Muslim convert Mohammed
Marmaduke Pickthall, is relatively
faithful to the Arabic text, although
somewhat stilted in English. N. J.
Dawood’s The Koran, on the other
hand, is readable in English but a less
literal rendering of the Arabic. Muslims
tend to dislike it because Dawood was
not a Muslim. Muslims generally have
high regard for The Meaning of the
Holy Qur’an by Abdullah Yusuf Ali. It
is less readable in English than
Dawood’s translation, and contains
some quite tendentious readings of
several controversial verses, but it is
generally sound. As with the Bible, it is
best to refer to more than one translation
in order to make a serious study of the
text.
