Edycja tefsiru Tatarów Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego – z problematyki transkrypcji i transliteracji

Abstract

The object of research involves the tefsirs of the Tatars of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (henceforth abbreviated as GDL), which are known in the world of Islam as commentaries on the Quran (from the Arabic tafsīr), and which are known to the Tatars of the GDL as comprehensive manuscripts, which contain the complete text of the Quran, with a sublinear translation into Polish, supplemented with an exegetical layer. This is probably the third translation of the Quran – after the Latin and the Italian translation (based on the former) – into a European language, and at the same time it is the earliest – the first translation of this book into a Slavic language, or more precisely, into the north borderland variety of the Polish language. The article presents the most important research problems associated with the preparation of a critical edition of this manuscript which is unique in the world. Work associated with the preparation of an edition of a Tatar translation of the holy book of Islam was engaged by an international interdisciplinary Team of researchers within the framework of a research grant of the National Programme for the Development of Humanities [pl. Narodowy Program Rozwoju Humanistyki], entitled “Tefsir – the project devoted to philological and historical treatment and the preparation of a critical edition of the so-called tefsir of the Tatars of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from the second half of the 16th century (the first translation of the Quran into Polish” [pl. “Tefsir – projekt filologicznohistorycznego opracowania oraz krytycznego wydania tzw. tefsiru Tatarów Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego z 2. połowy XVI w. (pierwszego przekładu Koranu na język polski)”]. The most important research tasks which serve the realisation of this endeavour include the following: treatment and an attempt at standardisation of the rules of transliteration and transcription of Polish and/or Belarusian texts of the Muslims of the GDL written in the Arabic script into the Latin alphabet; the interpretation of the tefsir manuscripts according to the rules which are developed; the determination of research areas and the development of methodological instruments for a multifaceted philological and historical description of the manuscript monuments of the Tatars – the Muslims of the GDL (including kitabs, hamails, tejvids…). The work which is engaged within the framework of the “Tefsir” project represents the field of kitab studies and it has a great influence upon the development of this new area of scholarship, for it realises the most important and priority-related research tasks of kitabistics, which include inter alia the preparation of a critical edition of the earliest Slavic translation of the Quran. In the future, the edition of the tefsir may become a source basis for research in the many fields – among others: Slavic studies, Oriental studies, cultural studies, religious studies, political science, history, ethnology, theology etc.