Description

This is an exceedingly rare second translation of the Quran to Armenian, which followed Abraham Amirkhanyan’s first translation from Persian, first issued in 1909 in Varna. Amirkhanyan was an Armenian Evangelical Baptist pastor, who also translated Bible to Uzbek and Turkmen.

It is the first translation of the Quran to be published in Istanbul. The translator Levon Larents based his text on a French version of the Quran, made by Claude-Étienne Savary (1750 – 1788) and corrected by Albert Kazimirski de Biberstein (1808-1887).

Levon Larents (Kirisciyan) (Լևոն Լարենց (Քիրիշճյան), 1875–1915), was an Armenian editor, translator and writer, born in today’s Turkey. In 1905, he moved to the United States, where he edited an Armenian newspaper Tsayn Hayreneats (Voice of the Fatherland). Larents returned to Istanbul in 1908 continuing working as a translator and editor. The translation of the Quran to Armenian from that period is one of his greatest achievements. Levon Larents, who made this great step of approaching the Islam to the Armenian population, was sadly murdered in 1915 by the Ottoman authorities in Ankara.

The book is extremely rare and we could not find any institutional examples in the Western libraries. Columbia University holds a microfilm (OCLC 15120621). An example is held at the National Library of Armenia. We could not find any examples in Turkish libraries.