The Institute for Bible Translation is pleased to announce a new edition of The Bible and the Koran: Parallel Passages, a scholarly work that presents the reader with passages from the Jewish and Christian Scriptures that find their parallels in the Koran, the sacred text of Islam. Whereas IBT’s earlier editions of this book came out in Russian (in 2005, 2012, 2014 and 2018), this time the book has been published in the Tatar language.

IBT has ongoing Bible translation work in about 50 languages of Russia and other countries of the former USSR, 35 of which are spoken by people with a significant Muslim presence. A quality Scripture translation into these languages must take into account the culture, worldview, and traditions of its readers, including ties between the sacred writings of Christians, Jews, and Muslims. From history we know that originally the Koran addressed people who were already familiar with many biblical accounts. This IBT book therefore also starts with the biblical accounts and finds their parallels in the Koranic text, thereby extending to the contemporary reader an opportunity to become better acquainted with both texts.

 The work on the current Tatar edition of the book began in 2015, after IBT’s publication of the Tatar translation of the full Bible. The Koranic passages come from Mullah Nugman's book The Meaning of the Koran, which was produced in the Tatar language in the 19th century, while the biblical passages come from the above-mentioned Tatar edition of the Bible. The book also includes a supplemental glossary that explains some archaic Tatar words found in Nugman’s text.

We hope that this publication will be of interest to Tatar readers who want to learn more about the similarities and differences between the sacred texts of Christianity, Judaism and Islam.