Historical Background of Quranic Translation into Bengali in Various Ages: Hindrances and Solutions

Abstract

Islam started its journey to enter into the Indian Sub-continent including Bengal through the sea route within one hundred years of its advent in Arabia, while through the land route, it began with the conquest of the Sind by Muhammad Bin Qasim in 712 A.D. From that time, the translation of the Holy Quran has been started vocally besides the spread of Islam into Bengali language. There was no remarkable written works and contributions on the Holy Quran in Bengali until before the 19^th century. Behind this, there were enough social and religious obstacles and sightlessness. Though, from 12^th to 18^th century, we have seen a good number of literary contributions about the religion of Islam in Bengali language, but we could not see the translation and
explanation of the Quran directly in Bengali except some Surahs or parts of the Quran. The reason may be the lack of awareness about the Muslim culture, dearth of education in the Muslim society of Bengal and the remaining superstitions in the contemporary Muslim society of India. Later, at the end of the 19^th century, one of the Hindu scholars took initiative to translate the whole Quran at first; immediately, the Muslim scholars took initiative to render the whole Quran. Though before such initiatives, many Muslim scholars translated the verses of the Quran partly as poetry or lyrics. This translation brought a positive and a revolutionary change in the Bengali Muslim community and it had a far-reaching impact on the education of the Muslims in Bengal. In fact, the Bengali Muslims have started to get the original understanding of the Quran through their mother tongue after about 1000 years of the advent of Islam in the Sub-Continent.

In this paper, the research focuses on how written translation of the Holy Quran has been started in Bengali and who have contributed much in the field.