THE QURAN

A weird and totally unacceptable practice in the field of English translation of the Qur’an by some people is blatant plagiarism. Their plagiarism consists in lifting an earlier translation word-for-word and passing it off as their own, new and rather original contribution to the field. Out of around 100 translations that I have scrutinized, the following belong to this category:

1. Majestic Quran (2000) by the Translation Committee consists of big chunks of material taken without any acknowledgment from M. M. Pickthall (1930) and Abdullah Yusuf Ali (1934–1937).

2. Syed Vickar Ahamed’s translation (2005) is regrettably an instance of plagiarism in that it draws heavily, rather word for word, on Abdullah Yusuf Ali’s (1934–1937).

3. Leila Bakhtiar (2007) has borrowed material from A. J. Arberry’s The Koran Interpreted (1995).

4. M. Sharif Chaudhary’s (2010) is based largely on Pickthall’s translation (1930).

5. Peachy and Johani’s work (2012) is derived, once again, from Pickthall’s.

6. Jibouri’s (2014) betrays the translator’s borrowings from Abdullah Yusuf Ali (1934–37).

The latest addition to this reprehensible category is the translation under review which is a word-by-word copy of Ali Quli Qarai’s The Quran (London, ICAS, 2004). Only two passages are cited as proof.