Zetterstéens koranöversättning i idéhistoriskt perspektiv

Abstract

The Swedish Qur’an translation by K. V. Zetterstéen from 1917 is here viewed from a historical perspective. The development of the study of »Oriental languages« at the Swedish universities in the 19th century relates to the intellectual milieu of writers and publishers of that time. This period also meant a change of language, from Latin to Swedish for university publications. The translation by Zetterstéen had a special context as a part of the program for religious studies promoted by Nathan Söderblom. The premises in the society and in the intellectual circles at that time were different from the situation for the translation (or rather Qur’an paraphrase) by the diplomat Mohammed Knut Bernström from 1998. The one by Zetterstéen was made for an audience of students and intellectuals in a rather homogeneous Swedish milieu. The readers of the Bernström version include a young public of Swedish Muslims living in a society much more secular than the one in 1917.