This book offers the first comprehensive exploration of Qur'an translations across the diverse landscapes of the former Eastern Bloc, from Uzbekistan to the German Democratic Republic. With a focus on how Islamic texts have been shaped by state policies, ideological shifts, and religious identities, it traces connections between these regions and the wider world, including Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and China. This volume draws on perspectives from both Sunni and Shia traditions, as well as contributions by non-Muslim scholars. Through archival research and close textual analysis, the contributors demonstrate how translations of the Qur'an have served not only as religious texts but also as reflections of profound transformations in national and religious identities in communist and post-communist societies.
Qur'an translations have gained prominence within the modern Muslim publishing world, and their analysis reveals a dynamic interplay between local politics and global Islamic discourse. They have become symbols of religious resurgence, cultural renewal, and intellectual exchange-but also objects of persecution and contestation. Based on multilingual sources, this collection is an essential resource for understanding Qur'an translations as a significant scholarly and cultural phenomenon in the modern era.
Kulieva, Elvira: - Elvira Kulieva is a PhD candidate at the University of Freiburg. She works as a research fellow at the Global Qur'an Project, where she is focusing on modern Qur'an translations produced by diverse Muslim communities following the dissolution of the USSR. Previously, she conducted research on contemporary Sufism. She has published several articles.
Pink, Johanna: - "Johanna Pink is Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Freiburg, Germany. Her main fields of interest are the transregional history of tafsīr in the modern period, and Qur'an translations, with a particular focus on transregional dynamics. She is the Principal Investigator of the research project "GloQur - The Global Qur'an" and general editor of the Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān Online. Her most recent monograph is entitled Muslim Qur'ānic Interpretation Today (Sheffield: Equinox, 2019)."
Yakubovych, Mykhaylo: - Mykhaylo Yakubovych obtained his PhD in 2011 from The National University of Ostroh Academy with a study on interreligous relations in medieval Sunni traditionalism. Currently a member of the research team on the ERC-funded project 'GloQur-The Global Qur'an' (University of Freiburg, Germany), he studies Qur'an translations produced by international institutions and publishers, with a focus on Central Asian and Eastern European languages. He is the author of an annotated translation of the Qur'an into Ukrainian (first published in 2013), along with several books and translations from Arabic, and many research articles published in academic journals from the UK, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Australia. Yakubovych has conducted several academic projects on the Islamic manuscript heritage, including the post-classical intellectual history of the Crimean Khanate (at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University, USA) and sixteenth-seventeenth century Qur'an interpretations produced by Lithuanian Tatars (at Nicolaus Copernicus University, Poland). Her most recent monograph is entitled The Kingdom and the Qur'an: Translating the Holy Book of Islam in Saudi Arabia (Cambridge: Open Book Publishers, 2024).
