AhlulBayt News Agency: Valeria Porokhova has offered one of the most famous, and according to Russian and Al-Azhar Islamic centers, one of the best Quran translations in the Russian language.
Valeria (Iman) Porokhova was a Russian writer, translator, and Muslim convert who was born on May 14, 1940.
She was born to a Christian family. She studied at Moscow University and read several Russian renderings of the Holy Quran in the meantime. Referring to the feeling that she had after reading the holy text, she said: “I felt that I was a Muslim in my life. When I read the Quran, I received answers to many of the questions that I had in my life although I knew nothing about Islam.”
Marrying a Syrian Muslim scholar who chaired a Russian Islamic center, Valeria converted to Islam and choose the name of Iman (faith) for herself.
In 1981 she moved to Damascus and with the help of her husband and a group of Syrian scholars, she managed to translate the Quran into Russian in 1991. She submitted his work to Al-Azhar. Gad al-Haq Ali Gad al-Haq, then grand Imam of the prestigious Egyptian center, established a committee comprised of Russian and Arab experts to review the translation. The committee lauded the quality of the work and Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, former President of the United Arab Emirates, ordered to publish 25,000 copies of the translation.
Porokhova focused on the deep meaning and concepts of the Quran. A reader in Amazon has described the work as an elegant poetical translation of the Koran which carefully preserves its beauty and solemnity and adequately conveys the stylistics and the meanings of the text, as well as its cultural context.
Porokhova’s rendering won Russia’s book of the year award in 1998. According to prominent Russian authors and translators, the work had a major role in introducing the Quran to the Russian people.
She passed away on September 2, 2019, at the age of 79.
Mikhailo Yaqubovic, translator of the Quran in the Ukrainian language, praised Porokhova’s work, writing on his Facebook page: “Porokhova’s translation was like a spark of fire which ignited the interest to the Quran in all Russian regions after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Iman Porokhova was a role model for many people and was the only woman who translated the Quran into Slavic language.”
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Valeria (Iman) Porokhova was a Russian writer, translator, and Muslim convert who was born on May 14, 1940.
She was born to a Christian family. She studied at Moscow University and read several Russian renderings of the Holy Quran in the meantime. Referring to the feeling that she had after reading the holy text, she said: “I felt that I was a Muslim in my life. When I read the Quran, I received answers to many of the questions that I had in my life although I knew nothing about Islam.”
Marrying a Syrian Muslim scholar who chaired a Russian Islamic center, Valeria converted to Islam and choose the name of Iman (faith) for herself.
In 1981 she moved to Damascus and with the help of her husband and a group of Syrian scholars, she managed to translate the Quran into Russian in 1991. She submitted his work to Al-Azhar. Gad al-Haq Ali Gad al-Haq, then grand Imam of the prestigious Egyptian center, established a committee comprised of Russian and Arab experts to review the translation. The committee lauded the quality of the work and Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, former President of the United Arab Emirates, ordered to publish 25,000 copies of the translation.
Porokhova focused on the deep meaning and concepts of the Quran. A reader in Amazon has described the work as an elegant poetical translation of the Koran which carefully preserves its beauty and solemnity and adequately conveys the stylistics and the meanings of the text, as well as its cultural context.
Porokhova’s rendering won Russia’s book of the year award in 1998. According to prominent Russian authors and translators, the work had a major role in introducing the Quran to the Russian people.
She passed away on September 2, 2019, at the age of 79.
Mikhailo Yaqubovic, translator of the Quran in the Ukrainian language, praised Porokhova’s work, writing on his Facebook page: “Porokhova’s translation was like a spark of fire which ignited the interest to the Quran in all Russian regions after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Iman Porokhova was a role model for many people and was the only woman who translated the Quran into Slavic language.”
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