Islam in Zion? Yosef Yo’el Rivlin’s Translation of the Qur’an and Its Place Within the New Hebrew Culture
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Hanan Harif
Abstract
This article addresses the Hebrew translation of the Qur’an – an exceptional philological and cultural project – in the context of the Hebrew culture of Mandatory Palestine. It examines this project through the figure of the translator, Yosef Yo’el Rivlin, and the various circles within which he operated: the “Jerusalemite Group” of native Jewish intellectuals, the milieu of Oriental Studies in Frankfurt, the Zionist “Kinnus Project,” and the recently-founded Hebrew University. The article scrutinizes the different cultural, social and political trends that lay at the core of this unique project as well as the political and cultural meanings it bore for Rivlin and his colleagues at the Dvir publishing house – first and foremost among them H.N. Bialik, who lent a hand in editing the translation. The article contributes to the understanding of Oriental research in Mandatory Palestine and abroad, and of the development of Jewish national culture in Mandatory Palestine.
Acknowledgments
I would like to give special thanks to Jonathan Gribetz, who read an early version of this paper and gave valuable comments.
© 2016 by De Gruyter
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Josef Horovitz und die Gründung des Instituts für Arabische und Islamische Studien an der Hebräischen Universität in Jerusalem: ein Orientalisches Seminar für Palästina
- Islam in Zion? Yosef Yo’el Rivlin’s Translation of the Qur’an and Its Place Within the New Hebrew Culture
- German Orientalism, Arabic Grammar and the Jewish Education System: The Origins and Effect of Martin Plessner’s “Theory of Arabic Grammar”
- A Man of Contention: Martin Plessner (1900–1973) and His Encounters with the Orient
- Other Contributions
- “Going together without coming together”: “Die Kreatur” (1926–1929) and Why We Should Read German Jewish Journals Differently
- A German Island in Israel: Lea Goldberg and Tuvia Rübner’s Republic of Letters
- The Correspondence between Lea Goldberg and Tuvia Rübner: Selected Letters
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Josef Horovitz und die Gründung des Instituts für Arabische und Islamische Studien an der Hebräischen Universität in Jerusalem: ein Orientalisches Seminar für Palästina
- Islam in Zion? Yosef Yo’el Rivlin’s Translation of the Qur’an and Its Place Within the New Hebrew Culture
- German Orientalism, Arabic Grammar and the Jewish Education System: The Origins and Effect of Martin Plessner’s “Theory of Arabic Grammar”
- A Man of Contention: Martin Plessner (1900–1973) and His Encounters with the Orient
- Other Contributions
- “Going together without coming together”: “Die Kreatur” (1926–1929) and Why We Should Read German Jewish Journals Differently
- A German Island in Israel: Lea Goldberg and Tuvia Rübner’s Republic of Letters
- The Correspondence between Lea Goldberg and Tuvia Rübner: Selected Letters
