been an increase in the translated numbers. Further, all Muslims should understand the principles laid out in the Qur’an. (3) Orientalists are playing a major role in distribution of Turkish Gospels. Hence, a change in the readers’ profiles and expectations from the Qu’ran are important factors leading to an increase in the diversification of the number in the Qur’an’s translations. Since the 2000s, regarding the Qur’an translations has been arisen and it played an important role in its diversity as well. Thus, many translators of the Qur’an refer to their readers in their books’ preface. It seems that popular considerations are among the influential factors for style preferences regarding the Qur’an translation. Likewise, popular contemporary ideological movements feature the meanings of specific Quran’s ayahs (verses). The Qurʹan translations were not only regarded as mere translations but also referred as teaching tools. Therefore, we can conclude the following: (1) the word meanings aim to teach the Qur’an’s readers its literal meaning, (2) the subject meanings aim to indicate the Qur’an’s content (3) the textless meanings aim to ensure a constant communication with the Qur’an without worrying about ablution, and (4) the explanatory meanings aim to transmit the message of the Qur’an in a more explicatory method. Qur’an translations prepared according to the descending order began in the 1990s. One of the first examples of this is the interpretation of Elmalılı, prepared by Mesut Okumuş. First thematic translation in Turkish was published in 1950 by Ömer Fevzi Mardin. The most popular work in this area is by Ömer Özsoy and Ilhami Guler, published in 1996. One of the first verse Qur’an translations covering the entire Qurʹan was written by Bedri Noyan Dedebaba (1912–1997) in 1973, but it was published in 1996. According to our findings, Besim Atalay (1882–1965) was one of the first Qur’an translators to add a dictionary, published in 1962, to better understand the old Turkish words. The most famous example of the non‐parenthesis Qur’an translation is that by Yasar Nuri Öztürk. The work prepared by Hüseyin Atay and Yasar Kutluay by the Presidency of the Religious Affairs and published in 1961 is the first product out of the cooperation of the Presidency of Religious Affairs and the Divinity. Another type of Quran translation is that from foreign languages, which has contributed to the increase in the number of techniques among the translators in Turkey. For example, Mevdûdîʹs translations of the meaning of the entire sentence into the target language as a whole has led to the translation of its many verses into passages, and this approach has influenced the writers of the meal such as Mustafa Öztürk. One of the common Qur’an translations is a simplified one: the Qur’an translation of the Elmalılı. If simplifying the Qur’an translation of the Elmalılı that is independent of its interpretation, this was first published by Eser Neşriyat in 1982. The fact that this work was registered by the Grand National Assembly is one of the reasons for its widespread use of the Elmalılı Qur’an translation in the market, and is accepted by many scholars and publishers because of the abolition of royalties in 1992. Current Turkish Qur’an translations are both numerous and diverse. One of the ways in which you can benefit from these Qur’an translations is to recognize and classify them using their main lines. Thus, based on the qualifications that the authors used in their works, the Qur’an translations in Turkey are divided into the following categories— narrative reason, clarity, lexical order, without brackets, or simplified. In addition, Turkish Qur’an translations contain important data in terms of showing the course of change of Turkısh, and political, military, social and cultural attitudes in Turkey. It is therefore useful to classify existing Qur’an translations to see all of them in a compact form. This article attempts to classify today’s Turkish Qur’an translations according to their common characteristics. However, the classification we used has some deficiencies; further, it has some aspects open to objection.