Moscow: Druzhba Narodov Publishing House, 2004, 384 p.

It is obvious that A. A. Aliyev's book is devoted to an important and relevant topic today. Still relatively recently (in Soviet times) Only two translations of the Qur'an, by I. I. Krachkovsky and G. S. Sablukov, were available in Russian, but many new ones appeared in the 1990s and early 2000s. Understanding and analyzing the work of translators is not an easy task and, apparently, a matter for the future. The work of A. A. Aliyev is the first "pen test" on this path and is rather a popular science introduction to a complex and topical story. The author himself in the introduction formulates the main task of the book as follows:: "We will try to refute some of the existing stereotypes that are intended to present one of the most authoritative world religions as a failed, inconsistent, aggressive and anti-human creed" (p.11).

The first section of the book is devoted to the history of the emergence of Islam and the first Arab-Muslim conquests. The second one tells how the canonical text of the Qur'an was formed and how the process of collecting hadiths (stories about the life of the Prophet Muhammad) and compiling the Sunnah (a collection of information about the actions and sayings of Muhammad) went on. Both sections are well written and well-reasoned, with great knowledge of the case.

The author then proceeds to review the translations of the Qur'an into Russian, which can not but be considered very useful and timely. The first translation of the full text of the Qur'an into Russian, completed by D. N. Boguslavsky in 1871, is still practically inaccessible to researchers, since it was published in 1995 in St. Petersburg as an expensive gift edition, manufactured and sold only by individual orders.

The most famous translation of the Koran is still the translation of the largest Russian arabist I. I. Krachkovsky. As A. A. Aliyev notes, I. I. Krachkovsky worked on his translation for 30 years. It is obvious that in the 1930s and 1940s, when the scientist was mainly engaged in this field, he could not hope for the publication of his translation, so he used it as a working, applied material, not intended for printing. The translation by I. I. Krachkovsky was first published in 1963 and was reprinted in 1986 and 1990, not to mention later reprints of the post-Soviet period. A. A. Aliev is right to point out that in those years "Russian-speaking readers were forced to use the incomplete, unprocessed literary text, which has been preserved in a number of Russian-language sources. places the form of a subscript, devoid of a parallel Arabic text and a full-fledged commentary edition" (p. 123). At the same time, it is difficult to agree with the opinion of the modern translator of the Koran M.-N. O. Osmanov, with the approval of the quoted A. A. Osmanov. According to him, " the unfinished work of the academician extracted from the archive in full accordance with the general spirit of the "period of stagnation" served as a brake on further study of the most important monument of world culture - the Holy Scripture of Muslims" (p.123). On the contrary, the translation of I. I. Krachkovsky made it possible in Soviet times for a relatively wide range of readers, mainly specialists, to get acquainted with the Koran. The fact that this translation is primarily a footer indicates rather in favor of I. I. Krachkovsky, as it speaks about his conscientiousness and responsibility for each translated word. By the way, M.-N. O. Osmanov himself began working on his translation back in the 1980s as part of his research activities at the Institute of Oriental Studies in Moscow1.

Among the translations of the Koran published in recent years, A. A. Aliyev singles out the translation of the famous Arabic scholar Betsy Yakovlevna Shidfar (1928-1993). "She did not have time to publish it during her lifetime, and this work was first published in 2003" (p.125).

A number of Russian translations of the Qur'an have been made abroad in recent years. Of these, I would draw readers ' attention to the translation of G. Sadetsky, published in Columbus (USA) in 1997.-

¹ Interestingly, the translation of M.-N. O. Osmanov, who returned to Dagestan several years ago, was recently banned for public sale there by the decision of the Spiritual Board of Muslims of Dagestan.

page 208

Welcome to Ahmadiyya Anjuman Ishaat Islam Lahore ². G. Sadetsky's translation is provided with detailed and informative comments by the spiritual teacher of the Ahmadiyya Society, Maulana Muhammad Ali. As the publisher of this translation, Noman I. Malik, points out, it was carefully checked before publication using a special "reverse translation" method. A. A. Aliyev mistakenly indicates that the translation was published in London (p.125).

A separate section of the book, called "The Sophistry of ' Soviet Koranic Studies'", is devoted to propaganda publications designed in the spirit of official atheism, and not to the few scientific and academic studies published in those years. A. A. Aliev reveals the techniques used by authors of this type:" The 'methods' used were quite diverse. Often the authors made unsubstantiated conclusions about the "sins" of Islam. In other cases, they referred to the Qur'an and Sunnah, but did not provide the required excerpts in the hope that they would be taken at their word. When quotations from sacred texts for Muslims were made public, an objective examination revealed that they were either arbitrarily taken out of context, or false, or distorted, or deliberately misinterpreted" (p.138).

The last and largest section of the book is devoted to the Koran as an object of myth-making by representatives of Soviet-era atheism. Thus, A. A. Aliyev examines in detail what he calls one of the myths: "Islam sanctifies polygamy." However, it is impossible to refute this thesis, since it is quite obvious. The crux of the matter, however, is that Islam has restricted polygamy (no more than 4 wives) and abolished polyandry (polyandry), which was sometimes found in pre-Islamic Arabia. Islam allows polygamy rather than encourages it, as a prominent Soviet-era Arabist Ye. A. Belyaev pointed out, referring to the verse of the Koran as confirmation: "But if you are afraid that you will be unjust ,then [marry] one..." (Koran, 4; 3). In this sense, A. A. Aliyev rightly quotes the opinion of the prominent Muslim theologian Daryabardi: "Monogamy is an ideal: polygamy is allowed to prevent social unrest. These oft-cited marriage regulations are intended not to spread polygamy, but to limit it" (p. 288).

Another myth that the author focuses on is formulated as follows:"Jihad is the personification of the aggressiveness of Islam." Of course, a number of Quranic texts taken out of context allow us to come to such a conclusion, which is demonstrated quite convincingly by A. A. Aliyev. At the same time, an analysis of the relevant texts in full (for example, 4, 91-93) shows that "active actions of Muslims against munafiks (hypocrites) and apostates are stipulated here with so many" ifs "that the very possibility of reckless "physical violence" against them does not look so obvious" (p. 336). It is difficult to disagree with the author's final conclusion that "the precepts of the Qur'an and the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad, if viewed with an open mind, do not give any reason to present Islam as a religion of violence and terror" (p.355).

In conclusion, I would like to emphasize that the author managed to write a useful and informative introduction to the study of Qur'anic studies in Russia, analyze translations of individual Qur'anic texts into Russian and compare them with the principled approaches of modern Muslim theologians.

² Ahmadiyya Anjuman Ishaat Islam Society Lahore is a religious community founded by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1839-1908), who sees him as a reformer (mujaddid) of Islam. From the very beginning of its activity, the society was actively engaged in proselytizing Islam, while adhering to liberal views in its understanding. In the first half of the XX century. it took an active part in the struggle of Indian Muslims against the British colonialists.

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