AN INTERPRETATION OF THE QUR'AN: English Translation of the Meanings

This bilingual edition of the Qur'an features a modern English translation alongside the traditional Arabic text, with apparatus such as headings, verse numbers and surah divisions in both languages. (The 856—count 'em—explanatory footnotes are all in English.) Fakhry, an emeritus professor of philosophy at the American University of Beirut, offers a very brief introduction in which he sketches out the differences between the Meccan and Medinan surahs, discusses the history of Qur'anic oral and written transmission, and remarks upon Muslim relations with Jews and Christians, or "People of the Book." The translation seeks to express the meaning of the original Arabic in "simple, readable English idiom," and for the most part, it succeeds. (Nov.)