Back-cover text:
Bookshops are faithful islands of rest in the endless sea of life. Whenever I grow weary of struggling through the bustle of everyday life, the magical scent of paper calls me in, and their other worlds welcome me, word by word.
One day, I found myself in the religious books section of a large bookshop in Ankara. Several beautifully produced Turkish translations of the Qur’an caught my eye. I picked up one, then another, until I had looked through them all. The Qur’an’s distinctive, dynamic rhythm made me wonder whether something of that rhythm could be conveyed in Turkish.
As soon as I got home, I tried translating a few surahs. The results excited me. By dawn, I was still awake and had translated seventeen short surahs. I continued working at intervals until I had completed Juzʾ ʿAmma.
My translation is intended for readers with a literary sensibility. I also hope it will encourage even a small measure of reflection among those who translate the Qur’an into Turkish in the future.
—Mehmet Hakkı Suçin