The Slavic Qur’an Translation of the 16th–18th Centuries: Poland and Russia

This paper aims to continue and develop the research cycle on history of Qur’an translations in Europe. The paper deals with rethinking of possible background of Russian Qur’an translations, commonly traced back up to the first half of the 19th century. Ca. 1800 the tradition of Qur’an translating in Russia was already rich and varied in its scientific, literary and religious contexts. However, its origin could be found in the earlier similar tradition of Lithuanian Tatars, which was developed at least from the 16th century in intellectual space of the three states, namely Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Rzeczpospolita and Tsardom of Russia. This Muslim ethnocultural group shaped their own Qur’an translation school in the West Russian (Ruthenian, Old Belorusian) language closely related to modern Russian.