Mykhailo YAKUBOVYCH: “I focused on the meanings that this book brings to the mankind”

Recently, a complete translation of the Quran meanings from Arabic to Ukrainian was published. The translation was carried out by Mykhailo Yakubovych, Ph.D. in History, senior lecturer at the religious studies department, National University “Ostroh Academy.” Moreover, the book was printed at the King Fahd Center (Medina) and became the first Ukrainian book in Saudi Arabia. Yakubovych told The Day about the significance of this event in Ukrainian scientific space, the peculiarities of translating, and prospects of cooperation with the Arabic East.

The electronic version of your translation of Quran has been available at the King Fahd Center website since the end of last year. And now a printed version appeared. What are the consequences of this event in the development of oriental studies in Ukraine?

“First of all, I would like to say that preparations for this publication have been going on for a long time. The translation itself took five years. Back in 2010, a special committee of the Center approved the text for printing, and an additional check, proofreading, layout, and other technical aspects required three more years. And finally, Ukrainian readers have an opportunity to comprehend the meanings of the Glorious Quran in their native language, in both electronic and printed versions. It is symbolic that the translation appeared at this time. Very few people know about this, but from the perspective of Ukraine’s acquaintance with the Islamic East, this is the anniversary year: one hundred years ago, in 1913, work on the first translation of the Quran into Ukrainian began in Lviv. However, it was translated from German, and not from Arabic. This work was done by Lviv polyglot Oleksandr Abranchak-Lysenetsky, but he could not publish it. I had an honor to hold this unique manuscript, which is now preserved at the Lviv National Scientific Library. Partial translations of the Quran meanings from Arabic and full translation from Russian appeared at the end of the 20th century. I hope that my own translation from Arabic with consideration of the classic Muslim commentaries will not only complement these works, but also become a new impulse towards the study of Islam in Ukraine and revive the interest towards comprehension of the deep origins of the humankind’s spirituality.”

Translation of sacred books is hard work. The discussions that are often sparkled by the final version of the Bible translations into Ukrainian are a vivid example of that. What methods did you use while translating the Quran to avoid ambiguity? Which part was the hardest in such work?

“The hardest part was to create a Muslim confessional style of Ukrainian language. The problem is that we have very few translations from Arabic, and I had to overcome plenty of difficulties by myself, since I had too small a base to proceed from. According to one Muslim philosopher, the Quran is an endless ocean of meanings, and no single translation will be able to reflect them all. I often hear an opinion that there should be some ‘canonical’ translation of the Quran, and I absolutely disagree with this. Quran is not only an Arabic original, this text is of an exceptional religious and legal importance. Translation of meanings is just work done by a translator, be it better or worse, but nothing more: this is a human copy of a sacred text, but not the sacred text as it is. That is why translation cannot be viewed as an attempt to ‘replace’ the original. Moreover, Islam does not imply the existence of a centralized institution similar to the Church in Christianity, therefore, there can be no single ‘absolutely correct’ or ‘absolutely approved’ translation. The more translations there are, the better. I would like to remind that there are over 20 translations of the Quran in the Russian language, 3 in Czech, 5 in Polish, 2 in Slovakian (and that in a country with only a few thousands of Muslims!). Some translators try to portray the pearls of Quran style, others focus on artistic features, while still others try to include as many commentaries as possible and let the reader immerse into the culture of the Middle East. In my translation, I primarily focused on the specific features of the Quranic teachings and the meanings this book brings to the mankind. Since sacral texts are not to be read just for fun, this is an appeal to a person, an insistent address, which requires us to take action, realize where we are going, what we do and what we live for. So, readers will be able to comprehend these things even in translation.”

It is known that the translation of the Quran will be distributed for free as a donation from King Abdullah bin Abd al-Aziz Al Saud to Ukrainian readers. For how long have you been cooperating with Saudi Arabian scholars and how did you manage to establish such friendly relations? For, at a first glance, there are few things that connect Ukraine and Saudi Arabia.

“Actually, there are not that many things that separate us. Historical facts include numerous examples of people of Ukrainian origin holding important state posts in Mecca and Medina during the Ottoman Empire, when the southern part of Ukraine and some of Arabia basically were parts of one state. Of course, modern relations started much later, during the independence era. In particular, there relations have cultural and religious dimensions: every year Ukrainian pilgrims visit Mecca and Medina, Ukrainian students study at Saudi universities, including those majoring in religious studies. Saudi scholars are interested in matters of intercultural cooperation in Ukraine and Eastern Europe in particular, that is why this interest in translating into Ukrainian is not accidental. I have visited Saudi Arabia many times, I have participated in international conferences, and I notice that this interest is growing every year. Moreover, thanks to large investments, during the last decades Saudi scientific and educational institutions became leaders in the Arabic world. I think that this academic cooperation will be even more fruitful and of interest to Ukrainians and Arabs.”

You lead the Center for Translations from Sacred Languages at the Ostroh Academy. This center specializes in study of the Arabic East and its importance in the development of Ukrainian philosophy in particular. Did the Ostroh Academy scholars of the 16th-17th centuries carry out any Arabic studies?

“The Ostroh Academy was a unique educational institution in the 16th-17th centuries. First of all, thanks to the breadth of interests and diversity of views which has always united us with universities of other European countries. Back in the Soviet time, outstanding Arabic scholar Ihnatii Krachkovsky drew attention to the polemical treatise by the medieval Greek philosopher Theodore Abu-Qurrah. According to the sources, one of the Ostroh Academy students ‘went to Arabia,’ probably to Syria or Palestine, which have been visited by Ukrainian pilgrims long since, in order to obtain the original version of that treatise. A Slavic translation of the book, which contained polemics between Orthodoxy and Islam, appeared in Ostroh in 1611 (by the way, it was the second translation in Europe, appearing after the Latin one, published in the German city of Ingolstadt in 1605). Of course, this interest in Islam was of polemic and critical nature. But in the conditions of the 17th century confrontations, there was no other way. It is interesting that Ostroh scribes Vasyl Surazky and Ivan Vyshensky set off Islamic world against the Western one and believed that it was easier for Orthodoxy to coexist with Islam than with Catholicism. The famous natural philosopher Jan Latosz, whose first observations in Ukraine were carried out in Ostroh, actively used Arabic works of Oriental scientists in his research.”

What new scientific achievements are you planning to surprise us with soon?

“Among other things, I hope to complete a research dedicated to the development of Islamic religious and philosophical thought in Ukraine during the Golden Horde and the Crimean Khanate. I have been working on several dozens of manuscripts created by Crimean authors, which are now preserved in libraries of Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and other countries. Some of them have been studied before. Also, I am interested in translations of the Quran meanings into other Slavic languages, and there are over 50 of them now. This is a large and interesting layer of religious and national culture of Eastern Europe. Can you imagine that, for example, the only ethnic group who continuously preserved Belarusian written language since the 16th century were Muslim Tatars. They wrote down their religious texts in the Belarusian language, but in the Arabic script. In fact, it was them who created the first translation of the Quran meanings into Polish, with Belarusian and even Ukrainian mixed into it in the 17th century. As a result, all this research must show the real significance of connections between the Ukrainian lands and our close and faraway Muslim neighbors.”