The Koran (Everyman's Library)

Features

• Cover Type: Hard Cover with 724 pages
• Published by: Everyman's Library January 11, 1993
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0679417362
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0679417361
• Book Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 1.7 inches
• Weighs: 1.6 pounds

Product Description
(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed)

While in the service of India’s Nizam of Hyderabad, Marmaduke Pickthall converted to Islam and, with the help of Muslim theologians and linguists, produced this clear and lovingly precise English interpretation of the Holy Koran. His work is honored by believer and non-believer alike for its unique combination of piety, scholarly rigor in its translation and explanatory notes, and deep feeling for the poetic beauty and moral grandeur of its Arabic original.

With an Introduction by William Montgomery Watt

Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Arabic

Reader Reviews
I was very much dissapointed by the Koran. I had heard much about it and as one of the most important religious scriptures of the world, I decided that it was something that I should read first-hand. Since I don't know classical Arabic, I thought the best that I could do was to get a translation made by a practicing Muslim, rather than a scholar who would (perhaps unintentionally) distort the faith or give only an academician's point of view. most of what I have heard about Islam was very negative and so I tried to keep an open mind while reading this book. Still, I was much disappointed. I found the book to have very little subtlety in it. It seems to be a very simple, direct, tribal-oriented tome that will undobubtedly aid one in understanding Arabian culture to a substantial degree, but which all the same, will probably do little to help anyone understand life or their place in it. It has often been said that when Christianity and Islam encounter one another, the majority of the people tend to gravitate toward Islam. I can see why this is true -- the theology is much simpler than the muddled trinitarianism of the Bible and the means of expression is much more direct and less confusing than the Hebrew writings, but even so, this book seems to show the route to a completely external faith -- one where obedience and submission is much more imprortant than understanding. The morality that the book encourages was an improvement over the traditional Arabian morality (pre-Muslim era), but it is abysmal for a modern human being. Although Islam raised the status of women when it was first conceived of by Mohammed, a following of this book today gives one an excuse for discrimination and even violence. I once thought that the talk of jihad was all just anti-Muslim propaganda, but this book seems much like the Bible in that it shows a petty, vengeful little god who rather than uplifiting humanity, simply keeps it down in a deep ravine. If you have an open mind, Islam as Pickthall conceives it is not for you. The "Conference of the Birds" is a much better treatise in every way.