By now there are numerous translations of the Koran available in English.
The renderings of Koranic passages given in this book are based on the
translation of A. J. Arberry, though I have freely modified it when it seemed
appropriate to do so ( The Koran interpreted. London 1964; note that the
system of verse-numbering used by Arberry differs from that of the
Egyptian Koran, which I have used in this book). Another translation which
is often used is that of Abdallah Yusuf Ali, which comes with an Arabic text
and a commentary ( The Holy Qur-an: text, translation & commentary.
Lahore 1938; a revised version published in the United States in 1991 is
entitled The meaning of the Holy Qur'ān). One thing these two translators
had in common was that each found solace in translating the Koran at a
time of acute personal distress. They differ in that Yusuf Ali, unlike Arberry,
wanted to make English itself an Islamic language', an ambition that
seemed more extravagant then than it does now.

As we have seen, the Koran is -- among other things -- an icon. There are
two things you can do to get a sense of this without knowing a word of
Arabic. The first is to go to see the icon. Large museums often possess fine
manuscript Korans or old fragments; for example, you may well find the

-149-